Title: Little evidence that foxes and cats caused extinctions of Australia's endemic mammals
Extinctions of Australian mammals have long been blamed on foxes and cats – but where’s the evidence? Over half of Australia's threatened and extinct endemic mammal species have been attributed to introduced red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) and cats (Felis silvestris catus). But this claim has so far been based on expert opinion.
Arian Wallach & Erick Lundgren conducted a timeline analysis, systematic review, and meta-analysis to assess whether the attribution of decline and extinction to these predators is based on evidence.
Records for 43.6% and 19.6% of populations did not confirm that extinctions occurred after fox and cat arrival, respectively. Most threatened species have been attributed to these predators without supportive population studies with data (76.1% of species attributed to foxes, and 79.7% to cats).
The meta-analysis showed a negative correlation between threatened mammal and fox abundance for spatial but not for temporal correlations, and we found no evidence for a correlation with cats
We conclude that the hypothesis that foxes and cats cause extinctions has come to be accepted with little evidence.
Arian D Wallach & Erick J Lundgren (2025). Review of evidence that foxes and cats cause extinctions of Australia's endemic mammals, BioScience, biaf046
Article: WeedsNews6866 (permalink) Categories: :WeedsNews:research alert, :WeedsNews:cats, :WeedsNews:foxes Date: 1 May 2025; 7:50:10 pm Australian Eastern Standard Time
