Received from Charles Hunter.
Replies to him, please.
Bill (moderator)
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Charles Hunter <>
To: Greg and Val Clancy <>, Julian Bielewicz
<>, Ross Macfarlane <>,
"" <>
Cc:
Date: Wed, 9 Jul 2014 21:10:35 -0700
Subject: FW: Cats
Hi all,
I just wanted to add a few comments / ask a few questions on this
interesting topic.
Apologies if I have missed some previous emails that have shared the
same or similar information (or ideas).
Statistics and facts. From the emails I have read I have not seen many
statistics (or assumptions or facts!) so I will refer to the
Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) magazine "Wildlife matters"
Summer 2012/13 edition.
On the cover the magazine has a photo of an angry feral cat with the
copy "Feral Cats: killing 75 million native animals every night".
The article is also referred to in this AG article:
http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/wildlife/2013/03/natural-born-killers-the-problem-with-cats
The following extracts (key points) are taken from the magazine copy:
1. "Feral cats occur right across the continent in every habitat type
including deserts, forests and grasslands"
2. "Total population estimates vary from 5 million to 18 million feral
cats, with the Federal Government citing a figure of 18 million cats
in its statutory Threat Abatement Plan.
3. "Each feral cat kills between 5-30 animals per day"
4. "Scotia (8,000 ha) contains the largest cat-free area on the mainland"
5. "Cats are difficult to locate and extremely wary, which makes
trapping and shooting resource-intensive and impractical".
6. "The removal of cats from one area is offset by immigration from
adjacent areas"
7. "Baiting is also currently limited in effectiveness as cats do not
readily take bait as they are live prey specialists"
(Side note: the ABS indicates there are between 2.5M and 3.0M domestic
cats in Australia).
The article goes onto discuss strategies such as ground cover
management to disrupt cats hunting efficiency, using dingoes,
establishing cat-free areas and further research.
My view is that education could also greatly assist in the management
and control of domestic and feral cats in Australia.
For example, mass marketing campaigns that explain the impact of feral
cats on our national fauna. Communicate key statistics and educate cat
owners and the general public about the importance of (for example)
keeping your cat locked up at night and putting a bell on the cat (and
changing it regularly).
In many Australian localities, dogs are not allowed to roam the
streets during the day or night. Why are cats allowed? There should
also be cat curfews at night.
We should be doing something as Australia has one of the world's worst
records for mammal (and bird) extinctions (which is set to continue).
(Side note: Will the Night Parrot hang on? I actually wonder if John
Young saw any feral cats at the Night Parrot site during the 17,000
hours he spent there! I might ask him at the presentation in Sydney on
the 23rd July....).
Finally, let us not forget that feral cats a major problems in
countries all over the world including Great Britain (where they
apparently have 7 million domestic cats and 1 million feral cats).
Cheers,
Charles Hunter
Bronte, Sydney
_______________________________________________
Birding-Aus mailing list
To change settings or unsubscribe visit:
http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
|
