Summary
A significant change has occurred in the diet of feral House Cats, Felts catus, at Marion Island, concomitant with an artificial reduction in the Cat population. Prior to population-reduction operations, burrowing petrels (Procellariidae) and the House Mouse, Mus musculus, constituted the main prey of the Cats. After control operations, the diet of the decreasing Cat population contained an increased proportion of House Mice, and the Kerguelen Petrel, Pterodroma brevirostris, no longer featured as a food item. The causes and effects of this change are discussed in terms of the flow of energy through the Cat population.
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© 1985 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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van Rensburg, P.J.J. (1985). The Feeding Ecology of a Decreasing Feral House Cat, Felis catus, Population at Marion Island. In: Siegfried, W.R., Condy, P.R., Laws, R.M. (eds) Antarctic Nutrient Cycles and Food Webs. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-82275-9_84
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-82275-9_84
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-82277-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-82275-9
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