Wild Cats in Australia: Feral Cat Numbers, Impact, and Laws

Cats are not native to Australia, and the cats living wild there are feral cats. The 2024 threat abatement plan from the Australian Government's Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW) puts the feral cat population at between 1.4 million and 5.6 million, depending on rainfall, plus over 0.7 million in heavily modified habitats. DCCEEW says feral cats “kill over 1.5 billion native mammals, birds, reptiles and frogs, and 1.1 billion invertebrates each year.”

Are there wild cats in Australia?

DCCEEW writes: “Feral cats are an introduced predator in Australia.” It adds that “Feral cats are the same species as domestic cats, however they live and reproduce in the wild and survive by hunting or scavenging.” The 2024 plan says “Cats were introduced to Australia from 1788.”

The University of Queensland's 2017 news release quotes Australia's Threatened Species commissioner Gregory Andrews: “Aside from Antarctica, Australia is the only continent where animals evolved without cats, which is a reason our wildlife has been so vulnerable.”

Feral cats and pet cats

A feral cat and a pet cat are one species, and the line between them is not fixed. The 2024 plan says: “Domestic cats were, and remain, highly capable of moving from pet into feral scenarios, which is partly why feral cat populations have established in almost every place where people have brought pet cats.” It also says “a free-roaming cat could be either a pet or a feral cat, and an unsocialised cat could be an owned farm cat.”

Cats also differ in their behavioral characteristics around people. DCCEEW describes feral cats as “predominantly solitary and active at night (nocturnal), spending most of the day in the safety of a shelter such as a rabbit burrow, log or rock pile.” The 2024 plan says that when food is concentrated, “for example, near rubbish dumps in towns,” female feral cats “can aggregate into matrilineal colonies (or clowders).”

How many feral cats live in Australia

Recent research from the University of Queensland, led by Dr Sarah Legge, brought together more than 40 of Australia's top environmental scientists and evidence from nearly 100 separate studies. Legge said: “Australia’s feral cat population fluctuates between 2.1 million when times are lean, up to 6.3 million when widespread rain results in plenty of available prey.” The University of Queensland release, published on 5 January 2017, also says feral cats “cover more than 99.8% of Australia’s land area, including its islands,” and that “cat densities were the same both inside and outside conservation reserves, such as national parks.”

The 2024 plan gives newer figures, built from 91 independent estimates of feral cat density. It says the population “fluctuates from 1.4 million (95% confidence intervals 1.0 to 2.2 million) when rainfall in the arid and semi-arid zones is low to 5.6 million (95% confidence intervals 2.5 to 10.9 million) when rainfall in those zones is high.” It adds: “In addition, there are over 0.7 million feral cats in heavily modified habitats, and 5.3 million pet cats (2022 estimate).” On distribution, the plan says cats “now occupy 99.9% of Australia's land area” and “are absent only from fenced areas built specifically to exclude cats (and foxes), and from some islands.”

The release also says there is a need to address feral cats in heavily urbanised areas, “where their population density could be 30 times higher than in natural environments.”

How feral cats hunt

Feral cats are sometimes called hardy survivors and excellent hunters, but the paper at that link does not use those words. It measured how often feral cats catch their prey. In that 2015 paper in PLoS ONE, Hugh McGregor and colleagues “attached collar-mounted video cameras to feral cats living in a tropical savanna environment in northern Australia,” on two properties in the central Kimberley of north-western Australia. The abstract reports: “From 89 hours of footage, we recorded 101 hunting events, of which 32 were successful.”

The setting changed the result. The abstract says hunting success was “highly dependent on microhabitat structure surrounding prey, increasing from 17% in habitats with dense grass or complex rocks to 70% in open areas.”

What feral cats do to native wildlife

Knowledge about the impacts of feral cats on native animals starts with the figures DCCEEW gives. It says predation by cats “is a recognised threat to over 200 nationally threatened species, and 37 listed migratory species,” and that “Feral cats have contributed to the extinction of more than 20 Australian mammal species, including the pig-footed bandicoots, lesser bilby and broad-faced potoroo.”

The 2024 plan puts that in a wider count: “Of the 33 Australian mammal species rendered extinct since European colonisation, cats have mostly or substantially contributed to two-thirds of these losses.” It also says “over 10% of the Australian terrestrial mammal species extant 250 years ago are now extinct.”

Pet cats add to the toll. The plan says: “Pet cats kill over 320 million native vertebrate animals each year in Australia. Although their overall toll is lower than that imposed by feral cats, because pet cats live at high density, their ‘local’ impacts can be much higher than that of feral cats.”

What the Australian Government is doing

DCCEEW says “Predation by feral cats is listed as a key threatening process” under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. DCCEEW calls the 2024 plan “the fourth threat abatement plan under the EPBC Act” for that process. The Northern Territory, South Australia, Tasmania, New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, Western Australia and Victoria joined the Commonwealth to make it jointly, “the first time a threat abatement plan has been jointly made.” DCCEEW also says “landholders and state and territory governments hold primary responsibility for on-ground management of established invasive species like feral cats.”

