Stray cats have been killing up to 10 threatened red-billed gulls a night near nesting sites on the Kaikōura Peninsula, a wildlife rehabilitator says. Photo: Sabrina Luecht
Stray cats have been killing up to 10 threatened red-billed gulls a night near nesting sites on the Kaikōura Peninsula, a Kaikōura wildlife rehabilitator says.
Kaikōura Wildlife Centre Trust said cats had long been a problem in the coastal town but volunteers were seeing a spike in deaths of tarāpunga and other birds.
Project Wellbird rehabilitator Sabrina Luecht estimated hundreds of stray cats lived in the hillside on the peninsula.
"They come down off the hillside at night into the urban area to get to the shoreline and predate on roosting birds, that's essentially their only means of survival, targeting terns and gulls that are on the near shore rocky outcrops or on the beach, and that is essentially an easy meal," she said.
Sabrina Luecht estimated hundreds of stray cats lived in the hillside on the Kaikōura Peninsula. Photo: Sabrina Luecht
"All our seabirds are starving, so they're not in good condition and they don't have much muscle or fat reserves. I would argue the cats are having to kill more birds to get as much or an equal kind of nutritional content of what they were used to.
"We're seeing an increase in numbers because the cats are hungry, and what they're predating on is essentially starved birds."
Luecht said most of the bird deaths were happening on the Kaikōura Peninsula around places like Kaikōura Wharf and Avoca Street.
"There are known sites where generational strays, lack of desexing in the community and or dumping have resulted in hotspots, but essentially strays persist everywhere," she said.
Gulls and terns that are near rocky outcrops or on the beach make an easy meal for the stray cats, Sabrina Luecht says. Photo: Sabrina Luecht
Luecht wanted a national policy to mandate cat registration and de-sexing of pet cats.
"Feral cats essentially fall in the ecosystem under Department of Conservation (DOC) management and predator control organisations, in terms of stray and pet cats that falls outside of DOC, one tends to typically be in residential areas outside of conservation land," she said.
"There's a real gap if you don't have welfare organisations... there's essentially no way to address that problem, especially in a small town.
"We need national cat legislation to enable local policies at the district level across the region and country."
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