🌅 A Notorious Feral Cat in New Zealand Has Been Captured

SOURCE

Radio New Zealand

WHAT TO KNOW

• In 2023, authorities on New Zealand’s North Island began what would turn out to be a three-year saga tracking and capturing a notorious gray tabby nicknamed Nine Lives. The feral cat was known for devouring wildlife and devastating conservation efforts, including preying on New Zealand's most endangered mainland duck, the pāteke. Authorities trapped and “humanely shot” Nine Lives in July, ending his yearslong devastation of pāteke (conservationists suspect Nine Lives killed up to three-quarters of the pāteke they reintroduced into the wild in recent years) kiwi chicks, geckos, and other native wildlife.

WHY IT MATTERS

• New Zealand is home to an estimated 2.5 million feral cats, many of which descended from North African hunting cats, meaning their instinct to stalk and kill prey remains deeply ingrained. Beyond pāteke, which used to number in the hundreds of thousands but now total only around 2,000 birds, the cats are also threatening scores of other wildlife, including stilts, black-fronted terns, kākāpō, kea, skinks, native bats, and New Zealand dotterels. The cats’ devastating predation led the New Zealand government to add feral cats to its Predator Free 2050 hitlist, alongside ferrets, rats, weasels, and possums.

CONNECT THE DOTS

• While we often think of cats as pets, in the wild, they’re very much an apex predator. Research shows free-roaming cats around the world consume more than 2,000 different species, including approximately 9% of all known birds, 6% of all known mammals, and 4% of all known reptiles. Other work suggests feral cats have contributed to the extinction of at least 63 different species throughout history, representing one-quarter of all known bird, mammal, and reptile extinctions.