ORIGINAL PAPER Prospects for domestic and feral cat management on an inhabited tropical island Ricardo Augusto Dias . Carlos Roberto Abraha ˜o . Tatiane Micheletti . Paulo Roge ´rio Mangini . Vinı ´cius Peron de Oliveira Gasparotto . Hilda Fa ´tima de Jesus Pena . Fernando Ferreira . James Charles Russell . Jean Carlos Ramos Silva Received: 25 May 2016 / Accepted: 28 April 2017 Ó Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2017 Abstract Cat management campaigns have been implemented on several islands worldwide. However, few successful campaigns have occurred on perma- nently inhabited islands. Cats are known for causing severe impacts on the native insular fauna, posing an important threat to biodiversity. Moreover, this species is also responsible for zoonosis maintenance and transmission. A thorough understanding of cat population structure (e.g., supervised vs. unsupervised) is strongly suggested as a management action on inhabited islands, as it might promote more efficient and effective management of this species. Fernando de Noronha is an archipelago in the tropical Atlantic Ocean. The total cat population on the main island was estimated at 1287 animals, most of them supervised and subsidized around inhabited areas. Free-roaming cats currently threaten the endemic terrestrial fauna of Fernando de Noronha, and the cat density found by the present work is among the highest ever recorded on an island. Using population dynamic simulations, the long-term effects of reproduction control and removal of cats from the archipelago were Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10530-017-1446-9) contains supple- mentary material, which is available to authorized users. R. A. Dias (&) Á C. R. Abraha ˜o Á P. R. Mangini Á V. P. de Oliveira Gasparotto Á H. F. de Jesus Pena Á F. Ferreira Department of Preventive Veterinary Medicine and Animal Health, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Sao Paulo, Av. Prof. Dr. Orlando M. Paiva, 87, Sa ˜o Paulo, SP 05508-270, Brazil e-mail: dias@vps.fmvz.usp.br R. A. Dias Á C. R. Abraha ˜o Á T. Micheletti Á P. R. Mangini Á V. P. de Oliveira Gasparotto Á J. C. R. Silva Brazilian Institute for Conservation Medicine – Trı ´ade, Rua Silveira Lobo, 32, Recife, PE 52061-030, Brazil C. R. Abraha ˜o National Center for Research and Conservation of Reptiles and Amphibians, Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservac ¸a ˜o da Biodiversidade, Brazilian Ministry of Environment, Rua 229, 95, Goia ˆnia, GO 74605-090, Brazil T. Micheletti Fakulta ¨t Umweltwissenschaften, Technische Universita ¨t Dresden, 01062 Dresden, Germany J. C. Russell School of Biological Sciences and Department of Statistics, University of Auckland, Private Bag, Auckland 92019, New Zealand J. C. R. Silva Department of Veterinary Medicine, Federal Rural University of Pernambuco, Rua Dom Manoel de Medeiros, s/n, Recife, PE 52171-900, Brazil 123 Biol Invasions DOI 10.1007/s10530-017-1446-9