WA Feral Cat Symposium
Program
9.30 am: Australian Government perspective on feral cats
Sally Box
Content to be provided
9.40 am: State perspective - update on Feral Cat Pest Declaration under the BAM Act
Andrew Reeves
The Biosecurity and Agricultural Management (BAM) Act and regulations allow for organisms to be declared as pest in all, or part, of the State and categorised into different control categories if they have, or may have, and adverse effect on native organisms, the well-being of people, the natural environment and/or the productivity of the States agriculture, forest, fishing or pearling industries. As such the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development have undertaken a technical assessment for declaration of the feral cat as a declared pest under section 22(2) of the BAM Act, and have consulted stakeholders both internally and externally.
9.50 am: The impacts of feral cats on Australian wildlife
John Woinarski
Many important components of Australia’s distinctive biodiversity are in decline or have become extinct. At least 32 mammal species have become extinct since European colonisation of Australia – representing about 40% of the world’s modern mammal extinctions. Although many factors have contributed to these declines and extinctions, feral cats are implicated in most of the mammal extinctions, and continue to pose a major threat to many Australian animals.
10.05 am: Community perceptions and social momentum
Gaye Mackenzie
What influences the way we think about feral cats and other feral animals and the management actions we take to control them? Gaye will explore this issue through a social science lens.
11.25 am: Gene editing - introduction & social licence
Margaret Byrne
In Australia, feral predators, particularly feral cats and foxes, are major threats to biodiversity and have been linked to extinctions of native animals. Current management options are largely based on baiting, yet these efforts are self-limiting as they require ongoing implementation with variable effectiveness in terms of population control. More recently, the gene editing system CRISPR-Cas9 has been proposed as a potential tool for the control of invasive species. This technology has the potential to be a species-specific and non-lethal alternative to current baiting based control options. Considered evaluation of gene editing for invasive species control will involve scientific and community discussion and establishment of regulatory control mechanisms.
11.40 am: The CRISPR toolkit for genetic biocontrol of invasive species
Owain Edwards
Australia has long been a global leader for the implementation of successful biological control agents targeting insects, weeds, and vertebrate pests. This has primarily involved classical biological control approaches using predators, parasitoids, and disease agents. Aedes aegypti mosquitoes infected with symbiotic bacteria have been released for many years into far north Queensland, first as a strategy to make mosquitoes incapable of transmitting Dengue and more recently as a population suppression tool. Australian scientists also developed “daughterless” carp technology, but this tool was never deployed for genetic control of this damaging pest in our native river systems.
11.55 am: Detection dogs and their role in feral cat management
Scott Thompson
Conservation detection dogs have been used to search for a variety of materials for more than 100yrs. Trained conservation detection dogs have an established record of being a cost effective method for locating animals, their scats and retreat sites as well as for detecting drugs, missing persons, explosives, blood, cadavers and medical conditions such as cancers.
The target odours include fauna, plants, disease, explosives, drugs, money, underground water, and many other substances that humans thought weren’t possible to search for.
12.10 pm: Implementing humane and responsible feral cat control
Gaye Mackenzie
The commitment and passion, as well as legislative requirements, to protect threatened species has produced a sense of urgency that has driven us to perhaps give less consideration to the impact of feral cat management on other species including non-target animals. For pest animal control programs to meet ethical and welfare considerations, they must be justified, humane and effective. To maintain social licence to continue these programs, all these aspects must be incorporated – the eight principles of humane vertebrate pest management, developed at an international meeting in 2004, provides a logical pathway to do this.
1.55 pm: Charles Darwin Reserve Trials
Vanessa Westcott
Bush Heritage Australia is undertaking feral cat monitoring and control across the country. We use best-practice adaptive management at a landscape-scale to maintain wild, unfenced populations of vulnerable native fauna. We make it a priority to share our findings with others to improve conservation efforts beyond our reserves and partnerships.
