Killer cats

As required by law, we call a shire ranger who takes the cat to check if it is registered, sterilised, micro-chipped, identified with a collar and tag and has an owner.

Feral cats are promptly eliminated as ought to be the case.

Households are permitted to own three ‘legal’ cats, but some people keep more and allow them to have the run of the land – and wildlife.

Cats are killers even when their owners abide by the law.

In the ACT, cats are required to be housed outdoors in cat-friendly, environmentally sound enclosures or kept indoors at all times – they are not allowed to run free at all.

Several shires are working on similar action plans.

Studies show that feral cats in Australia eat about two billion reptiles, birds, frogs and mammals and more than a billion invertebrates per year.

Mammals are the most common prey, with more than a billion killed by feral cats every year.

Pet cats are responsible for the deaths of an additional 390 million mammals, birds and reptiles annually.

Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) estimates that in just one day, millions of Australian cats kill approximately 1.3 million birds, 1.9 million reptiles, more than 3.2 million mammals, three million invertebrates and at least 250,000 frogs.

Iconic examples of their victims include native marsupials such as two species of pig-footed bandicoots, the lesser bilby, the Nullarbor dwarf bettong, the desert rat-kangaroo, the broad-faced potoroo and native rodents, including at least four species of hopping mice, two species of rabbit rat, and the lesser stick nest rat.

Cats have also been primary agents in the extinction of island-based birds such as Australia’s Macquarie Island parakeet and the Macquarie Island buff-banded rail.

Many native species – for example, the greater stick-nest rat and banded hare-wallaby – now exist only in areas that have remained cat-free.

These include some islands and inside recently fenced enclosures.

Australia’s feral cat numbers are estimated to range from about two million to more than six million in wet years when prey becomes more abundant.

It is estimated that every feral cat in Australia kills about 740 native animals annually – and there are millions of them.

Pet cats become feral if they stray or are dumped, while others behave like feral cats, including on farms and pastoral stations.

Owners clearly need to be more responsible day and night for their furry darlings.

Those who feel a community responsibility to protect our native wildlife need to be more active about managing cats lest we lose ever more of what is still alive on our lands.

Figures quoted are based on research published by the CSIRO and other sources.