Natural History

Cats in Australia

Cats (Felis catus), initially introduced into Australia with the First Fleet in 1788, now number more than 11 million distributed across more than 90% of the continent including every major island. They are the second most popular pet by household (third most populous overall after dogs and fish). In 2023 there were 5.3 million kept as pets of which approximately 95% are neutered. In addition there are estimated to be up to 6 million feral cats found in almost every remote area across the country. Cats are considered by the CSIRO to be the most damaging invasive pest by cost and fourth most damaging overall to the environment. The Invasive Species Council has estimated that each year domestic and feral cats in Australia kill nearly 1.1 billion mammals, 399 million birds, 609 million reptiles, 93 million frogs, and nearly 1.1 billion invertebrates. Cats are found to have significantly contributed to the extinction of at least 22 endemic Australian mammals since the arrival of Europeans. Feral cats are extremely difficult to control, are capable of bypassing control barriers and have adapted to harsh desert conditions by burrowing and obtaining sustenance by preying on moisture-rich small desert marsupials. Their economic burden have been more than A$18.7 billion annually since 1960, nine times that of rabbits. Cats carry diseases, such as toxoplasmosis, which impacts humans and livestock at a cost of more than A$6 billion annually. Australia remains rabies free and any cats that are imported into Australia must meet conditions set by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry for biosecurity reasons.

Also on this shelf

See also

• ▸Banff National Park
• ▸E (Cyrillic)
• ▸Gould's emerald

Uncatalogued shelf

Text from Wikipedia; plate via Wikimedia Commons. Text CC BY-SA 4.0; plate freely licensed (see Commons). Source record. Images and catalogue data are reproduced from open-access collections.