Home ranges of introduced mammalian carnivores at Trounson Kauri Park,Northland, New Zealand

Abstract

At Trounson Kauri Park, we monitored the movements of 21 feral cats (Felis catus), 11 stoats (Mustela erminea) and one male ferret (Mustelafuro). In feral cats, the average minimum home range was 446 ha (±82 SE) for 14 males, significantly larger than the average minimum of 117 ha (±40 SE) for seven females. In stoats the average minimum home range was 107 ha (±20 SE), for nine males compared with 81 ha (±31 SE) for two females. The single male ferret had a minimum home range of 197 ha. Adult male feral cats lived on apparently separate, non‐overlapping home ranges; females occupied exclusive home ranges which were overlapped by adult males; home ranges of sub‐adult male feral cats overlapped those of other sub‐adult male, adult male and female feral cats. The home ranges of two neighbouring male stoats overlapped, although their core ranges did not; both these and the ferret's home ranges overlapped those of the neighbouring feral cats. The feral cats were often located in cover in pastureland or near the edge of larger tracts of forest within their home ranges; stoats near waterways in the larger tracts of forest; and the ferret near the forest/pasture margins of Trounson Kauri Park. Our results suggest that control devices targeting all these species should be set at a minimum spacing of 800 m in order to put the majority of the resident and immigrant predators at risk.