Defending Dryandra – Feral Hotspots Project Update

Feral cat captured on 4G fauna monitoring camera

The Defending Dryandra – Feral Hotspots Project 2024-2027 is reducing the threat of predation by feral cats to threatened species in Dryandra Woodland National Park (Dryandra). 4G fauna monitoring cameras allow for more targeted feral cat control with 71 feral cats being culled since May 2024.

Dryandra is 24,000ha in size and is made up of 17 satellite blocks in the heart of farmland. Dryandra is home to one of only two naturally occurring wild populations of the endangered numbat and also home to the critically endangered woylie and vulnerable chuditch. Due to Dryandra’s fragmented habitat, conducting feral cat control on farmland neighbouring Dryandra is vital to protect threatened species.

The Defending Dryandra Project is delivered across 3 large farms near Dryandra, fauna monitoring and feral cat control are being undertaken across the properties. 12 x 4G fauna monitoring camera have been installed on the farms and provide real time monitoring of feral cat activity with images being sent to 5 Rivers NRM project coordinator Christine Townsend and the pest animal control contractor. The cameras have solar panels to help ensure the cameras remain functional for the 3-month period between servicing. To date there has been over 800 feral cat images captured on the cameras. The pest animal control contractor uses the location and the timing of these feral cat captures to conduct targeted feral cat management.

Every 3 months the cameras are serviced and the SD cards are collected. Any long grass in front of the cameras is trimmed to prevent false triggers, solar panels are cleaned and batteries changed if required. Numbat Niche Consulting analyses the images captured and a quarterly and annual reports of these fauna surveys is provided to the landholders and the pest animal control contractor. The fauna monitoring data is showing a reduction in feral cat captures on camera at the 2 properties where the majority of feral cat control has occurred to date.

The pest animal control contractor conducts 20 hours per month of trapping and ground shooting on the properties and opportunist fox control. To date 71 feral cats (and 56 foxes) have been culled, with each cull being recorded into Feralscan and DNA taken from the feral cats. The largest feral cat culled was an enormous 10kg in size and this is this largest feral cat the contractor has culled in his 18 years of conducting feral cat control around Dryandra.

There has been a number of challenges faced delivering the Defending Dryandra Project. The 4G monitoring cameras are extremely sensitive, with shadows and grass triggering the cameras. On all but one of the cameras we have needed to set the cameras to take images at night only to reduce false triggers and prevent inboxes being flooded with camera images containing no fauna. The 4G reception around Dryandra is also very poor with only 9 of the 12 cameras having enough reception to send images through to email. Although we have faced challenges with the 4G monitoring cameras they have been vital in providing the data for the contractor to deliver more targeted and efficient feral cat control.

The farmers are always very happy to hear about the native fauna captured on camera on their properties. To date the cameras have captured images of numbats, chuditch, quenda, brushtail possums and bush-stone curlews. The farmers involved in the project are always very accommodating in letting us access the monitoring cameras and always provide good information on feral cat locations. We’d like to say a big thank you to the 3 farmers involved in the project.

This Defending Dryandra Project is supported by funding from the State Government’s Feral Cat Management Grants.