Since 2021, the Australian Government has funded the Centre’s National Feral Cat and Fox Management Coordinator program to communicate and drive the adoption of humane and effective feral cat and fox control on a national, regional and local scale to reduce their impacts on threatened species, other native wildlife, agriculture and human health.
Program activities include, but are not limited to:
Coordinating and supporting cross-tenure national feral cat and fox management across all states and territories, by raising awareness and promoting and supporting best practice tools for effective and humane control of feral cats and foxes, to reduce their impact on agricultural production and the environment including seeking to improve inclusion and consideration of First Nations communities.
Supporting ongoing community-led best practice feral cat and fox management programs and the establishment of new ones.
Facilitating engagement between state governments, NRMs, land managers, farmers and NGOs, to work together to promote regional scale humane, effective and justifiable feral cat and fox control.
Communicating best practice control methods, science, research and community engagement.
Being an active member of the Feral Cat Taskforce and supporting the delivery of the National Threatened Species Action Plan, Threat Abatement Plan for the Predation of Feral Cats and Threat Abatement Plan for Predation by the European Red Fox.
Objectives
The objectives of this project are:
Increased capability of land managers and community, NRM and biosecurity groups to adopt and apply humane, best practice management to feral cat and fox management, including monitoring plans to measure and evaluate reduction in impacts.
Supporting the implementation of activities relating to fox and cat management that align with outcomes identified in the Threatened Species Action Plan (TSAP) 2022-2032 and Threat Abatement Plans (TAP) for Predation by Feral Cats and European Red Foxes.
Improved conservation of endangered faunal communities through reduced predation following strategic and coordinated control programs foxes and feral cats.
Improved agricultural productivity through reduced predation and disease spread following strategic and coordinated control programs foxes and feral cats.
Improved regulatory framework for access to feral cat management tools across the states.
Improved understanding of the need for fox and feral cat control to support management to protect environmental assets, agricultural productivity and human health.
Providing expert advice on best practice feral cat and fox management.
Outcomes
Delivered a net present value of $101.71 million and a benefit-cost ratio of about 19.3:1 as part of the Centre’s National Community Engagement Coordinator Model between 2017-18 and 2022-23.
Broad-based, ongoing community engagement to promote best practice management, including through community information events Australia-wide.
Impact
National Feral Cat and Fox Management Online Forums well attended and attracting thousand of views online.
Establishing demonstration sites to increase awareness of effective management techniques.
Project team
Project team
Gillian Basnett
Project Lead
Thomas Nelson
Project partners
This project is funded by the Australian Government.
