title: Invasive predators and global biodiversity loss.
abstract: Invasive species threaten biodiversity globally, and invasive mammalian predators are particularly damaging, having contributed to considerable species decline and extinction. We provide a global metaanalysis of these impacts and reveal their full extent. Invasive predators are implicated in 87 bird, 45 mammal, and 10 reptile species extinctions-58% of these groups' contemporary extinctions worldwide. These figures are likely underestimated because 23 critically endangered species that we assessed are classed as "possibly extinct." Invasive mammalian predators endanger a further 596 species at risk of extinction, with cats, rodents, dogs, and pigs threatening the most species overall. Species most at risk from predators have high evolutionary distinctiveness and inhabit insular environments. Invasive mammalian predators are therefore important drivers of irreversible loss of phylogenetic diversity worldwide. That most impacted species are insular indicates that management of invasive predators on islands should be a global conservation priority. Understanding and mitigating the impact of invasive mammalian predators is essential for reducing the rate of global biodiversity loss.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Integrative Ecology, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University, Geelong, VIC 3216, Australia; Centre for Ecosystem Management, School of Natural Sciences, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, WA 6027, Australia; tim.doherty.0@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Tim S
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-7745-0251
authors.initials: TS
authors.lastname: Doherty
authors.affiliation: Landcare Research, Auckland 1072, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Alistair S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Glen
authors.affiliation: Institute for Land, Water and Society, School of Environmental Science, Charles Sturt University, Albury, NSW 2640, Australia.
authors.forename: Dale G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Nimmo
authors.affiliation: Centre for Integrative Ecology, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University, Geelong, VIC 3216, Australia.
authors.forename: Euan G
authors.initials: EG
authors.lastname: Ritchie
authors.affiliation: Desert Ecology Research Group, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.
authors.forename: Chris R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Dickman
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D044822:Biodiversity; D005075:Biological Evolution; D001717:Birds; D056727:Endangered Species; D005843:Geography; D038622:Internationality; D058865:Introduced Species; D008322:Mammals; D008954:Models, Biological; D011235:Predatory Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D012104:Reptiles; D013045:Species Specificity
keywords: extinction; feral cat; invasive mammal; island; trophic cascade