Feral cats face new weapon
WA scientists have made a major breakthrough in efforts to rid Australia of feral cats - considered the single biggest threat to endangered native animals.
For almost 10 years, the Department of Parks and Wildlife has been developing a new type of bait laced with the poison 1080 that is palatable to cats, which are notoriously fussy eaters.
Looking like a soft, sausage-like meat, it has an increased dose of the poison and has been tested at sites around the State with dramatic effect.
Conventional 1080 bait is in a harder, drier form and targeted at foxes.
At Dirk Hartog Island, off the Gascoyne, the bait killed about 90 per cent of the feral cats and cut their numbers between 60 and 70 per cent on mainland sites, the department said.
The results have spurred renewed hope the baits will be the key part of a solution to Australia's feral cat problem blamed for dozens of extinctions.
In May, a landmark CSIRO report found cats were the biggest threat to native mammals, easily outranking other risks such as climate change, foxes and "inappropriate" fire regimes.
The report found more than 100 species, such as WA's black-flanked rock wallaby, were under real threat because of cats.
Keith Morris, the department's senior principal research scientist, said the only barrier to the bait's wider use was approval from the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority.
Mr Morris said the bait's development was the most significant breakthrough in attempts to control wild cat numbers but scientists were still learning how it could best be used.
Challenges included the risk of native mammals - though largely immune to 1080 - taking the baits.
Regardless, Mr Morris said that, used with measures such as trapping, the baits would allow authorities to wind back the effects of cats and help native species re-establish themselves.
"This is a great opportunity to try to get back on top and reverse the trend of our mammal declines that we've had since European settlement," he said.
"So it's a great thing."
Endangered woylies were recovering recently but had declined again mainly because of cats.