I will provide an overview and some preliminary results of our Eradicat baiting trial at Charles Darwin Reserve as an example of our approach.
2.05 pm: Indigenous Rangers integrate old and new technologies to manage cats on their lands
Rachel Paltridge and Christine Ellis
Feral cats are a significant threat to the survival of the bilby and the great desert skink, two threatened species with key strongholds on Aboriginal lands. Indigenous Rangers are leading the fight against extinction of bilbies and great desert skinks by controlling cats and managing fire. Expert tracking skills, combined with the use of cat traps can be an efficient and cost-effective method of removing cats from priority sites. In the Gulf of Carpentaria Indigenous Rangers are restoring native mammal communities on West island with a cat eradication program involving baiting, trapping and high-tech Felixer Grooming Traps (that spray a lethal dose of poison onto cats but are not triggered by non-target species). Expert tracking skills are key to successful deployment of all these cat control methods and Indigenous Rangers are making significant contributions to wildlife conservation programs.
2.15 pm: Dryandra Numbat project - an example of successful feral cat control with community support
Peter Lacey
Dryandra Numbat project – an example of successful feral cat control with community support – Abstract
Dryandra Woodland is a refuge for fauna within the fragmented, transitional zone, between the jarrah forest to the west and more arid woodlands and mallee heath to the east. It is one of the few locations where iconic and threatened fauna such as the numbat and woylie have maintained a foothold while their populations and distribution declined elsewhere.
To stem the decline of WA fauna the government implemented a baiting program based on a naturally occurring toxin sodium fluoroacetate commonly known as 1080, which native fauna in the south west of WA had developed varying levels of resistance. The baiting in Dryandra started in 1982 and was very effective at recovering key fauna species, this program developed and became Western Shield.
2.25 pm: Public preferences for cat control in the Dryandra region of WA
Vandana Subroy
Economic research can guide conservation decision-making by analysing the costs and benefits of conservation plans to assess whether policies are economically optimal and socially desirable. My PhD research uses a well-established non-market valuation technique called a discrete choice experiment (DCE), to assess the attitudes and preferences of affected stakeholders for protecting threatened species (Numbats and Woylies) through fox and feral cat management. The study is conducted at Dryandra Woodland; a fragmented conservation site in WA surrounded by farmland. We surveyed conservation experts, direct landholders and surrounding community within 50 km of Dryandra Woodland, and the general public of WA.
2.40 pm: With a little help from my friends: integrated management of vertebrate pests within fragmented landscapes; bringing community and government together
Rowan Hegglun
With a little help from my friends: integrated management of vertebrate pests within fragmented landscapes; bringing community and government together
Community based integrated asset protection in a fragmented landscape. Threatened species face a number of challenges to their survival. This presentation walks through a methodology designed to engage community in feral control to benefit threatened species with a view to future proofing continued feral management across the landscape. We will look at three broad approaches to engaging community in vertebrate pest management, each with varying degrees of social and environmental impact.
3.30 pm: Dirk Hartog Island
Dave Algar
Feral cats have been known to drive numerous extinctions of endemic species on islands. Also, predation by feral cats currently threatens many species listed as critically endangered. Island faunas that have evolved in the absence of predators are particularly susceptible to cat predation. Dirk Hartog Island—once a high biodiversity island—is no exception. In this presentation, I outline the strategy and techniques used in the current feral cat eradication campaign on this island.
3.45 pm: Establishing a national network of feral cat-free areas (AWC)
Atticus Fleming
Australian Wildlife Conservancy is implementing a multi-layered approach to feral cat control:
- implementing best practice in existing strategies including direct control (eg, trapping, shooting and indigenous tracking) and indirect control (management of ground cover and dingoes)
- investing in new approaches, especially gene drive technology; and
- establishing a national network of large feral cat-free areas (eg, up to 100,000 ha).
Recognising it is important for the sector to invest in a range of strategies, the establishment of large feral cat free areas is important because:
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