When invasive species go wild in Australia they really don't hold back. Check out this ridiculously massive feral cat caught in the Northern Territory's Arnhem Land — one of an alarming number of similar cats that are now decimating the local wildlife.
According to the Warddeken ranger group, the cats are getting progressively bigger and there are now upwards of "several thousand" of them in the area of central Arnhem Land. The group is trying to secure funding from the federal government to help them monitor and cull the animals.
Researchers from the National Environmental Research Program have also noticed an increase in feral cats over the last few years. Whenever a cat is caught, they perform a gut analysis — and the amount of animals inside each of them is "staggering."
In one case, a single feral cat was found to have the remains of two sugar gliders, a velvet gecko, a bird and some insects — and that's just one cat, over one day.
In terms of an action plan, the local groups will try to establish the population of cats, determine their range, and get a better sense of their behavior. They may even deploy dogs specially trained to catch cats, with each of them equipped with a GPS collar.
[Source: ABC Rural]
Images: JAKE WEIGL / NT News.