Arnhem Land, Australia: Combatting Massive Feral Cats With GPS

There is no question that feral cats are a real problem in neighborhoods across America. Millions of cats roaming the streets with no place to call home, scavenging for food in dumpsters and trash cans, getting in fights with house cats who sneak out for the night, spreading disease and fleas, and killing small animals that catch their eye. Animal shelters are overcrowded with these unfortunate cats, hoping to find homes for them all. It’s so bad in some places, shelters will refuse to take in strays as they have no where to put them.

Some rights reserved by malfet_

In northern Australia, in the Warddeken area of central Arnhem Land, they are dealing with a cat unlike any you’ve ever seen before, a cat that has been killing animal after animal just to survive. So many animals have been preyed upon, locals are noticing a decline in various species found there. These feral cats are more than three feet long, some weighing as much as a five-year-old child. Their size makes figuring out what to do about the problem a bit tricky. But they think they’ve figured out the perfect way – GPS tracking device.

How It Happened

When settlers from Europe arrived in Australia and New Zealand, they brought with them their domesticated cats. These cats disappeared into the bush, probably due to the shock of the new environment, and began to adapt to their new home. But while the cats adapted, the animals they hunt did not.

“Let there be no mistake – feral cats are a huge problem and very widespread. It’s a situation that requires immediate action because it could lead to massive loss of biodiversity across northern Australia,” Government Director of Terrestrial Ecosystems Graeme Gillespie said in an interview with ECOS magazine. “Across the continent it’s estimated that there are 15 million feral cats killing 75 million native animals every night.”

He added, “Many Australian mammals have a relatively low reproduction rate which makes them particularly susceptible to population crashes as cat numbers increase.” And increase is just what numbers have done – researchers estimate one feral cat exists on every six square kilometers of land. It is due to this fact that researchers have decided it’s time to do something about it. But what?

The Plan

To begin with, researchers employed the use of dogs – more specifically, a springer spaniel named Sally and a catahoula hound named Brangul – to track the cats. When the dogs discovered a cat, researchers would affix a GPS tracking device in the form of a collar.

But why the dogs? The cats are “very secretive, solitary animals and mostly nocturnal, and very hard to trap,” explains Hugh McGregor, researcher for the Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC). “These specially trained dogs have allowed us to catch more cats than we could have using traditional trapping techniques. On this trip, they helped us find two cats which are now being tracked.”

The AWC plans to use the data collected by the GPS devices to better understand the cats’ behavior and their impact on the habitat. Dr. Gillespie said, “It is really highlighting to us the critical role Indigenous Protected Areas can play in protecting our biodiversity.”

Not Just GPS

Such a big problem requires more than just GPS to fix things. Scientists from Charles Darwin University, together with the Northern Territory Department of Land Resource Management, have been speaking with land owners in the area to find out all they can about the wild cats. They are also relying on footage collected from game cameras with night vision. This is how they’ve reached an estimate for the number of feral cats in the area.

Culling is another method, although rangers are trying to avoid a mass-culling in the hopes they can solve the problem while at the same time allowing the cats to go on living their lives. Research manager with the project Georgia Vallance said, “When these cats are culled by the rangers, they perform a gut analysis, and the amount of animals inside these cats is staggering. One that was culled had the remains of two sugar gliders, a velvet gecko, a bird and some insects… so that’s just one cat, over one day.”

She added, “There’s been some research that cats will gravitate towards recently burnt country because the hunting is easier, and if that’s the case we’ll have to adapt our management regime.”

It is the hope of everyone involved that a solution is discovered that can not only protect the wildlife of this region, but the big cats themselves.

Arnhem Land, Australia: Combatting Massive Feral Cats With GPS