Context: Invasive predators are a key threat to biodiversity worldwide. In Australia, feral cats are likely to be responsible for many extinctions of native mammal species in the south and centre of the continent.

Aims: Here we examine the effect of feral cats on native rodent populations in the second of two translocation experiments.

Methods: In a wild-to-wild translocation, we introduced pale field rats, Rattus tunneyi, whose populations are declining in the wild, into two pairs of enclosures where accessibility by feral cats was manipulated.

Key results: Individual rats translocated into enclosures accessible to cats were rapidly extirpated after cats were first detected visiting the enclosures. Rats in the enclosure not exposed to cats were 6.2 times more likely to survive than those exposed to cats. Two individual cats were responsible for the deaths of all but 1 of 18 cat-accessible rats. Rats in the site with denser ground cover persisted better than in the site with more open cover.

Conclusions: These results are consistent with our previous study of a different native rat species in the same experimental setup, and provide further evidence that, even at low densities, feral cats can drive local populations of small mammals to extinction.

Implications: Effective feral cat control may be necessary to enable recovery of small mammals.

背景：入侵性捕食者是全球生物多样性的主要威胁。在澳大利亚，野猫很可能是该大陆南部和中部许多本土哺乳动物物种灭绝的罪魁祸首。

目标：在这里，我们在两个易位实验的第二个中检查了野猫对本地啮齿动物种群的影响。

方法：在从野生到野生的易位中，我们将野生种群正在减少的苍白田鼠 Rattus tunneyi引入两对围栏，在那里操纵野猫的可及性。

主要结果：在首次发现猫访问围栏后，被转移到猫可以进入的围栏的个别大鼠被迅速灭绝。围栏内未接触猫的老鼠存活的可能性是接触猫的老鼠的 6.2 倍。除了 18 只猫可接近的老鼠中的 1 只之外，两只单独的猫造成了所有死亡。地面覆盖较密的地点的老鼠比有更多开放覆盖的地点的老鼠坚持得更好。

结论：这些结果与我们之前在同一实验设置中对不同本地大鼠物种的研究一致，并提供了进一步的证据，即即使在低密度下，野猫也会导致当地小型哺乳动物种群灭绝。

影响：可能需要有效的野猫控制才能恢复小型哺乳动物。