Ferral Cats

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http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/invasive/publications/cat/pubs/cat.pdf

The National Parks & Wildlife Service estimate that there are over 400,000 feral cats in New South Wales, and as many as 12,000,000 (twelve million) scattered throughout Australia!

NB this does not include domestic cats allowed to roam.

Cats are known to kill and eat more than 200 separate native species, including birds, mammals, marsupials, reptiles, frogs, and invertebrates.

Cats eat around five percent of their body weight each day. This may include native animals, introduced species (such as mice, rats, rabbits and introduced birds), and scraps and carrion around urban centres. This is the equivalent of one bush rat per day. One cat caught near Roxby Downs was found to have eaten almost thirty small reptiles, probably in the one day.

Twelve million feral cats killing animals every day. Even if only one animal in ten was native, it would be reasonable to assume that cats are responsible for killing hundreds of millions of individual native animals every year.

Feral cats are known to carry and spread disease such as toxoplasmosis which can be fatal for several native species, as well as causing sickness in other natives, livestock, and even humans.

In 1992, at a cattle station in the South Western Australian outback Professor J Pettigrew of the Universtiy of Queensland shot 175 ferals in a 10 sq km area. The army shot a further 400 in three days yet a few weeks later they returned to shoot a further 200. According to Professor Pettigrew cats were pouring into the vacuum created by the extermination program.

http://library.thinkquest.org/03oct/00128/en/cats/effect_light.htm

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Would a sterilization program help? I know that with the aptly-named screwworm (many years ago), releasing a bunch of sterilized males into the population helped as the males would mate repeatedly whereas the females only once. Of course invertebrates are different but could this be a part of the solution? Or has it been tried and not worked?

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Work that's being done here in the states is showing that hunting ferals has no appreciable impact on numbers. Cats breed rapidly, and removing one cat just makes room for another one. Here in Wisconsin and elsewhere there are programs in place to trap, sterilize, vaccinate, and release ferals, but they are still growing and haven't been going on long enough to determine the impact they are having on numbers.

Personally, though I've worked a bit with one such program, I think it's pretty hopeless either way. I wonder how long it is before the ferals start muscling out other small predators. They're very effective hunters and profligate reproducers.

....

Actually, just remembering something that may hold a grain of hope. A couple of labs are working on chemical sterilization in cats (and dogs, but that's beside the point), and one prof I know who keeps tabs on this area thinks that we're close to having a product that is pretty effective (>90%) and can be delivered via food. Not sure how well this would work in Oz, but up here it'd be pretty easy to put food out for short periods of time where only feral cats are likely to get to it.

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Fertility Control

Substantial efforts are being made at the Vertebrate Biocontrol Co-operative Research Centre to develop immunocontraceptive vaccines for several vertebrate pests, particularly foxes, rabbits and mice. This is a high cost/high risk venture and it would be inappropriate to expand the program to include work on cats at this time. If this venture is successful, it may be possible to apply the techniques to develop such a vaccine for feral cats. Currently there are no effective chemical sterilants which produce permanent sterility in cats (Moodie 1995).

A major benefit of the development of immunocontraceptive techniques is that they are humane. Broadscale control of cats using an immunocontraceptive vaccine, if one were developed, would be dependent upon the development of a suitable delivery mechanism for the vaccine and appropriate approvals to release the vaccine into the wild.

Threat abatement plan for ferral cats

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As a trivial note, I'm curious about their statement that cage traps are ineffective for trapping feral cats. In our local program, it's the only method that's used, and a trap placed out overnight is almost never empy by the next evening. I wonder if it's a difference in trap, technique, or cat...

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And in the US?

The Port Authority has started rounding up feral cats at Kennedy Airport, and the first of the evicted felines could be euthanized today.
The Port Authority has said the cats - between 50 and 75 of them - pose health and safety problems near the Delta Air Lines cargo area partly because food left for them attracts birds that can fly into jet engines.
A feral cat population at Rikers Island declined by about half in the past five years under a feeding and sterilizing program, according to the city Department of Correction.

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jespah wrote:

Would a sterilization program help? I know that with the aptly-named screwworm (many years ago), releasing a bunch of sterilized males into the population helped as the males would mate repeatedly whereas the females only once. Of course invertebrates are different but could this be a part of the solution? Or has it been tried and not worked?

I volunteer jespah to give vasectomies to all the kittens.... cheezits....

http://www.geocities.com/graymist44/threelittlepigs02.jpg

A .22-250 is an excellent choice for vasectomies.

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Another option. These will happily kill cats all day long and you'll almost never see them. But you will hear them.

http://tipt3.utoledo.edu/starters/coyote/coyote2a.jpg

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patiodog wrote:

As a trivial note, I'm curious about their statement that cage traps are ineffective for trapping feral cats. In our local program, it's the only method that's used, and a trap placed out overnight is almost never empy by the next evening. I wonder if it's a difference in trap, technique, or cat...

I dont know Pdog. I see several references to winter trapping being successful. I'm inclined to think its something to do with seasonal availability of food supply.

Feral cats were 2 to 4 times more easily caught during winter and spring on Kangaroo Island than during summer and autumn.

