Observations on the Food of Feral Cats on Campbell Island

INTRODUCTION Subantarctic Campbell Island (52 S, 169 E), the southernmost of the outlying islands of New Zealand, is a Nature Reserve for the preservation of flora and fauna. It has been heavily modified by man and introduced animals and was farmed from before the turn of the century until 1931. The date cats (Felis catus) were introduced to Campbell Island is not known, but they were probably brought as pets to control rats (Rattus norvegicus) during the sheep-farming era. Joe Timms, who lived on the island from 1912 until 1916, found no cats there (Kerr and Judd, 1978), so the first may have been taken to the island after 1916.