Feral Thoughts

The feral cat versus the environment - denying past impacts will lead to future problems.

In his excellent 2006 book Australia's Mammal Extinctions - a 50,000 year history, Chris Johnson of James Cook University makes the comprehensive case for the role of feral cats in causing extinctions.  He concludes that with the exception of the toothache wallaby, cats and foxes can account for practically all of the mammal extinctions of the last two hundred years.

There are many people that have, quite correctly, questioned the role of feral cats.  Tim Low does so in Feral Future and Tim Flannery has done in the ABC special Ten million wild cats.  However, the case against the cat becomes more and more compelling as we understand more of the interactions of cats and other factors in the environment.

In his book Animal Nation (2006), Professor of Sociology at the University of Tasmania, Adrian Franklin argues that we should accept feral animals as part of country.  Our "species-cleansing" attitude is derided and Franklin argues for acceptance of humanity as simply another agent of nature, and to accept the changing mix and balance of species as inevitable, and given.  He uses the fact that the feral cat has become a totem animal in some Aboriginal families as evidence that environmentalist's views of feral animals are more bound to national history than natural history. 

Franklin goes much further than Low or Flannery who question the case against the cat. He doesn't go as far as some animal rights people that deny any environmental damage by cats in order to make the argument that we should just leave them be. 

It might be worth looking at a few of the controversial issues about feral cats:

• Cats arrived before white settlement.  Their role in dreaming stories is evidence of this.  Wrong.  Ian Abbot (2002) looked hard at the issue of when cats were introduced and there is no evidence it predated white settlement.  Aboriginal dreaming stories can develop reasonably quickly - when Andrew Burbidge and colleagues followed oral histories of animals, they even encountered a tractor dreaming site.  In the western deserts, cats would have arrived probably a generation ahead of white settlement, so the fact that cat dreaming might not be associated with white settlement is not surprising.

• Environmentalists in Australia persecute cats. Not really.  Budgets are small and the tools for cat control are few.  I don't know of any programs where people get budget and approval to simply go out and kill feral cats.  I sit as an observer on the inter-government Vertebrate Pests Committee and everyone is on about impact reduction, not simply feral animal numbers.  Certainly there is research going on to try and make cat control more effective, but most programs would be associated with clearing an island, sanctuary or reintroduction site.

• Cats are widespread across Australia and overlap with small mammals (especially in Tasmania), therefore they don't drive small mammals to extinction.  This view fails to take into account other factors in the environment.  Rainfall is one - cats are most effective as hunters in areas that are open, with sparse vegetation due to low rainfall.  Predation on cats is another - for example, numerous extinctions did not occur until Aborigines, who regularly hunted cats, left the land. 

It's this last point that I have most concerns about.  Things change in the environment and so cats can become a problem.  I don't think it is necessary to have a level of proof equivalent to a murder trial before we act.  For example:

• Researchers in the Northern Territory are reporting significant declines in small mammals in Kakadu National Park.  More regular burning patterns could be opening the country up to cat predation.

• Woylie (brush-tailed bettong) numbers in the South West of Western Australia have crashed.  Gathering evidence points to "mesopredator release" - that is, cats becoming more important predators as a result of fox control - as at least part of the cause.

• Tasmanian researchers report it is a lot harder to find a range of species in recent monitoring efforts.  Widespread demise of Tasmanian Devils might be responsible for rising feral cat populations.

In none of these cases do we have definitive proof of the role of feral cats.  But that is not a reason to simply sit back and accept them as an agent of nature, as Adrian Franklin puts it.  I can't abide this extreme Darwinism point of view and agree with the 7 out of 10 Australians that put feral cats in their "top 5" ferals of concern.

I argue we should do more about feral cats, ahead of getting definitive proof of their role in extinctions. 

Rabbiting On. Tell the ABC your rabbit story and win an Outback holiday that money can't buy

Everyone has a rabbit story.  You might remember the rabbit plagues of the 1940s; or eating "underground mutton" through the depression.  You might have battled rabbits to get some trees up and running on a bush block.  You might carry a rabbit's foot for good luck.

Whatever your rabbit story, mark the sesquicentenary of the wild rabbit in Australia by telling it to the ABC.  You could win a family trip to Australian Wildlife Conservancy's Scotia Sanctuary in outback New South Wales to work with a bilby scientist over Easter.  This is a brilliant prize work over $10,000 but you couldn't buy it.  Scotia, Australia's largest feral-free area, isn't normally open to the public.  The ABC, the Invasive Animals CRC, Rabbit-Free Australia and Australian Wildlife Conservancy are giving two winners a very special opportunity to visit, along with three of their friends or family.

All you have to do is tell the ABC in 500 words or less your rabbit story.  To enter the competition, click on the ABC link above.

Don't miss this fantastic opportunity to tell your rabbit story (it doesn't even have to be your story - it might be fictional or an interview with a grandparent; an account of the incredible scientific attempts to rid Australia of rabbits...).

Watch this space - your chance to get close to a bilby

Bilbies have become an Australian icon, despite the fact that most Australians have never seen one.

Well, pretty soon Australian readers will have a chance to win a trip to see them close up at Australian Wildlife Conservancy's Scotia Sanctuary.

I've been working on a project we'll launch next week with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, AWC and Rabbit Free Australia.  Hint: it's coming up to the 150th anniversary of rabbits in Australia (as well as the publication of Darwin's Origin).  In a week, you can come back and learn details of a fantastic competition to tell us about your rabbit story.  The prize is one you can't buy - working with a bilby scientist in the Australian outback, so make sure you let any budding writers know.

Koala on the menu for dogs

Australia's iconic koala is under increasing pressure from dogs, both wild and domestic.  At a recent NSW Conservation Council meeting, National Parks and Wildlife Scientist Dan Lunney pointed out the impact of dogs on koalas.  Along the north coast of NSW, the impact tends to come from domestic dogs.

Koalas of cause are arboreal and up in a tree they are well away from dogs.  However, it's the increasing time that koalas have to spend on ground that is making them vulnerable to dog attack.  Loss of habitat means suitable trees are further apart, forcing koalas to spend more time moving between trees.  However, University of Sydney researcher, Professor Ian Hume has pointed out that the chemical composition of the koala's preferred eucalyptus trees is changing due to climate change.

This climate impact also leads to the koalas moving between trees more often and therefore coming up against dogs more often.  Koalas can defend themselves better than many people would imagine, but they don't have too much hope against a determined dog or pack of dogs.

While Dan Lunney has seen the impact mainly from domestic dogs, Invasive Animals CRC researcher Guy Ballard is out in remote bush areas tracking dogs in his project work.  I asked Guy if he'd seen evidence of dog predation on koalas.  In his tracking efforts, he's seen three in recent times - not a huge number, but he wasn't out looking for koalas specifically, but tracking radio-collared dogs.

The dogs don't seem to eat the koala.  I imagine with their eucalyptus-exclusive diet that they'd taste like concentrated cough syrup.  But Guy says the signs of dog attack are obvious - a crushed head, bite marks all over and lots of dog tracks.

The NSW Government has launched an iniative to try and halt the dropping koala numbers in that State.