birding-aus

A different way for feral cats ???????

To: David Clark <>
Subject: A different way for feral cats ???????
From: Hannah <>
Date: Wed, 18 Mar 2015 07:59:32 +1000
I've been reading a bit on the classification of cats (feral) in QLD - they are 
ranked the same as rabbits, yet people are free to own and do what they will 
with them (eg, not mandatory for desexing/registering). Owing a rabbit comes 
with a $40k fine in QLD. The difference - rabbits, as a class 1 pest, impact 
the economy by ruining pastoral lands, cats **only** eat a phenomenal amount of 
wildlife and spread toxo - neither of which (short term) cause enough stir for 
action.

Frustrating!




> On 17 Mar 2015, at 7:12 pm, David Clark <> wrote:
> 
> One control method rarely makes much difference to the target population.
> 
> The feral cat population will not be reduced without multiple control 
> mechanisms; shooting, trapping, baiting, exclusion fences, biological agents, 
> competition from other predators, predation by higher order predators, 
> eliminating sources of recruitment to the population, etc.
> 
> Sterilisation could be another method but only if it could achieved through a 
> biological agent (STD) that would spread through a local population.
> 
> Cats have overlapping ranges so sterilising and releasing one or two will 
> just mean that the remainder will have greater breeding success.
> 
> Shark Bay is a great example of how difficult it is to eradicate cats.  One 
> misguided person with a couple of morggies could undo all of that work.
> 
> Cheers
> 
> David
> 
> Sent from my iPhone
> 
>> On 17 Mar 2015, at 13:07, "Philip Veerman" <> wrote:
>> 
>> This system can work best with animals that have stable populations in which
>> territories are defended and for example one male controls all the females
>> and prevents them mating with other females and especially if all the mating
>> happens at one specific time of year. In such a case it can help to
>> sterilise that male. If that doesn't happen then you would need to sterilise
>> all or most of them. But do cats live in such systems..... I doubt it.
>> Sterilising one male cat in a population is pretty useless unless he is the
>> only one that all the girls desire. Sterilising all the females would be
>> great if we can find a way to do it. 
>> 
>> Philip
>> 
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----From: Birding-Aus
>>  On Behalf Of Bill Stent
>> Sent: Tuesday, 17 March 2015 12:38 PM
>> To:     Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] A different way
>> for feral cats ???????
>> 
>> 
>> My understand was that sterilising a cat and releasing it (or better still,
>> sterilising it with some sort of dart) is much more efficient in medium to
>> long term population control than simply shooting it dead.
>> 
>> If you shoot it, another cat takes its place, with an overall effect on the
>> population of zero (that is, a total waste of time and effort).
>> 
>> But if you sterilise it and relese it, the cat continues defending its
>> territory and keeping others at bay for some years. This would result in a
>> much more effective population crash, I would think.
>> 
>> The more scientific or research-based contributors might like to comment
>> please.
>> 
>> Bill
>> 
>> 
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