Predation Alert: Australian Federal Government vs 'Feral Cats'

The predatory behaviour of the feral cats appears to have taken a toll on them. The Australian federal government recently announced its plan to kill 2 million feral cats to prevent further extinction of the native species of the other animals.

The Australian government believes that there are dozens of species of other animals that are facing extinction because of the predatory behaviour of the felines. Therefore, it has announced the “mass culling” of the animal in which around 2 million of its members will be killed by 2020.

Environment Minister Greg Hunt recently announced a national Threatened Species Strategy, following which the Australian territories and states have decided to list feral cats as “pests.” It is believed that nearly 1,800 species of animals unique to the Australian land are facing extinction, primarily because of the felines.

"We are drawing a line in the sand today, which says, 'On our watch, in our time, no more species extinction,'" said Hunt, unveiling the five-year plan aimed toward elimination of the feral cats. The Mirror reports that Hunt has even launched an app called FeralCatScan app. This app lets people report of the feral cats hotspots.

The mass culling will include either poisoning, shooting or baiting of the feral cats. The killing will free 10 mainlands and five islands free of the feral cats. In addition, the government has planned to apply feral cat control measures to almost 10 million hectares of land within the country.

Although the target is tough to achieve, the government hopes that they will be able to prevent further extinction of species using strict control measures. As of now, Australia has the maximum species extinction rate in the world and is already losing nearly 29 native species of animals.

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