A feral cat that was causing havoc at the endangered Mala wallaby enclosure at Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park in Central Australia has finally been captured. Rangers had spent the past seven weeks trying to catch their elusive feline foe … and it took a number of failed skirmishes and creative manoeuvres to lure the tomcat into a cat trap. “We didn’t use food, we used a lure, an olfactory lure, and the cat took the bait and jumped up, and was trapped,” the park’s natural and cultural resources manager, Kerrie Bennison, told the ABC. It remains a mystery how the cat got inside the 170-hectare, supposedly feral animal-proof, enclosure. “There were no problems with the fence but we are going to increase our patrols and remove a couple of branches on a few trees,” Ms Bennison said. At this stage, it is not believed any Mala wallabies in the enclosure are missing but rangers will conduct a survey. Mala wallabies, which weigh up to 1.6 kilograms, are listed as extremely endangered and are classified by the Northern Territory Government as extinct in the wild. The ABC says they were virtually wiped out after European settlement by fire and feral predators including cats and foxes.
