Bushwalk Australia

Recently camped at Cathedral ranges (Cooks Mill) - primarily in order to test out my new hammock.

At one point one of the guys came back to the fire muttering about a "sort of four legged animal" he saw out in the darkness. We took away his glass and put him to bed...

The next evening though, before it got too dark I saw a black cat streak across the campsite. It continued to hover around for the rest of the night.

A little surprised: how did a cat get out there? Dumped by an owner, or trekked there from one of the properties closer to Marysville. The latter seems unlikely as it's quite a distance. It doesn't look like a good sign for native wildlife either if cats are starting to stalk the national parks....

Erich....feral cats are everywhere and have been for a long time. I regulary get cat images on my trail cameras set deep in the mountains on the ANP and cats are far more regular on the cams than wild dogs....they are very adaptive and very good hunters and you'll never see a skinny feral cat out in the bush as there's plenty of food in the form of small mammals, birds and reptiles for them to choose from. Certainly cats get dumped in the bush from time to time and go feral or semi-wild or some may end up living in the bush close to settled areas but I would think that feral cats encountered in remote areas are true ferals and would have been born in the wild from wild parents.

While as deer hunters we're only permitted under the Regs to shoot deer in the ANP.....I do make an exception with feral cats and any cat I come across cops it if I get the opportunity for a shot and while I'm technically breaking the law in this regard that sits quite OK with me.....the only good feral cat in the bush is a dead one IMO ! Cheers

s358

Cats are all over Australia, they'd have to be in the top three feral animals. I even saw one in the snow on Mt Stirling recently stalking a rabbit near craigs hut.

There's even a special mention of feral cats in Australia in the Wiki. Shoot to kill is appropriate.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feral_cat

sambar358 wrote:
While as deer hunters we're only permitted under the Regs to shoot deer in the ANP.....I do make an exception with feral cats and any cat I come across cops it if I get the opportunity for a shot and while I'm technically breaking the law in this regard that sits quite OK with me.....the only good feral cat in the bush is a dead one IMO ! Cheers

s358

Good on you. Why is it even against the law to shoot feral cats (or other feral species) anyway? Surely the environmentally correct thing to do is kill them?

David M wrote:

sambar358 wrote:
While as deer hunters we're only permitted under the Regs to shoot deer in the ANP.....I do make an exception with feral cats and any cat I come across cops it if I get the opportunity for a shot and while I'm technically breaking the law in this regard that sits quite OK with me.....the only good feral cat in the bush is a dead one IMO ! Cheers

s358

Good on you. Why is it even against the law to shoot feral cats (or other feral species) anyway? Surely the environmentally correct thing to do is kill them?

David, I think the answer to your second question is probably, it depends. While I don't think it's possible to mistake a deer for a protected species, various smaller native species might be mistaken for a nocturnal feral cat. This may have something to do with the answer to your first question. Just speculating; I don't shoot anything, but sometimes it seems like it could be a good thing to do!

David....when the ANP was declared the hunting of sambar deer by stalking was permitted on a seasonal basis in the units that had a tradition of deer hunting pre-Park. This was done via submissions to the Land Conservation Council (LCC) during the usual pre-Park consultation process as the current RIS process does today. So we were able to hunt sambar deer by stalking only and this has recently been broadened to ALL deer species as red & fallow deer in particular are also building in numbers in some areas of the ANP. So deer were fine....but nothing else....no feral cats, rabbits, dogs, goat, pigs etc if encountered......and essentially that's fair-enough as non-hunters don't want to hear shots being belted-off all the time in the Park disturbing their experience of remote places.

So often as I hunter in the ANP I encounter foxes, wild dogs and feral cats while I'm looking for a deer.....foxes are pretty-well in the same category as feral cats in that they'll predate heavily on our small mammals, birds and reptiles while wild dogs in remote areas tend to favour larger animals targetting mostly wombats, wallabies, 'roos, emus and deer although like the fox they are very versatile and will eat most anything including insects, blackberries and the fruits from other plants. So for me anyway......I have a thing about feral cats enoountered in the bush and regardless of where I'm hunting if one presents a shot then I'll take it every time. I think last year the tally was 5 feral cats while I was sambar hunting......and 3 already this year....so not a lot really.....but if each cat eats a couple of 100 small animals/birds a year then that add's up to a few over time I guess. Cheers

s358

As much as I'm an animal lover I dont have a problem with people shooting, trapping or running over feral animals in the bush. The less the better.

sambar358 wrote:the only good feral cat in the bush is a dead one IMO ! Cheers

Pretty much how I felt on seeing it - given it's impact on natives. But I've been on many hikes and camping and this is the first time I've encountered a cat. I thought it was strange, not common place....

Rodney rude sung a song about cats.

Ha...just listened to Rodney's cat song. Classic. And yes...I hate cats!

Yesterday I saw a feral cat in daylight, at lunchtime, at a quiet bitumen carpark/picnic spot at Orroral in the Namadgi NP. Wished I had a weapon, I used to be a crack shot. I was waiting there 2 hours for my pick up after a walk, and tired. I was recently at a zoo with tigers and the feral cat reminded me of the tiger -it had a similar muscular and powerful build and stanch - and so big for a 'cat'. But yes, the DNA was essentially a household tabby cat. It went sneaking along an old hedge line about 25m away, completely concentrating on a group of galahs feeding. I looked around and grabbed a stone but my movement spooked the cat and it was too quick.

Saw one skiing down from the Horn at mt Buffalo last week.... just to clarify, i was skiing not the cat.

Cathedral has always had Cat in it...

So Erich, what hammock do you have and how did you find it?

Disregard Erich, just saw your other thread

idc1970 wrote:Disregard Erich, just saw your other thread

Always happy to talk about it again

Seriously - if you haven't done the hammock thing give it a try. One night and I'm a dedicated hammocker now....

Had an interesting discussion with a NPWS field officer some years back. The NPWS person commented on the large number cats (as compared to other animals) that were caught on their animal cams. Feral cats are a problem everywhere.