National Feral Cat and Fox Management Coordinator

Summary

From 2021, the Australian Government has provided funding to the Centre for Invasive Species Solutions for a National Feral Cat and Fox Management Coordinator 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 may not be 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 establishment or on-going community-led best practice feral cat and fox management programs.
  • 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.
Status

Commenced

Objectives

  • 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.
  • Support 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 draft 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.
  • Improve understanding of the need for fox and feral cat control to support management to protect environmental assets, agricultural productivity and human health.

Project Leader



Gillian Basnett
Project Partners

This project is funded by the Australian Government.

Outputs

Find best practice information on how to plan, manage and improve pest animal control programs in Australia at PestSmart. The pest animal management toolkits provide information and materials such as glovebox guides, standard operating procedures and case studies.

European foxes
Feral cats