As the feral cat problem in Australia continues to grow, the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) has been recruiting for its first-ever dedicated control team.
Feral cats kill 1.5Â billion native animals every year and are a key factor in Australia having the worst mammal extinction record in the world.
The NSW Government says the new five-person team of expert ground shooters will deliver added protection for threatened wildlife by targeting feral cats in locations where cat numbers have increased after good seasonal conditions.
Iconic animals under threat from feral cats include mammals like the dusky hopping mouse, the yellow-footed rock-wallaby and the stripe-faced dunnart; birds such as the plains wanderer, the grey grasswren and the hooded robin; and reptiles like the endangered Barrier Range dragon.
A feral cat on the prowl in a New South Wales national park. PIC: NPWS
The new team will be based in Broken Hill, Dubbo and/or Bourke but will be deployed across the state as needed.
A cat with a native rat caught on a sensor camera at North Head. PIC: NPWS
NPWS Deputy Secretary Atticus Fleming said feral cats were continuing to to have a devastating impact on wildlife, killing over a billion native animals every year.
“After three good seasons, NPWS staff are reporting an increase in feral cat numbers, especially in the centre and west of the state,” Mr Fleming said. “For example, while targeting feral pigs, NPWS staff incredibly shot more than 30 feral cats from a helicopter in Toorale National Park, outside of Bourke … there is currently no effective landscape control for feral cats.”
He said intensive, well targeted ground shooting operations will now be part of an enhanced strategy including trials of cat baits, deployment of innovative cat traps, establishing large feral-cat free areas and exploring genetic controls.
Many grey nomads are reporting a dramatic increase in the number of feral cats they come across on their journeys through Australia.
The cats – which originate from former domestic cats who were lost or abandoned and have reverted in some degree to a wild state – can make quite an unnerving sight.
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Great news and should be Australia wide, bloody feral cats are literally everywhere spending all day every day, and night slinking around finding things to kill which most don’t even bother to eat, they kill purely for the fun.
But in WA under the Cook Labor government, the feral animals, including the hundreds of thousands, or more feral cats will be perfectly safe from next year when every likened sporting shooter, farmer and hunter will have their landowner’s letters of permission to assist with the control of feral animals swept aside and cancelled by the police and after that the police will then decide if any new letter you might get satisfies their lust for control and if the shooter by some miracle, finds that his new letter is acceptable, the police then decide which firearm he can retain to shoot the feral animal the police decide he or she can shoot, and the remainder of his or her firearms if they own more than one, will likely be confiscated but wait, there’s more, if a shooter manages to overcome those hurdles, he or she must then have a psychiatric test to see if we can retain our rabbit rifles.
Anyone who doesn’t see where this Labor, Chinese like total control and power grabbing stuff is taking Australia needs to start paying more attention before we are all sitting in rows eating when told and working 15 hours a day, every day, just like in China.
Guess you have never lived in China then? It shows
What have feral cats got to do with Labor & China. LOL.
Feral cats are indeed a big problem everywhere. We have a 100 acre National Park adjacent our property on the coast. The land is all bush and unattended. The feral cats breed up and migrate onto our property in search of food. My Blue Heeler dog is quite adept at getting them up a tree and alerting me. I then deal with it. The chance of flushing out feral cats in National Parks are very slim. They are born survivors and will avoid humans easily. If the National Park authorities would grab their brains and allow some trained dogs onto their parks to flush out the feral cats and put them up a tree, it would be an easy solution. I doubt that the pointy heads will allow that to happen. WHAT, dogs in National Parks. Unheard of.
Keep dogs and cats out of national parks…
Great idea if the shooters don’t shoot the dogs by mistake.
The programme if successful should be expanded to the suburbs. At last some action to control one of the most marauding pests in the country.They are a problem everywhere.This will upset the cat lovers but the irresponsible owners have wrought this upon themselves.
