Western Australia has awarded $500,000 to five community groups to help manage feral cats and protect threatened wildlife.
This funding round is part of the Cook Government’s Feral Cat Management Grant program, which sits under WA’s state feral cat strategy.
Warren Catchments Council received about $185,000 to expand ethical feral cat control in the Warren region to help species like numbats, woylies and western ringtail possums.
Australian Wildlife Conservancy received about $140,000 for statewide work sequencing feral cat genomes with CSIRO. That research will build knowledge for future genetic biocontrol options.
The other funded groups will deliver on ground control in key regions. Wilson Inlet Catchment Committee will run feral cat control around the Eungedup Wetlands on the south coast.
Friends of the Dale River will coordinate management on and around a Class A reserve in the Wheatbelt. Bush Blocks Guardians will run a program on a 666 hectare conservation block in Westonia in the eastern Wheatbelt.
Since it began, the grant program has invested $1.5 million across 13 feral cat projects in WA, and applications for the final round are due to open next year.