Australia culling 2 million Feral cats by 2020 ..

Feral cat, harmless to humans but ...

The Felis Catus (cat) we breed at our homes is a small mammal that has been harmless to humans and domesticated. Historical records show of this animal having been domesticated around 7500 BC in Cyprus and later spread to other parts of the world to Egypt, Greece and so on.

The main reason why this mammal found favour with the people was its ability to keep away the rodents that attacked the scarce food reserves in these places.

Australia has 6 million of these feral cats.  Feral cats are domesticated cats that have been abandoned and hence have become suspicious of humans and keep away in the wild.

These cats look very innocent, but they have been in the Australian landscape since the 17 century when Europeans brought these non-native cat species to a foreign land.

A feral cat consuming an innocent bird ..

What has been the problem with these 60 lakh harmless cats that roam around Australian landscape in the wild ? It is said by Australian Conservancy, ever since these cats have come to Australia, it has resulted in the extinction of almost 130 species of birds and reptiles from Australian landmass.

Every year they kill almost 316 million birds and 596 million reptiles across the country. As per this New York Times report, feral cats have established their presence over 99.8 percent of Australian landmass with over 100 cats per square kilometre area. The NY Times report states that in US free roaming cats kill between 1.3 to 4 billion birds and 6.3 to 22.3 billion mammals every year.

The bait used to kill these cats is burger airdropped in the wild Australian landmass, containing Kangaroo or chicken meat laced with a poison named 1080. It can also kill other non-native species like foxes.

These cats finish off rodents in a flick ..

The proliferation of these cats arises out of the fact that the food chain ends with the cats. They roam around freely like humans do on planet earth. These cats can only be poached on using poison or should be promoted as a national stew on the breakfast tables of Australians.

The problem is with how these cats oversee the extinction of hundreds of native species of birds and reptiles in Australia that have evolved over millions of years in the isolated landmass of Australia secluded from other land masses.

Even if 2 million of these wild feral cats are killed by poisoning, there are still the other 4 million cats around, posing a major threat to the native Australian birds and reptiles. In the long run will Australian government with just 30 million people around have to take a decision if and when these cats outnumber humans.

Only God knows what will happen next ?