Gregory Andrews, Australia’s first threatened-species Commissioner, said that the Environmental Minister, Greg Hunt, is declaring war on feral cats. He said that Hunt asked him to take charge of the program.
Hunt, who spoke about his five-year plan on Thursday, vowed to protect the native mammal and bird populations in Australia.
Andrews said that feral cats have been implicated in 28 out of 29 mammals that the country has lost to extinction.The cats live in the bushland, and they are domestic cats that have returned to a wild state, according to Time.
Hunt also released an app called the FeralCatScan app, and this allows users to report feral cat hotspots. Hunt said that by 2020 he wants to see five new islands and 10 new mainland ‘safe havens’ free of the cats. He also said he wants to see control measures across more than 8 million hectares.
Darren Grover, who is from the World Wildlife Fund, said that feral cats are the number one killer of animals such as bilbies, numbats and animals of that nature.
The mammal extinction rate in Australia is the highest in the world, and since white settlers have arrived, more than 40 species have become extinct.
