Australian mammals on brink of 'extinction calamity' (Note graphic warning to those squeamish)

Australia has lost one in ten of its native mammals species over the last 200 years in what conservationists describe as an "extinction calamity".
No other nation has had such a high rate of loss of land mammals over this time period, according to scientists at Charles Darwin University, Australia.
The decline is mainly due to predation by the feral cat and the red fox, which were introduced from Europe, they say.
Large scale fires to manage land are also having an impact.
As an affluent nation with a small population, Australia's wildlife should be relatively secure from threats such as habitat loss.
But a new survey of Australia's native mammals, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests the scale of the problem is more serious than anticipated.
Since 1788, 11% of 273 native mammals living on land have died out, 21% are threatened and 15% are near threatened, the study found. Marine mammals are faring better.


http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-31359188

it's the bloody Cats and there owners!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's Impossible to actually do anything because some fool infected Toxoplasmosis say but my kitty is so cute ...as it rips the throat out of some small native mammal
                             

Yes, the common house cat is one of the deadliest animals about, it is said.



"Blink and you're dead, dude."

in Australia is definitely is there is NO native felines
So no native animal is adapted to defend against them..
the Dingoes means that neither for nor feral dogs do as much damage.

And when they go feral it doesn't take much for them to grow



There is a Bilby mother(her tail and foot are recognisable and her young plus some native desert mice out of a cats  (all critically endangered thanks to cats)

Just one fucktard owner thought
"But my kitty is so cute I should let them go out at night they like 'playing' out side."

Why hunt an leopard? help the environment and hunt feral cats they reach similar size
http://scienceblogs.com/tetrapodzoology/2007/03/04/australias-new-feral-mega-cats/

They are useful on a farm. My wife's parents lived on one in Wisconsin, and had tons of feral cats living in the barn. MIL fed them scraps every night. They didn't kill the rodents, just dissuaded them from hanging around.

Original Quill wrote:They are useful on a farm.  My wife's parents lived on one in Wisconsin, and had tons of feral cats living in the barn.  MIL fed them scraps every night.  They didn't kill the rodents, just dissuaded them from hanging around.

the marsupial rodents are are bad as real rats and we have Snakes

Plus these are not on farms they are in national parks and wildlife reserves.

only solution de-sex any pet cats and import no more
Open hunting season on cats 12 months a year
If a pet cat is found and shot while off the owners property the owner gets fined for every native animal they pull out of it's guts, currently fines would be about $20,000 per native mammal, some endangered ones could be up to $200,000.(if they followed the guidelines that are already in place but never enforced on cat owners)

veya_victaous wrote:
it's the bloody Cats and there owners!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's Impossible to actually do anything because some fool infected Toxoplasmosis say but my kitty is so cute ...as it rips the throat out of some small native mammal
                             

SAMMY SAYS  "You can kiss my..."   !!!

veya_victaous wrote:
...................................

If a pet cat is found and shot while off the owners property the owner gets fined for every native animal they pull out of it's guts, currently fines would be about $20,000 per native mammal, some endangered ones could be up to $200,000.(if they followed the guidelines that are already in place but never enforced on cat owners).

   

veya_victaous wrote:

Original Quill wrote:
They are useful on a farm.  My wife's parents lived on one in Wisconsin, and had tons of feral cats living in the barn.  MIL fed them scraps every night.  They didn't kill the rodents, just dissuaded them from hanging around.

the marsupial rodents are are bad as real rats and we have Snakes

.................................

THERE are six species of proper "rats" [rattus spp., in the Rodent family] endemic in Australia that are of major Economic importance ~ primarily with the amount of physical damage that they cause (directly through chewing, digging and burrowing; food spoilage, contamination with urine and faeces; and fires due to chewed-through electrical wiring..), but also with the possible harboring and spread of diseases :

Indigenous Native rats - the Bush Rat and the Swamp Rats;

Introduced European rats - the common and familiar Brown and Black European rats;

Introduced 'Asiatic' Rats - two common species endemic in the Northern Territory and Far North Queensland, found their way down from New Guinea and Indonesia some hundreds of years ago..


AND these six species of placental rodents are all more destructive than any native marsupial "mice" and "rats" ~ with the two species of European rats being more destructive collectively on a national level, than all the others (placental and marsupial) taken together.

ONLY surpassed on a semi-regular basis by the occasional mouse plagues in rural areas, by a couple of introduced European varieties of house mice and field mice..      

Sammy...readying for the action.

thanks for proving my point about the dangers of Toxoplasmosis infection Wolf                      

Much as I like cats, and recon know the toxo scare is overhyped by the cat haters,
In australia the cat is a predatory non native species and about as good for the environment as grey squirrels are here.....

So I agree with veya on this.....

however over here ctas are the conveenient scapegoat of such idiotic organisations as the RSPB who blame cats (soley) for the decline in many of our native birds

NOW, to an extent that may be true in and around heavily inhabited areas, but our truely feal cat population is miniscule and insufficient to account for the alarming decline of songbirds in RURAL areas

the real culprits are corvids and grey squirrels who rob out nests (very efficiently).


just like hegehogs are declining and the twerps wonder who or what is doing it....
they are too stupid/blind/ suffering from "i dont want to know-itis" to understand that its BROCK who is eating mrs tiggy-winkle....badgers are "over their sustainable numbers" (this has nothing to do with the ill advised cull over TB btw) and are eating no end of other wildlife......

there are too many do-gooders who know bog all about ecology and work soley on emotive nonsense......

So yes Veya...you are right... cats dont belong in Australia..I would also expect they are an "apex" predator too
at least here we have foxes to thin em out....
and badgers....
and cars.....

here Feral Cats are as big as Foxes. they have gone full wild.. like Pigs, definitely taking spot as apex predator. (there is other issues with Aboriginals wiping out every large land predator, there is no native comparison)

man thats some hog roast....

Our cat which we got as a kitten from a cat rescue centre (since died) took a long time to settle as he was wild and not domesticated at all. Took ages to get his confidence but only after arms all scratched.

He didn't like me for a while as I took him to the vet for the snip so I was the last person he saw before he woke up a few hours later with no balls - so to speak.

Had him for nearly 15 years and it's really sad when you lose them after all that time.