Voyage of discovery? A comment on Koch et al. "A voyage to Terra Australis: human-mediated dispersal of cats"

Rose L Andrew; Deane Smith; Jamieson C Gorrell; Jasmine K Janes

doi:10.1186/s12862-016-0813-y

Voyage of discovery? A comment on Koch et al. "A voyage to Terra Australis: human-mediated dispersal of cats"

BMC Evol Biol. 2016 Dec 7;16(1):270. doi: 10.1186/s12862-016-0813-y.

Authors

Rose L Andrew¹, Deane Smith², Jamieson C Gorrell², Jasmine K Janes²

Affiliations

¹ School of Environmental and Rural Science, The University of New England, Armidale, NSW, 2351, Australia. rose.andrew@une.edu.au.
² School of Environmental and Rural Science, The University of New England, Armidale, NSW, 2351, Australia.

Abstract

The origins of feral cats in Australia may be understood with the help of molecular studies, but it is important that hypotheses be tested with appropriate sampling and methodology. We point out several shortcomings in the analysis by Koch et al. (BMC Evol Biol 15:262, 2015; A voyage to Terra Australis: human-mediated dispersal of cats. Dryad Digital Repository, 2015), present a reanalysis of part of the study and discuss the challenges of elucidating the early history of feral cats.

Keywords: Feral cat; Microsatellite; Migrate-N; Migration matrix; Structure.

Publication types

Comment

MeSH terms

Animals
Animals, Wild*
Australia
Cats
Humans