Levantamento populacional e estratégias de manejo de gatos ferais no Parque Nacional Marinho de Fernando de Noronha, Pernambuco, Brasil

Abstract

Fernando de Noronha Archipelago’s consists on 21 islands and islets, with a total area of 26 km2. Main island area is 18.4 km2, approximately, and it has been considered the bigger Brazilian oceanic island, with 3.000 inhabitants. One of the biggest obstacles for biodiversity conservation on the archipelago are invasive species, as cats (Felis catus). Cats are responsible for many cases of species extinctions on insular environment. This happens because cats hunt these animals for feeding, causing a negative impact on local fauna. Given that, this research had the objective to realize a feral cat population survey living at Fernando de Noronha Marine National Park (PARNAMAR-FN), to evaluate the capture by trap as an eradication strategy and to discuss potential strategies for eradication of these animals from the PARNAMAR-FN area. During September and October of 2018, and January to March of 2019, data were collected by census (transects) to estimate size and density of feral cat population living on PARNAMAR-FN area and capture methods were evaluated as well. For PARNAMAR-FN were estimated a 439 feral cat population (IC 95%: 283-680), with 46 individuals/Km2 density (IC 95%: 30-72). No animals were captured during the study period. These results actualize previous information about feral cat population and density at PARNAMAR-FN, showing a 41.1% increase, which justifies an urgent necessity of a population control program implementation for this invasive species. The results still show that a better strategy for capture is needed, in case of control depends on this method. Invasive species decrease on the archipelago would promote endemic wild fauna conservation in a unic human heritage.