The banded hare-wallaby

Credit: SNWA

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PERTH, 24 May 2006 - One of Australia's most ambitious strategies to control feral predators - the biggest threat to our unique native animals - is being launched at Mt Gibson, north-east of Perth.

Determined to create a sanctuary in the Mid-West free from feral cats and foxes conservation group Australian Wildlife Conservancy has teamed up with CALM and the Invasive Animals Co-operative Research Centre in a landmark project.

Over five years, researchers will use radio tracking to monitor the population, behaviour, feeding habits and survival of predators and trial a newly developed bait.

They will also focus on how populations of cats and foxes impact on each other.

AWC regional ecologist Jacqui Richards says the project is one of the first in Australia to examine the dynamics of a system that allows feral animals to remain a thriving threat to the nation's wildlife.

Twelve species of mammals that once lived in WA have been wiped out in the past 200 years and many more are confined to a few isolated populations or to offshore islands.

Although 30 years of research has shown that introduced predators are the biggest threat to small and medium-sized native species, a completely effective way to control them has so far eluded scientists.

"This is one of the first times anywhere in Australia that researchers are looking at all aspects of control," says Richards.

"It is very much an on-ground partnership with CALM and the CRC to design the project and do on-site work.

"We will look at all possible facets of the problem to try and figure out some method of controlling cats and foxes.

"For instance, we will be looking at the differences in eating and hunting patterns between foxes and cats. "Foxes scavenge and they will eat absolutely everything, while cats are more finicky and don't scavenge unless they really have to. Foxes surplus kill for sport, cats don't.

"There are so many questions, such as is it one particular cat in the area attacking all native species, rather than one or two, or are they all doing the same thing?"

Radio tracking devices will be fitted to about 20 cats, 20 foxes and 20 wild dogs.

The ultimate aim of the project is to reintroduce endangered and vulnerable species to the 130,500 ha sanctuary.

These include the bilby, the burrowing bettong, the banded hare-wallaby, the numbat and the western barred bandicoot.

Ms Richards says it is likely that in addition to the predator-control project, endangered species will be protected by a feral-proof fence.

"Fenced predator-free areas are a feature of AWC sanctuaries and, so far, they are the only thing that's proven absolutely to work," she says.

"We will erect a fence - I don't believe it is possible to do it (introduce native species) without a fence. "We would like to introduce animals outside the fence as well but have a core breeding nucleus inside it...

"But we won't introduce species until we are sure we have predators under control. There are so many examples of people putting animals back and they just die."

The project will trial a new bait, Eradicate 1080, developed by CALM research scientist Dave Algar.

Ms Richards says: "The bait was designed to appeal to cats but we also want to find out how successful it is on foxes."

1080 is made from a native plant, poison pea, to which endemic species have a natural resistance.