SYDNEY, April 8 (Xinhua) -- A specialist team has culled hundreds of feral cats in Australia's most populous state in an effort to protect native wildlife from invasive predators.

According to data published by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Tuesday, the feral cat control team in New South Wales (NSW) has killed over 400 feral cats in the state's national parks since it was established late in 2024.

The squad of five specialist shooters was set up by the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service as the state's first-ever dedicated feral cat control team.

Darren Pitt, the service's western branch director, said that the team's work had already saved thousands of native animals.

"With one feral cat able to kill at least 700 native animals a year, to remove 400 cats potentially puts 280,000 animals at relief from feral cat predation," he told the ABC.

Australia's federal government in 2023 declared "war" on feral cats with a national action plan to reduce their impact on native species.

The government estimates that feral cats kill over 1.5 billion native mammals, birds, reptiles and frogs, as well as 1.1 billion invertebrates, every year, the equivalent of around seven million each day.

The NSW National Parks Service says there are about 6.3 million feral cats across Australia.

The control team only targets those in national parks in the East Coast state.

Pitt said it was impossible to completely eradicate feral cats from the landscape but that reducing the population in targeted areas could help threatened species survive.

Feral cats are believed to have been responsible for two-thirds of Australia's mammal extinctions and are a threat to over 200 species listed by the government as threatened. Enditem

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