WELLINGTON -- New Zealand's Southern Lakes Sanctuary is calling for the inclusion of feral cats in the government's Predator Free 2050 strategy as the number has soared.
More than 2.5 million feral cats now reside in New Zealand and this number continues to rise every week, the Southern Lakes Sanctuary said on Friday.
The reproductive potential of a single female cat is estimated at 300 kittens in her reproductive lifetime, said Southern Lakes Sanctuary project director Paul Kavanagh.
This means the feral cat population is increasing significantly every week, Kavanagh said, adding that efforts need to be ramped up to control these populations to save New Zealand's native species.
"The pests are a significant threat to the country's native birdlife and are responsible for the extinction of native birds including the Stephen Island wren, and endangering iconic Kiwi birds such as the kea," he said.
Urgent funding is required to humanely control the pests, which are now at record highs throughout the country, said Kavanagh, adding that the non-profit charitable organization is facing a funding cliff of June 2024.
The New Zealand government has confirmed a review of the Predator Free 2050 strategy will take place in 2024 under public consultation. The inclusion of feral cats would generate more funding to enable the Southern Lakes Sanctuary to increase resources and continue their crucial conservation work, he said.
The Southern Lakes Sanctuary humanely captures and dispatches feral cats in the Southern Lakes region. The feral cat population is self-sustaining as they do not rely on humans to survive and are generally located in remote areas.
"We are absolutely not talking about domestic, companion cats here, or stray cats... We are trying to decrease the widespread population of wild, feral cats which are destroying our endangered birds and reptiles," Kavanagh said.
The humane trapping and dispatching of feral cats is a skilled task only undertaken by staff who have extensive training, he said.