This black swan is less than 15 metres from where a feral cat was caught 3 nights before, at a fence and gate site on the southern side of the Bugga-Bugga Creek lagoon on KI. The importance of preserving an environment free from the predatory habits of feral cats cannot be over-emphasised.
Like most of the cat-trappers on KI, these farmers on the Bugga-Bugga creek set traps spasmodically and sporadically, for the success rate for trapping feral cats is realistically 3-7% of traps set per night.
Unlike many of the cat-trappers on KI, these farmers collect data from their cat-trapping activities, and routinely do a trapping campaign using multiple traps over several nights. The most recent example of this happened after they noticed 2 cygnets missing from what had been a family of 5.
5 traps were set along 450 metres of the swan habitat. 1 cat in the middle trap on the first night gave a strike rate of 20%, but after 4 nights and no further feral cats trapped, this statistic reduces to 5%. The proximity of the one trapped cat helps maintain our trapping vigilance.
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