Weren’t the army snipers doing that a few years ago and getting training untill the do-gooders and tree huggers got it stopped
I am a cat lover, but I agree that the feral problem should be taken care of by the Govt. They are almost impossible to eradicate. My heart bleeds for the native wildlife who are at the mercy of these sly predators! Soon there will be no wildlife left thanks to the insane liberal policies of the crazy Left!! Not to mention the cane toad problem which are breeding in the millions, and the feral pigs and dogs too!
Why do our stupid beaurocrats do nothing!!! Appointing 5 cat shooters is a joke!! More like 500 Australia wide would only barely scratch the surface!!
Yet they kill our kangaroos by the tens of thousands!! That`s because they can make money from the pelts.
If they put a bounty on the cats of say $1 each and toads of say 20c each, they would get rid of the problem in no time at all! Every man and his dog would be out getting rid of these pests.
Narrelle, it costs more than a dollar to buy a bullet nowadays. The bounty needs to be higher.
Loads of guns in the hands of idiots
We did a major baiting programe on our farm and increased lamb survival by 25% plus lots of smaller native animals were increasing. We 1080 in Bait tied to a fence. Cats don’t like eating off the ground and in WA native animals are imune to 1080, it is in native plants.
Shooting did not work for us as cats don’t stop in a spot light like foxes.
I just heard from local farmers that wild pigs were killing their lambs . Orange NSW
On our recent 9mth tour of Australia we so far more feral cats than ever , and so few native animals. I love all animals but we cannot let this carnage by cats to continue!
A lot of smaller native animals are nocturnal, that’s why you don’t see them very often.
Pretty sure the number 1 predator and cause of almost every ill befalling Australia is the human animal, not cats or dogs or any other lesser species.
I totally agree Tony
So, what do you suggest, a cull?? We have to deal with the reality of the problem, not waste more time with the blame game! Look, of course we almost certainly had a hand in introducing the cat, although it’s believed they first came with Moluccan seafarers who fished and traded with indigenous locals before Europeans showed up here. I’m reading a mix of posts here from those who understand the problem and those who can only find smart ***ed answers about those terrible shooters and who always can find nothing more than twaddle to offer. As a long time WA ex-culling shooter I can say there are good and bad in all walks of life and know recreational shooters are a mixed bag. On average decent enough folk. But with proper training, dedication, and a fair deal from the police, rec shooters CAN and do offer assistance in feral control. Don’t worry, when the powers that be realize they’re dealing with an ever-increasing feral problem way out of control, and costing the community an ever-greater bomb, they’ll soon back off a bit from the cut-throat stance a few Labor apparatchiks have adopted in the West. Give it time.
Cats are to blame … really?? … snakes don’t eat rats? …
Snakes definitely do eat rats, and frogs, even each other. I have a photo of a Dugite with a Tiger snake about 450mm down his throat.
Please, please!! Snakes are part of our natural habitat and have been here for millions of years without wiping out any other species, as far as is known. They form part of Australia’s natural fauna matrix. Anyway, they only need to eat irregularly. Stop trying to defend the indefensible.
re-feral cats –they are such a threat !! pity we cant trace the original owners !
Seen a study recently that some cats in Western Australia more than likely arrived with the Dutch explorers and various ship wrecks well before Cook set foot on the place .
Seen plenty of them at Mays Bend near Bourke .
I wouldn’t camp at Mays Bend again.
Ferals from Bourke came out there & stole everything that wasn’t locked up or tied down.
My next door neighbour has 2 cats that are out all the time and using my property as their toilet. I have told him repeatedly to keep them home which just falls on deaf ears I’ve also saved a baby magpie from one of the cats on my front lawn .I’ve had enough! Baits are going down and cage trap set .once caught they wont be seen again
Shark Bay Area is overrun by feral animals. Put more rangers out in the national parks where they are needed.
We have just returned home from outback Queensland travelling from Charleville through Burke. In the middle of nowhere we saw feral cats and yes looked pretty scary.