Threatened species
The Mount Barker District Council area provides habitat to a number of fauna species including birds, mammals, fish, amphibians and insects. Unfortunately a number of these species are listed as threatened at a regional, state and/or national level.
Council’s Biodiversity Strategy identifies cat predation as having a major impact on our region’s biodiversity.
Cats are known to roam long distances and will generally hunt all hours of the day and night. Cats are most active at dusk and dawn, this is the same times that most of our native wildlife is active and is one contributing factor to their impact on our native fauna. Cat predation on our native fauna has been identified as a key threat to 35 species of birds, 36 species of mammals, 7 species of reptiles and 3 species of amphibians.
Mount Barker District Council takes its role of protecting the biodiversity of our region seriously and Council’s Cat By-law especially the curfew aims to minimise the impact that cats have on our environment.