Australian Feral Animals

The growing pressures of extinction for over 3,000 Australian native species are currently threatening the Australian ecosystem’s ecological balance. A major contributor to these pressures is the introduction of mesopredators such as foxes and feral cats. These species have been able to strive in the Victorian region as Australia’s native apex predators such as the dingo, have been removed or culled from the area (Milman, 2015). Therefore, with no threat of predation, no fatal disease threats and an extreme reproductive rate, these species have been able to over populate regions all over Australia. Feral animals pose a great threat to native species by predation, competition for food and shelter, destroying habitat, and by spreading diseases. Feral animals are generally solitary and nocturnal, spending most of the day in the safety of shelters such as rabbit burrows, logs or rock piles (The Department of the Environment, 2014). On Australia’s mainland, predation by …show more content…
Eradication is an attractive option because, once achieved, it would require no further commitment of resources other than monitoring of the feral animal’s population. However, complete eradication of feral animals has not yet been successful on mainland Australia as there is an insufficient amount of available and effective techniques and resources to eradicate such well-established species. The presence of domestic cats is also an issue. However, a new development has arisen in which would involve reintroducing the Tasmanian devil back on Australia’s mainland in Victoria’s State’s Wilson’s Promontory National Park. The purpose of this report is to assess how feasible and effective this new strategy will be against successfully eradicating these