Two earlier steps are on record. At the Meeting of Environment Ministers in Melbourne on 15 July 2015, ministers endorsed the National declaration of feral cats as pests. The Australian Parliament held an inquiry into feral and domestic cats in 2020, and its committee tabled a report on 4 February 2021.

Culling is one way governments try to cut feral cat numbers. The University of Queensland release says Mr Andrews said the findings “substantiated the need for a humane and effective cull.” DCCEEW lists the control tools: “shooting, trapping, fencing, baiting and a grooming trap.” It also says “The most effective form of feral cat control over large areas is poison baiting,” and that control is hard because feral cats “are found in very low densities over large home ranges and are shy, making them difficult to locate.”

Trap-neuter-release

The 2024 plan addresses trap-neuter-release (TNR) directly: “Trap-neuter-release (TNR) programs, that capture feral cats, desex them, then release them back to their origin, do not stop individual cats from hunting wildlife or spreading disease, nor do they improve the welfare of released cats, and may not lead to overall reduction in the cat population or impacts. In general, TNR is therefore not recommended.”

People who want a different approach can use the Action Center on the Alley Cat Allies website. The plan also says its programs should use “actions that are justified by optimising biodiversity outcomes, overall humaneness, and the sustainability of the action(s).”

Pet cat laws in each state and territory

Pet cat law differs by state and territory. The 2024 plan says “Legislation governing pet cat management remains highly variable across jurisdictions” and that “the management of pet cats mostly falls to local governments.” Its Appendix 4a lists these laws:

• Australian Capital Territory: Domestic Animals Act 2000
• New South Wales: Companion Animals Act 1998
• Queensland: Animal Management (Cats and Dogs) Act 2008
• South Australia: Dog and Cat Management Act 1995
• Tasmania: Cat Management Act 2009
• Victoria: Domestic Animals Act 1994
• Western Australia: Cat Act 2011
• Northern Territory: the plan lists no pet cat legislation

The Western Australian Government says the Cat Act 2011 “requires the identification, registration and sterilisation of domestic cats, and gives local governments the power to administer and enforce the legislation.” Its page says all cats that have reached 6 months of age “are required to be” microchipped, sterilised, and registered with the relevant local government. It also says “your vet can issue an exemption if sterilising your cat is likely to have a negative impact on your cat's health and welfare.”

What pet parents in Australia are asked to do

The 2024 plan states the goal for pet cats: “The ideal goal for pet cat management is that all cats are safely contained at home, desexed (unless they are registered breeders), registered and identified.” Failing to neuter or spay a cat is one form of irresponsible pet ownership, and the RSPCA says “Desexing cats is a safe and effective strategy to prevent unplanned/unwanted litters.” It also says “Your cat should be desexed before they are 16 weeks of age as long as your veterinarian has assessed them to be in good health, an appropriate weight, and adequately vaccinated.”

On keeping a cat at home, the RSPCA says “Contained cats do not have to live totally indoors. Ideally, all cats should have the benefits of access to the outdoors in a safe escape-proof contained outdoor environment.” It says keeping cats contained in an environment that meets their physical and mental needs “strikes the right balance between cat welfare, safety, and longevity, while also safeguarding the welfare and survival of wildlife and reducing community impacts from roaming cats.”

Pets are not just possessions - they are sentient beings requiring consistent care and commitment. Educating the public about responsible pet ownership is one of the plan's actions: it calls for sharing information on “the welfare, conservation and human health benefits of responsible pet ownership, including containment.”

Shelters and rescue groups run adoption drives. The plan says pounds, animal shelters and rescue and homing/re-homing groups “play a role in receiving, treating and finding homes for cats that are suitable for homing/re-homing.” Besides being vocal, wearing rescue merch is one way to show support.

Embrace your inner feline & shop our entire cat collection - 25% of all proceeds go directly to no-kill animal shelters!

Australian Wild Cats FAQ

How big are feral cats in Australia?

The 2024 plan calls feral cats “medium-sized (females average 3.3 kg, males average 4.2 kg) carnivores that hunt a broad range of animal prey.”

What do feral cats in Australia eat?

DCCEEW says feral cats “are carnivores, and generally eat live prey like small mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish and insects depending on their availability.” The plan calls them “live prey specialists, usually avoiding carrion.”

How many kittens do feral cats have?

The 2024 plan says “Female cats usually produce 1 to 2 litters, each of 3 to 5 kittens, per year; but more litters, and larger litters, are possible.” The plan gives an average life span of 3 to 7 years for feral cats.

Sources

• DCCEEW, Feral cats (archived copy)
• DCCEEW, Threat abatement plan for predation by feral cats 2024: plan page (archived copy)
• University of Queensland News, Ferals running rampant, 5 January 2017
• McGregor H, Legge S, Jones ME, Johnson CN. Feral cats are better killers in open habitats, revealed by animal-borne video. PLoS ONE 2015;10(8):e0133915. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0133915
• Government of Western Australia, Laws for responsible cat owners
• RSPCA Australia Knowledgebase, Why should I have my cat desexed?
• RSPCA Australia Knowledgebase, Is it okay to keep my cat at home all of the time?