SOME of the Peel region’s threatened species, including the Carnaby’s Black Cockatoo will benefit from the recently released Australian Government’s Threatened Species Strategy.
Create a free account to read this article
or signup to continue reading
The action-based strategy targets a total of 40 threatened mammals and bird species, while culling feral cat numbers and introducing numerous rehabilitation projects.
The Federal Threatened Species Commissioner Gregory Andrews – who was appointed last year to develop the strategy – said Western Australia, particularly the Peel and South West regions was in a good position for the strategy.
“I work with all the states and territories and I have to say WA is in the best position, which is thanks to the works of the Department of Parks and Wildlife and Environment Minister Albert Jacob,” Mr Andrews said.
“And in [Mandurah’s] area there is further biodiversity than the rest of Australia.
“One of the reasons for this is the 1080 pest bait that is used [for vertebrate pests such as rabbits, foxes, wild dogs and feral pigs] occurs naturally in some of the plants there.
“This means the native animals there are immune to it.
“In that corner there is a healthy amount of chuditches, numbats and woylies which we aren’t seeing anywhere else.”
The strategy also aims to cull two million feral cats Australia-wide by 2020.
Mr Andrews said there was an estimated 20 million feral cats across the country.
“They are literally in every corner of Australia,” he said.
“Twenty-million is a reasonably conservative number.
“We know that each will eat four to 20 native animals per day – whether it’s insects, birds or mammals.
“If assuming they only eat four animals a day, that’s 80 million native animals killed per day across Australia.
“Tackling feral cats is saving animals from extinction.”
The strategy has also seen $3.5 million in funding for the Peel-Harvey Natural Resource Management group going towards numerous rehabilitation projects, such as the Cockatubes project.
The Cockatubes project sees artificial nests made for birds such as the Carnaby’s cockatoo, which have declined in population.
“It’s not just about the birds losing their habitats in urban areas,” Mr Andrews said.
“Most of us are aware that by chopping down trees, there’s a loss of habitat.
“But there is also a problem of trees coming to the end of their lives and collapsing after three or four hundred years.”
