Millions of wild cats in Australia destroy entire populations of birds and rodents

Payback for the colonization of two centuries later - feral cats flooded 99% of the continent and massively destroy mammals and birds.

Photo: YouTube video frame / gary gunner

At the end of May, 2018 in Australia completed the construction of the longest fence from millions of feral cats that have spread throughout almost two centuries throughout the country. They hunt small mammals and birds, destroying or threatening the extinction of more than two dozen rare species.

As planned by the government, the fence will protect endangered species from predators until the population is restored. However, this does not solve the problem of the growing number of feral cats that have long gained a reputation as "pests" by attacking people and their pets.

Danger of feral cats

In Australia, feral cats are a unique phenomenon: unlike other predators, they have adapted to life in any terrain, including forests and deserts. They are difficult to see in the thickets, difficult to catch or lure, as they like to eat the still living victim. The first felines arrived in Australia at the end of the 1850s on European ships, where they were taken to fight mice.

The settlers realized that a huge number of small mammals threatening food supplies were living on the continent, after which twice as many cats arrived in Australia. Predators quickly began hunting for local mammals - rodents never encountered such a species of cats, therefore they often died. Having met no resistance, predators multiplied rapidly, besides rodents attacking fish, birds, lizards, amphibians and insects.

The current population of feral cats in Australia ranges from two to six million individuals, although the numbers in 20 millions were originally called. Such a strong scatter is due to the fact that cats perfectly hide and rapidly multiply, without encountering serious resistance. They covered 99% of the continent - each individual eats about five animals of other species per day. Predator appetites have caused the extinction of at least 27 species, including Australia’s unique desert bandicoots and large eared jumping mice.

Sometimes feral individuals attack domestic confreres and their owners. According to local farmer Adam Whitehouse, when he tried to discourage a pet from a predator, he firmly grabbed the claws and teeth in the man’s leg, and then left deep abrasions and bites on his arm. As the man recollects, the individual resembled a panther rather than a cat. Researchers confirm that wild representatives of the species really grow big, and their average weight is 7 kilograms.

Mammalian extinction is a sore subject for Australia. Since the formation of the first settlements on the continent, about 30 of unique animal species has died out, whereas in North America only one mammal species has disappeared. Since the main role in this situation was played by cats, which kill several million different individuals per day, the authorities and activists could not ignore what was happening.

The government’s main plan to reduce feral cats is to partially exterminate these individuals. In 2015, the authorities proposed that animals be caught and put to sleep within five years, so that by 2020, their numbers would decrease by two million. “Our native species simply cannot coexist with feral cats. They did not develop alongside such predators, ”explained Gregory Andrews, a representative of the Commission for Endangered Species of Australia.

The proposal of the authorities has repeatedly criticized animal advocates and non-profit organizations, as well as the founder of the rock group. The Smiths Stephen Morrissey and French actress Brigitte Bardot. The musician called this policy "idiotic", accusing the Australian government of not respecting animals, and the actress compared the plan with "genocide". The commission acknowledges that this is not an ideal plan, but it will help save endangered species from cats.

Feral cats are not the only animals whose population it was suggested to reduce artificially. In May 2015, the government of southeastern Victoria announced the development of a plan for the partial destruction of koalas. Due to the sharp increase in the population, the animals no longer grasped the leaves of the eucalyptus, which they feed on.

With the help of downsizing, local leaders expected to prevent a recurrence of the 2013 crisis of the year, when one and a half thousand koalas died of starvation. The proposal was met with protests, so the experiment was never conducted. Instead, state authorities with overpopulation of koalas choose slower, but more humane ways to reduce their population — by sterilizing or transporting koalas to other regions.

Alternative options

The population of feral cats is difficult to reduce the classical way. They are difficult and time consuming to catch for sterilization, since, unlike koalas, they mate much more often and give more offspring. Moreover, koalas or kangaroos, whose population is also sometimes artificially regulated, live in certain regions, and cats have spread throughout the continent. The authorities and activists simply do not have enough people to catch so many individuals.

Sometimes farmers independently destroy feral cats. Carefully, the video contains scenes of violence.

CRISPR can change the position of forces. It allows you to find the desired gene in DNA, remove or correct it, which can lead to partial or complete mutation. Specialists of the State Association of Scientific and Applied Research and the Australian Wildlife Conservation Non-Profit Organization believe that using this technology it is possible to modify the genes of feral cats and reduce their population.

How this should work: scientists catch and modify the genes of wild representatives to give birth to only males, and then set free to their relatives. After some time, the number of "original" animals will be reduced to a minimum, and the crisis will end. So far, such a plan has two main problems: there is a risk that “spy cats” will mate with domestic cats or seriously mutate. From this follows the second problem - the state is not yet ready to take that risk and give the go-ahead to full-scale tests.

Against this background, the fence, the construction of which was completed at the end of May, is the only more or less promising measure. The fence, which is two meters in height, was erected in the central reserve of the country Newhaven with the financial support of the British businessman and the founder of the Australian Wildlife Conservation Organization Martin Kopli. By 2020, he promised to expand the boundaries of the fence to 140 kilometers. Eleven endangered species will be hidden behind the fence, and workers will be watching to ensure that cats, rabbits and foxes do not enter.

Australian Wildlife Conservation Executive Director Atticus Fleming believes that by 2020, this zone will become the most “free territory” of feral cats. The specialist believes that with this, Australia will finally remove the status of a "global center for the extinction of mammals."

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