LONDON: The Australian government has pledged to kill two million feral cats and create new safe havens for native animals in an attempt to improve the fortunes of 20 mammal, 20 bird and 30 plant species that are at risk of extinction.
Federal environment minister, Greg Hunt, unveiled a five-year threatened species strategy at Melbourne zoo on Thursday, promising to “halt and reverse the threats to our magnificent endemic species”.
The first 10 mammal species identified for priority action are the numbat, mala, mountain pygmy-possum, greater bilby, golden bandicoot, brush-tailed rabbit-rat, eastern bettong, western quoll, Kangaroo Island dunnart and eastern barred bandicoot.
A further two — the leadbeater’s possum, Victoria’s faunal emblem that was recently listed as critically endangered, and the central rock rat — will get “emergency interventions”, Hunt said.
The environment minister, who announced the bird species that will receive help on Wednesday, said that two million feral cats, a major cause of native mammal and bird declines, will be wiped out “humanely” by 2020. A total of 10 new feral cat-free enclosures will be established, with $750,000 spent, creating one of the largest fenced habitat areas in the Northern Territory. Meanwhile, cats will be targeted in a further 10m hectares of open landscape. Hunt said that all of the states and territories have agreed to list the feral cat as a harmful pest, with the animal targeted through baiting, shooting and poisoning. Just $6.6m has been dedicated to the strategy, with the majority of the money focused on cat eradication. Private donations may be required to fund 20 proposed plans, which include the expansion of the breeding population of the numbat in Western Australia and the extermination of feral cats on Kangaroo Island in South Australia.
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