Australia has a feral cat problem

Australia has a serious cat problem, with feral cats covering 99.8% of the country according to new research published in the journal Biological Conservation.

The exact number of cats fluctuates from roughly 1.4 million after continent-wide droughts cramp food sources to about 5.6 million after extensive wet periods, which result in plenty of available prey. An additional 700,000 feral cats are estimated to live in other environments, including Australia’s urban areas, rubbish dumps and intensive farms.

There are so many cats that there is one every four square kilometers (although the population density varies widely across the country) and the cat-free areas are limited to a just few islands, the research states. However, the overall population estimate was lower than in previous estimates and lower than in North America and Europe.