Research overview: feral cats as post-fire predators of native wildlife

Research in Australia has shown that feral cats exploit recently burned landscapes, where loss of vegetation cover leaves native prey exposed and easier to catch, compounding the impacts of fire. This overview surveys the evidence that cats travel to and hunt intensively in burn scars, the implications for the recovery of fire-affected native mammals and reptiles, and the management responses such as predator control and refuge habitat protection. It reviews how this interaction links climate-driven fire to invasive-predator impact. The synthesis frames feral cats as a climate-amplified threat to biodiversity, explaining why fire and invasive predation are studied together in Australia, and how disturbance can tip the balance toward predators that thrive in opened-up country.