Tasmanian sheep farmer Greg Squires became interested in trapping feral cats on his property when he began seeing them “out and about in broad daylight”.

“I figured if we were seeing them out during the day, then there were a lot of them around,” he said.
link

Duh. They’ve been in their millions and taking tens of millions of native species per year for at least 60 years of recorded sience on the issue.

roughbarked said:

Tasmanian sheep farmer Greg Squires became interested in trapping feral cats on his property when he began seeing them “out and about in broad daylight”.

“I figured if we were seeing them out during the day, then there were a lot of them around,” he said.
link

Duh. They’ve been in their millions and taking tens of millions of native species per year for at least 60 years of recorded sience on the issue.

That is a good question. What is Australia’s total population of feral cats?
And does it exceed Australia’s total population of domestic cats?

Estimates vary widely according to Mr Google.

“3.8 million pet cats in Australia. 0.7 million feral cats in cities.”

Let’s have a look at Legge et al. (2017). It seems to be one of the more reliable sources.
Not sure which paper.

Got it. This one. Legge et al. (2017) “Enumerating a continental-scale threat: How many feral cats are in Australia?”

“The feral cat population in natural environments fluctuates between 1.4 million after continent-wide droughts, to 5.6 million after extensive wet periods. We estimate another 0.7 million feral cats occur in Australia’s highly modified environments (urban areas, rubbish dumps, intensive farms).”

“Feral cat densities are higher on small islands than the mainland, but similar inside and outside conservation land.”

“Mainland cats reach highest densities in arid/semi-arid areas after wet periods.”

“Australian feral cat densities are lower than reported for North America and Europe.”

Australian feral cat densities in dry (left) and wet (right) times.

So many of the so called domestic cats are feral anyway because the owners allow them freedom to roam and very few of them wear a bell collar.

Cats arrived in Australia with the first European settlers in 1788. Within 70 years, cats had spread throughout the country; cats now inhabit 99.9 percent of Australia’s total land area. On a yearly average, an estimated 2.8 million feral cats roam the continent, but according to John Woinarski, a conservation biologist at Charles Darwin University and co-author of the book Cats in Australia: Companion & Killer, this number can balloon to 5.6 million in years of heavy rainfall.

From

PUTIN !

Feral cats are pure killing machines, and they are very good at it. I shoot around 2-3 a year, the last one only 1-2 weeks ago.

PermeateFree said:

Feral cats are pure killing machines, and they are very good at it. I shoot around 2-3 a year, the last one only 1-2 weeks ago.

My neighbour trapped 16 in three weeks all caught in rabbit traps set intending to catch that one wily vixen which was stealing chooks.

roughbarked said:

PermeateFree said:

Feral cats are pure killing machines, and they are very good at it. I shoot around 2-3 a year, the last one only 1-2 weeks ago.

My neighbour trapped 16 in three weeks all caught in rabbit traps set intending to catch that one wily vixen which was stealing chooks.

Domestic or feral, not much difference when they move about looking for something to catch. Small native animals, or chooks, don’t stand a chance.

PermeateFree said:

roughbarked said:

PermeateFree said:

Feral cats are pure killing machines, and they are very good at it. I shoot around 2-3 a year, the last one only 1-2 weeks ago.

My neighbour trapped 16 in three weeks all caught in rabbit traps set intending to catch that one wily vixen which was stealing chooks.

Domestic or feral, not much difference when they move about looking for something to catch. Small native animals, or chooks, don’t stand a chance.

Do domestic cats kill a lot of chooks ?
Chooks can get quite aggressive

Cymek said:

PermeateFree said:

roughbarked said:

My neighbour trapped 16 in three weeks all caught in rabbit traps set intending to catch that one wily vixen which was stealing chooks.

Domestic or feral, not much difference when they move about looking for something to catch. Small native animals, or chooks, don’t stand a chance.

Do domestic cats kill a lot of chooks ?
Chooks can get quite aggressive

Just a quip on rb’s post.

wookiemeister said:

PUTIN !

Awakes and gasps her lover’s name, regardless of context.

PermeateFree said:

roughbarked said:

PermeateFree said:

Feral cats are pure killing machines, and they are very good at it. I shoot around 2-3 a year, the last one only 1-2 weeks ago.

My neighbour trapped 16 in three weeks all caught in rabbit traps set intending to catch that one wily vixen which was stealing chooks.

Domestic or feral, not much difference when they move about looking for something to catch. Small native animals, or chooks, don’t stand a chance.

All feral. Left behind by some person who didn’t care that he was leaving a pride of lions behind him.

Cymek said:

PermeateFree said:

roughbarked said:

My neighbour trapped 16 in three weeks all caught in rabbit traps set intending to catch that one wily vixen which was stealing chooks.

Domestic or feral, not much difference when they move about looking for something to catch. Small native animals, or chooks, don’t stand a chance.

Do domestic cats kill a lot of chooks ?
Chooks can get quite aggressive

Feral cats can.

PermeateFree said:

Cymek said:

PermeateFree said:

Domestic or feral, not much difference when they move about looking for something to catch. Small native animals, or chooks, don’t stand a chance.

Do domestic cats kill a lot of chooks ?
Chooks can get quite aggressive

Just a quip on rb’s post.

Feral cats can catch goannas. A chook is nothing if the cat wants it.