FERAL CATS IN AUSTRALIA WILL BE EXTERMINAT

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https://www.dcceew.gov.au/environment/invasive-species/feral-animals-australia/feral-cats

Feral cats

Feral cats threaten the survival of over 100 native species in Australia. They have caused the extinction of some ground-dwelling birds and small to medium-sized mammals. They are a major cause of decline for many land-based endangered animals such as the bilby, bandicoot, bettong and numbat. Many native animals are struggling to survive so reducing the number killed by this introduced predator will allow their populations to grow.

Feral cats can carry infectious diseases which can be transmitted to native animals, domestic livestock and humans.

Feral cats are the same species as domestic cats, however they live and reproduce in the wild and survive by hunting or scavenging. They are found all over Australia in all habitats, including forests, woodlands, grasslands, wetlands and arid areas. The map illustrates the estimated abundance of feral cats across the country.

Feral cats are predominantly solitary and nocturnal, spending most of the day in the safety of a shelter such as a rabbit burrow, log or rock pile. They are carnivores, generally eating small mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish and insects depending on their availability.

Key threatening process under the EPBC Act

The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) provides for the identification and listing of key threatening processes. A key threatening process threatens or may threaten the survival, abundance or evolutionary development of a native species or ecological community. Predation by feral cats is listed as a key threatening process.

Once a key threatening process is listed under the EPBC Act a threat abatement plan can be put into place if it is shown to be 'a feasible, effective and efficient way' to abate the threatening process. A feral cat threat abatement plan has been made to address this key threatening process.

Threat Abatement Plan

The threat abatement plan for predation by feral cats (2015) sets out a national framework to guide and coordinate Australia’s response to the impacts of feral cats on biodiversity. It identifies the research, management and other actions needed to ensure the long-term survival of native species and ecological communities affected by predation by feral cats.

National declaration: feral cats as pests

At the Meeting of Environment Ministers (Melbourne, 15 July 2015), Ministers endorsed the National declaration of feral cats as pests. As part of this declaration, Ministers agreed to review arrangements within their respective jurisdictions and, where necessary, to remove unnecessary barriers to effective and humane control of feral cats. Ministers also agreed to consider feral cat management as a priority in threatened species recovery programs, and to pursue the development of a national best practice approach to the keeping of domestic cats.