Research overview: feral cat eradication on islands

Removing feral cats from islands has produced some of conservation's clearest predator-management successes, and this overview surveys eradication programs and their outcomes. It examines campaigns that eliminated cats from islands to protect or recover seabirds and other endemics, the techniques used such as trapping, hunting and other control methods, and the documented recovery of vulnerable species afterward. The survey also discusses complications, including mesopredator release where removing cats allows rodent or rabbit populations to surge, the need for integrated multi-species eradication, and the scale limits of the approach. It situates island eradications within the broader recognition of cats as major island predators, presenting them as effective but logistically demanding interventions that demonstrate the conservation benefits of removing feral cats from sensitive insular ecosystems.