15 December 2021 |Landcare Led Bushfire Recovery grants are helping two environmental organisations use technology to better target and control Kangaroo Island’s feral cat population and protect the critically endangered Kangaroo Island Dunnart, a small, nocturnal marsupial.
The catastrophic 2019–20 Black summer bushfires were a boon for Kangaroo Island’s feral cats, stripping away protective habitat cover and leaving marsupials vulnerable to predation.
On the western side of Kangaroo Island, the area most impacted by the bushfires, Kangaroo Island Dunnart Recovery Project Manager, Paul Jennings from the Kangaroo Island Landscape Board, has embarked on an ambitious plan to use remote monitoring and artificial intelligence to target feral cats. The technology, which was developed and perfected in the rugged extremes of New Zealand, is now being applied at a large scale for the first time in Australia.
“The island had thousands of cats, but the trapping program deployed by the Landscape Board and National Parks and Wildlife after the fires has been extremely successful, already removing more than 850 feral felines,” he said.
This is something Paul’s dedicated team is making much more efficient with the help of trap alert technology. Ordinarily, it takes a day for three to four people to check the 400 traps spread across 25,000 hectares of land. Using the remote monitoring approach, the traps can be checked using a smartphone application. The app notifies the user when traps have been triggered so the team can prioritise which traps to check, thereby improving welfare outcomes for captured animals and saving money and time that would normally be spent checking open traps.
Meanwhile, non-government organisation Kangaroo Island Land for Wildlife has been using various techniques to remove feral cats from critical unburnt habitat refuges since the 2019–20 summer bushfires. The team is striving to protect surviving threatened species populations, including remnant populations of the Kangaroo Island Dunnart.
“The fires had burnt out 96 per cent of the KI Dunnart’s known habitat,” said Pat Hodgens, a senior ecologist with Kangaroo Island Land for Wildlife.
“When we detected surviving KI Dunnarts within days of the fires’ passing, we also found feral cats in the same areas. We were successfully trapping feral cats, but also knew there were many that wouldn’t enter a cage trap, so we needed to use all available techniques.”
Kangaroo Island Land for Wildlife has been using Felixer™ grooming traps to remove feral cats from critical habitats.
“The Felixers use a multitude of sensors to differentiate a feral cat from native species and spray a lethal dose of toxin onto the hindquarter of the feral cat when it walks in front of the trap. With our project partners, we are developing an artificial intelligence camera that can be deployed in the Felixers being used in our program to increase the unit’s target specificity,” Pat said.
Pat Hodgens and Paul Jennings reflected on the immensity of the task in eradicating Kangaroo Island of its feral cat population but said the community is onside.
“Almost 100 per cent of private landholders are on board with the eradication of the feral cats, seeing the enormous damage they do to the native wildlife and agricultural industry,” Pat said.
Paul said the Kangaroo Island Landscape Board, in partnership with SA National Parks and Wildlife, successfully eradicated the island of feral deer and goats as an example of what can be done when working toward a common goal.
The $14 million Landcare Led Bushfire Recovery Grants Program is supporting projects in regions impacted by the Black Summer bushfires of 2019–20, and has been funded by the Australian Government’s Bushfire Recovery Program for Wildlife and their Habitat.
The project is jointly managed by Landcare Australia and the National Landcare Network and delivered by the Landcare Association of South Australia, Landcare NSW, Queensland Water and Land Carers, Landcare ACT and Landcare Victoria to build capacity and support Landcare and community groups, land owners and others for improved delivery of bushfire recovery actions. More info here: https://landcareledbushfiregrants.org.au/
Available
