Title: Exotic Intruders

Author: Joan Druett

Publication details: Heinemann, 1983, Auckland

Digital publication kindly authorised by: Joan Druett

Part of: New Zealand Texts Collection

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Exotic Intruders

Cats

page 17

Cats

There is no record of the first introduction of cats into New Zealand, but they were probably present from the earliest days of settlement by the whalers and sealers. Since then many cats have managed to live in a wild state. Wild cats were reported in Auckland province by Dieffenbach in 1843. Later goldminers, surveyors, shepherds and the work gangs that set up public works camps carried cats as pets all around the country. In the 1870s, with the alarming spread of the rabbit, many pastoral farmers bought up large number of cats and released them in rabbit-infested country. Gardner, in 'The Amuri', wrote that in 1885 a Mr Acton-Adams 'secured over 200 cats from Christchurch for Tarndale. It is said that he paid 2s 6d. a head for them in Papanui, but that the venture was not a success. One wagon load was drowned in the Clarence River crossing: the rest were too tame for the unnatural high-country task.' Cats that did survive wild in this country were said to attain a very great size. The interesting observation was also made that when cats became feral they reverted to the original tabby-grey colour.

The cats probably did do a great deal to reduce rabbit numbers, but this has gone unstudied and therefore unmeasured. However a study of ferrets carried out in rabbit-infested country in the Wairarapa has some bearing on the hunting efficiency of cats. Gibb and Flux reported observations being carried out in an enclosure, 8.5 hectares in size, that supported a population of over a thousand rabbits. Three or four feral cats and six ferrets had free access to this area, and reduced the population of rabbits to 13 in three and a half years. The scientists noted that the cats and the ferrets exhibited division of territory, with the cats hunting above ground and the ferrets hunting in the burrows.

The numbers of feral cats have fallen considerably since the laying of poison for rabbits and opossums, and some have been caught in gin traps. The blame for depredations on native birdlife has been firmly placed at their door by many scientists. Turbott (1947) theorised that the saddleback on Little Barrier Island disappeared because of cats, which is borne out by the fact that there are plenty of saddlebacks on Hen Island where there are no wild cats. The Stephens Island wren was wiped out by the lighthousekeeper's cat. F. Cain found a broadleaf stump in 1948 where kittens nested in amongst feathers and wings of fantails, tomtits, white-eyes and other small native birds. However no acclimatisation societies pay bonuses for the destruction of feral cats, even though they are known to take young pheasants and quail.

The population of wild cats is constantly being reinforced by the dumping of unwanted cats in the countryside or even in the native bush. If this practice ceased then depredations on bird life, both native and exotic, would be much reduced.