Cooperative Agreement #F07AC00158

Island Conservation, funded by the Montrose Settlements Restoration Program, began conducting a seabird restoration project on San Nicolas Island in 2009. The restoration project continued through 2011 in an effort to counter the negative impacts of feral cats on marine birds and other native wildlife through the removal of invasive feral cats. In coordination with the U.S. Navy, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Institute for Wildlife Studies, and The Humane Society of the United States, Island Conservation (IC) was unable to detect any remaining cats on San Nicolas Island in 2011. A total of fifty- nine feral cats have been removed to date. Of these, fifty-two animals were transferred to The Humane Society of the United States, where they are housed and cared for in an outdoor, enclosed facility in Ramona, California. On island, camera traps were strategically placed to remotely collect data for a duration of two to three months at a time. Staff would return to the island to upload, review and archive photos taken, assess the condition of the equipment and its placement, as well as relocate various cameras to new locations that were considered potential habitat for cats if any remained on island. This action was in line with current best practices and with achieving results using a detection probability analysis. The model suggested that to confirm complete removal with 99