Successful hunting means cat cull

We love cats in the U.K. even though we know they are good hunters and wild at heart.  In some countries though, their success at survival and self sufficiency has been so outstanding that they are now being regarded as a pest.  Cats first arrived in Australia on British ships carrying convicts.  Life in the outback suited them and over the years they have thrived.  Their descendants live in feral colonies and have grown bigger and menacing over time.  It’s what these expert hunters are doing to native species, who are their food source, that is giving rise to most concern.

Feral cats are believed to number between 4 and 20 million and are said to be Australia’s number one wildlife killer.  Over  20 species of small creatures are now extinct and cats have been given the blame.   It seems that these fierce felines have few natural predators, now the government is planning a massive cull of cats with 2 million feral cats culled by 2020 and huge cat free zones created.

We love cats and the idea of them living free is great, but we love wildlife too.  It’s obvious that something has to be done or else the outback will just have cats.   If it goes ahead we hope that the cull will be done as humanely as possible.  There are a lot of high profile objectors to it, including animal lover Brigitte Bardot.   Will the remaining cats learn to stay out of the new ‘wildlife’ safe territories though?  We hope so.