Kangaroo Island differs from mainland Australia in having no rabbits or foxes. On mainland Australia, rabbits are a major component of the diets of feral cats (e.g. Jones & Coman 1981; Read & Bowen 2001). The ability to eliminate feral cats on the mainland is complicated by the presence of rabbits. In general cats are more prone to scavenge and hence enter traps or take baits when their normal foods, particularly rabbits, are in short supply (e.g. Newsome 1991; Paltridge et al. 1997; Molsher 2001; Short et al. 2002).
http://echidna.edu.au/projects/feral/feral_paton.pdf

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cjhsa wrote:

Another option. These will happily kill cats all day long and you'll almost never see them. But you will hear them.

We want to get rid of a feral animal not introduce another one, rabies and all.

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Personally I think the place to start is the domestic population.

1. All domestic cats to be licenced. Licence to be issued free of charge or minor charge only.
Unlicenced cats caught in traps to be euthenased

2. Domestic cats not kept for breeding purposes by registered breeders should be de-sexed and micro chipped.

3. Complete ban on "free to good home" adverts including school and community group newsletters or only "free to good home" with de sexed certificate. The goal of this is to get people who do want a cat to pay for it thus ensuring a financial interest and commitment to quality care.

4. "Roaming Cat" to be the subject of a fine for owners.

Education campaigns: Don't put the cat out at night. Cat runs for backyards.

All that is easier said than done.

Quote:

I think it's pretty hopeless either way

As with all invasive species eradication is very very difficult to achieve (and document). The target should be a reduction in numbers to a less destructive population bases.

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dadpad wrote:

cjhsa wrote:
Another option. These will happily kill cats all day long and you'll almost never see them. But you will hear them.

We want to get rid of a feral animal not introduce another one, rabies and all.

That isn't a feral animal. It isn't native to Oz either, but then again, it isn't really native to the eastern part of the US but they're here in great numbers, having migrated en masse and very successfully. They're wiley coyotes.

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Egads!

Me thinks I spy a "damage limitation" thread!

Good on yer DP, attaboy! They're all behind you now, lookie!

See! Now you knew you were right all along, nuthin shonkie about it.

Dinky-di

You'll be right, no worries.

Razz

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I mostly agree, but have a qualm about this with both the dog and cat population, and need to read more.

The qualm is, do we then in some unknown amount of time have only "well bred, pure bred" cats and dogs with ever more inbred flaws? No more mutts? This may be only theoretical as cats will hop fences and dogs will roam despite some statute, and the overflow of euthanized animals and abused animals is outrageous as things stand.

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http://i18.ebayimg.com/02/i/08/ba/84/ac_1.JPG

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Quote:

A .22-250 is an excellent choice for vasectomies.

curing problems one bullet at a time...

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patiodog wrote:

As a trivial note, I'm curious about their statement that cage traps are ineffective for trapping feral cats. In our local program, it's the only method that's used, and a trap placed out overnight is almost never empy by the next evening. I wonder if it's a difference in trap, technique, or cat...

Didn't work for me. I think the trap makes the difference. Mine was a loaner from the city, and that galvanized sheet metal had kind of an offputting odor. So, Mooch never became a house cat, but son Barney came in for help with an injured. He stayed for years, and a nicer cat I've never had.

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dadpad wrote:

Personally I think the place to start is the domestic population.

1. All domestic cats to be licenced. Licence to be issued free of charge or minor charge only.
Unlicenced cats caught in traps to be euthenased

2. Domestic cats not kept for breeding purposes by registered breeders should be de-sexed and micro chipped.

3. Complete ban on "free to good home" adverts including school and community group newsletters or only "free to good home" with de sexed certificate. The goal of this is to get people who do want a cat to pay for it thus ensuring a financial interest and commitment to quality care.

4. "Roaming Cat" to be the subject of a fine for owners.

Education campaigns: Don't put the cat out at night. Cat runs for backyards.

All that is easier said than done.

I think if you enacted a cat herding tax, that would be used to train state licensed cat herders, and create cat herd shelters, the problem would be solved in no time at all.

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It's not too difficult to keep a cat in at night.

The Poss-cat has never been allowed out at night - although he'd love to get out there if he could.

But there's no discussion about it - he knows he gets fed when he comes in and gets locked in. I think all cats should be in at night.

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roger wrote:

patiodog wrote:
As a trivial note, I'm curious about their statement that cage traps are ineffective for trapping feral cats. In our local program, it's the only method that's used, and a trap placed out overnight is almost never empy by the next evening. I wonder if it's a difference in trap, technique, or cat...

Didn't work for me. I think the trap makes the difference. Mine was a loaner from the city, and that galvanized sheet metal had kind of an offputting odor. So, Mooch never became a house cat, but son Barney came in for help with an injured. He stayed for years, and a nicer cat I've never had.

I'd be curious to see that trap side-by-side with ours.

Another thought -- how big is/was Mooch? I have noticed that the cats that come in with the feral program tend to be on the smaller side. I'd chalked it up to selective pressures, but maybe our traps don't work as well on big ones...

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