Why do Australians need a "great wall" against cats

In the mind of an ordinary person, cats are cute fuzzies that give love and affection. Meanwhile, on the Green Continent, for many years there has been a severe war between man and feral cats. There are 20 million of them here, and they are a real threat to the local fauna. That is why in Australia it was necessary to build a giant" anti-cocoon " fence under tension.

In Australia, there is no animal more terrible than a cat: in the complete absence of natural enemies, a couple of hundred cats destroy 100 thousand rabbits, birds and rodents per year. According to ecologists, wild cats kill more than 3 million birds, reptiles and mammals every day. Every minute, more than 2 thousand small animals die because of them.

Australian wild cats are the descendants of the pets of the first settlers

Australia has already lost 29 rare animal species due to cats, and 40 species are on the verge of extinction. In 2015, the local authorities decided to destroy 2 million cats, but this attempt did not give a visible result. Unfortunately, there is no effective strategy for dealing with cats in Australia right now.

Cats have adapted to the hot conditions of the desert: they do not need water — there is enough moisture that they get from the carcasses of their prey

So far, environmentalists have called the installation of a fence the only way to protect the fauna from cats. This lattice structure is 3 meters high, which is under tension and stretches for 44 kilometers, surrounding the Newhaven National Reserve.

This fence protects the territory not only from cats, but also from foxes and rabbits imported to the continent by Europeans. It is planned to create a predator-free territory with an area of about 9400 hectares.