Perhaps the 'supercats' might kill the foxes?
:-)
John Leonard
On 13/06/2008, Alastair Smith <> wrote:
> >From the ABC news website:
>
>
>
> Supercat or superbad? An 11kg ashera, a cross between an African serval, an
> Asian leopard and a domestic cat (Reuters: Mike Blake, file photo)
>
> * <http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/06/06/2267441.htm> Related
> Story: Push to outlaw hybrid supercats
>
> Forty of the nation's leading feral animal researchers are calling for
> urgent changes to prevent hybrid supercats from being imported into
> Australia.
>
> The Federal Government has been under fire after it was revealed last week
> that savannah cats - twice as big as domestic species - are being imported
> by pet shops.
>
> Scientists are warning that bandicoots, bettongs, potoroos and possums could
> soon be on the menu for the imported creatures, which were originally bred
> by crossing domestic cats with the African serval cat.
>
> Scientists, environmentalists and bureaucrats attending a National Feral Cat
> Workshop in Darwin this week have angrily condemned the quarantine loophole.
>
> The University of Sydney's professor of ecology, Chris Dickman, is warning
> hybrid cats - which can jump up to two metres from a standing start - would
> be uncontrollable in the Australian outback.
>
> "It's taken a lot of people who are concerned about the impacts of cats in
> the Australian environment off guard," he said.
>
> "I think there will be some real concern expressed at the meeting that here
> is an example of another species, a predator that is quite capable almost
> certainly of taking a wide range of native species.
>
> "It hasn't come in through the usual quarantine processes, risk assessments
> that would otherwise need to be done."
>
> Professor Dickman fears savannah cats would prey on the same Australian
> wildlife as foxes.
>
> He says that while foxes can be poisoned, cats have proved extremely hard to
> control in the outback.
>
> "It would be competing with the fox for food in the same size class. We can
> control the fox, we are not very good at controlling cats at the moment," he
> said.
>
> "Cats tend to prefer living food, live food, that they catch themselves. And
> as a consequence, it's much more difficult to put baits out and expect feral
> cats to eat them."
>
> The Environment Department says it has been in contact with two people
> proposing to import savannah cats later this year, and is examining the
> implications.
>
>
>
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--
John Leonard
Canberra
Australia
www.jleonard.net
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