 Found a word you're not familiar with? Double-click that word to bring up a dictionary reference to it. The dictionary page includes an audio sound file with which to actually hear the word said. |
Further implications
The following comment regarding the impact and management of cat populations in Australia was published in The Conversation on September 15, 2014. It was written by Tim Doherty, PhD Candidate at Edith Cowan University and Mike Culver, Associate Professor in Biological Sciences at Murdoch University.
The full text can be accessed at http://theconversation.com/ferals-strays-pets-how-to-control-the-cats-that-are-eating-our-wildlife-31182
In Australia, feral cats outnumber stray and pet cats in terms of both absolute numbers and their relative impacts on native fauna. Feral cats prey on hundreds of species of birds, mammals and reptiles and have contributed to the extinction of more than 20 mammal species. It's estimated that tens of millions of native animals are eaten by feral cats each night.
Make no mistake though, some stray and pet cats are natural born killers too. The majority of wildlife taken by cats in urban areas is likely to be rats, mice and common bird species, but cats are also a potential threat to endangered species that live in urban areas, like the western ringtail possum in Busselton, Western Australia and the southern brown bandicoot in south-eastern Melbourne.
Managing the impacts of different groups of cats on wildlife requires different approaches. Keeping your pet cat indoors or confined to your property can prevent it from killing wildlife.
Trap-neuter-return of stray and colony cats does nothing to prevent individual cats from killing wildlife. Feeding is ineffective too because cats may hunt even if they're not hungry. Removal of stray cats from urban areas is the only way to stop them from eating wildlife.
Landscape scale control of feral cats in Western Australia can be achieved through annual aerial baiting and this is currently being tested in other parts of Australia too. Unfortunately though, the cats always come back, especially in good rainfall years. Predator-proof fencing and predator-free islands are important sanctuaries for threatened fauna that can't survive even low levels of cat predation.
The future is looking pretty grim for Australian wildlife and reducing the impacts of cats in all categories is an essential component of fauna conservation plans, especially for our endangered birds and mammals.