As it happens we were at Mornington a few days before this subject was being discussed on the chat line.
For what it's worth, and AWC subscribers will know this, AWC did some research (which they stated was based on stomach contents), from which they
concluded that wild cats eat/kill on average ten native animals a day. TEN. I assume most of these are small reptiles and big insects. The figures they quote
are... 15 million cats in Australia, assume five native animals eaten a day (to be conservative and allow for domestic moggies that really don't get out much),
then you have 75 MILLION native animals killed a DAY by felines.
They did an interesting study on their Mornington cats (I think they believe they have 500 on Mornington, might be wrong, but they study them rather than trying
to eradicate them) using tracking collars to show that after 'bad' hot fires, cats will leave their own territory and patrol the edge of the fire area mopping up
displaced animals. They use this as an example of interaction of known threats to native species survival.
Julian
On Fri 29/08/14 9:28 PM , Kathryn Eyles
m("bigpond.com","kathymatty");"> sent:
Dear bird-listers
You may wish to download the following report about cat management and
wildlife protection in the ACT. The report makes a series of
recommendations for reform in the ACT and draws on three key sources
of information:
*
a comparison of domestic cat regulations, education and compliance
programs in each state/territory;
*
a survey of community attitudes towards cat ownership and management
controls in the ACT; and
*
ecological studies highlighting predation risks for the ACT’s
woodland and grassland wildlife species.
http://www.feral.org.au/responsible-cat-ownership-in-the-act/ [1]
Kathy
Links:
------
[1] http://www.feral.org.au/responsible-cat-ownership-in-the-act/
