Feral cats kill more than 3 million animals per day, according to the State Government, which has allocated an additional $500,000 to cull feral cats in regional WA. 

This new round of funding to the Feral Cat Management Strategy, aims to protect the 69 individual species threatened by feral cats by providing safe environments for threatened species and improving the tracking of feral cats.

Announcing the funding, Environmental minister Reece Whitby said the aim was to empower local communities with tools, such as thermal detection technology, in order to better track feral cat movements.

“The skills and knowledge gained from these projects will bolster our coordinated approach to stopping feral cats in their tracks,” he said.

This funding, for projects in WA’s south west, is meant to aid the control of the feral cat population in WA, which has reached over 750,000. 

The $500,000 will be split between The Gillamii Centre, Conservation Australia, and the Lower Blackwood land conservation committee. 

Professor of biodiversity Dr Michael Calver, said the current methods of limiting the feral cat population were effective in small localised areas, such as Christmas Island, but falter in larger areas like regional WA. 

The feral cat population on Christmas Island was culled in 2022, through the use of the Felixer trapper. It uses AI technology to distinguish feral cats from native fauna before spraying them with toxins.

“Trapping is only effective in smaller areas, leaving baiting and poisoning as our only option in larger more regional areas,” said Dr Calver.

It is due to these larger regional areas and the rapid pace at which feral cats spread that new technologies, such as thermal tracking, are needed.

These more tech-based methods of controlling the feral cat population are part of a $60 million investment from the Federal Government in over 55 projects nationwide, focusing on developing new technologies to push back on the spread of feral cats to larger areas. 

“These forms of controlling the population tend to be very expensive,” Dr Calver said.

Principal zoologist at Terrestrial Ecosystems Dr Scott Thompson, said that these new technologies were an important tool, but there needed to be more importance placed on the transference of knowledge between practitioners and rangers. 

“It’s a two way science, ranger teams are really good at knowing what’s out in the area, but when it comes to understanding modern technologies they do not have the same training as professional practitioners,” he said.

Dr Thompson said that the state government still needed to catch up with where hunters and trackers are on these issues.

“It’s a good start but the level of funding they are putting towards feral cat management is still significantly less than what is required,”  said Dr Thompson.

“We need a focus on educating professional practitioners, to help rangers on the ground.” 

WA Feral Cat Working Group executive officer Dr Gillian Bryant, agreed that education on the issue was key, especially in local communities. 

She said: “We need to improve our social contract with the community on the issue of baiting feral cats.

“People should know the positives of targeting feral predators that won’t affect natural fauna or domesticated pets.

“By focusing on not only advancing the technology but keeping a wide variety, a diverse selection of strategies, like training and educating the community and especially pet owners, we can start to see actual progress to stopping this threat.”