This is a Bengal Cat which unfortunately belongs to a fig farmer who is located about 1km from our property. He bought the cat specifically to catch and kill birds which may eat his figs. He does not feed this cat. It roams free day and night. It has been responsible for a huge decrease in the number and variety of native species on our property. That cage is over 50cm high and 1 m long - so that will give you an idea of the size of this cat.
It has so far failed to enter the trap.
cats have such a contradictory presence, on the one hand our cat brought another dead rat this evening, and i suspect rats of eating the baby figs off my tree, there is a plague of rodents here because the beech trees had a massive fruiting mast this past year, but on the other hand i feel sickened when it catches birds, even if they peck at the figs
Hi Peter, Denise, Kali, Jackie, Etienne and Katrina.Thanks for your comments. This cat is a monster - it's so bad that people are allowed to import them into our country. In the long run they are just going to make our feral cat problem even worse.... I probably shouldn't have put this image up because the whole situation just makes me so annoyed - and I shouldn't be inflicting my mood on lovely 365 people! :) Regards Rob @peadar@gilbertwood@kali66@etienne@koalagardens@30pics4jackiesdiamond
@kali66 Thanks for your thoughts Kali - your words are so true. I'm sure cats do have a rightful place and use in lots of situations. But unfortunately they also need to be controlled. And that is the problem here. Most of our grape farmers use nets to protect their crops - this fig farmer could do the same but he chose this as his preferred choice. It's actually very sad that he thinks this is an OK situation. Anyway - no more cat photos - it's too nasty to inflict on all of you!! :)
will you kill it when you trap it, do you have grounds with it being on your property? just wondering, not judging, a wild cat in Australia or NZ is not a good thing!
@kali66 Hi Kali - that is a very good question. Because it's a cat and not a fox (ie originally domestic Vs always feral) we can take the trap with the cat to the council. However, they will try to locate the owner to return the cat........ Apparently, we do have the legal right to destroy the animal as it was on our property. It's not a good situation in either case. Thanks for your interest. :)
@onewing I'm afraid it's going to end up in a very safe place if we catch it Babs. We're a Land for Wildlife property and it breaks our hearts that this man thinks it's OK for this predator to just roam free....
@peadar @gilbertwood @kali66 @etienne @koalagardens @30pics4jackiesdiamond