title: Extraterritorial hunting expeditions to intense fire scars by feral cats.
abstract: Feral cats are normally territorial in Australia's tropical savannahs, and hunt intensively with home-ranges only two to three kilometres across. Here we report that they also undertake expeditions of up to 12.5 km from their home ranges to hunt for short periods over recently burned areas. Cats are especially likely to travel to areas burned at high intensity, probably in response to vulnerability of prey soon after such fires. The movements of journeying cats are highly directed to specific destinations. We argue that the effect of this behaviour is to increase the aggregate impact of cats on vulnerable prey. This has profound implications for conservation, considering the ubiquity of feral cats and global trends of intensified fire regimes.
authors.affiliation: Australian Wildlife Conservancy, Mornington Wildlife Sanctuary, PMB 925, Derby, WA 6728, Australia.|School of Biological Sciences, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 55, Hobart, Tasmania 7001, Australia.
authors.forename: Hugh W
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: McGregor
authors.affiliation: Australian Wildlife Conservancy, Mornington Wildlife Sanctuary, PMB 925, Derby, WA 6728, Australia.
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Legge
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 55, Hobart, Tasmania 7001, Australia.
authors.forename: Menna E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 55, Hobart, Tasmania 7001, Australia.
authors.forename: Christopher N
authors.initials: CN
authors.lastname: Johnson
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000835:Animals, Wild / Q000502:physiology*; D001315:Australia; D002415:Cats / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D011235:Predatory Behavior