Predation of vertebrates by domestic cats in two Brazilian hotspots: incidental records and literature review

Domestic cats (Felis catus Linnaeus, 1758) can interact with and cause several negative impacts upon wildlife if unconstrained by their owners. These impacts occur especially because of their innate predatory behavior and, usually the lack of any natural predators, as well as due to their high abundances relative to native carnivores. Although these impacts are well studied in temperate countries, there are but a few records of species used as prey by these carnivores in Brazil. Here, we expand the knowledge of native species preyed upon by domestic cats in Brazil by presenting new records of this predator-prey interaction and reviewing records in the literature. Predation events were recorded through opportunistic encounters between 2016 and 2022. We recorded the predation of 14 native terrestrial vertebrate species (reptiles, amphibians, birds, and mammals) from the Cerrado and Atlantic Forest biomes. Our literature review recovered predation events by cats in the two aforementioned biomes plus in the Amazonia. Our results increase to 48 the number of wild species preyed upon by domestic cats in Brazil, which is probably an underestimation, as this number is much higher in other countries of comparable land size and species diversity. We suggest that cat population control measures should be carried out, especially in protected areas.

Automated summary

By documenting and reviewing literature, we have expanded our understanding of the domestic cats' predation on native species in Brazil. The results show that the number of wild species preyed upon by domestic cats may be even higher in other countries with comparable land size and species diversity. Therefore, cat population control measures are recommended, especially in protected areas.