New minister committed to eliminating feral cats on Kangaroo Island
The next phase of a world-leading feral cat eradication program is now underway on Kangaroo Island’s Dudley Peninsula. The Malinauskas Labor Government has delivered its election commitment to provide $800,000 towards the next stage of the highly successful program, which will be the largest winter trapping and control effort to date.
Delivered by the Kangaroo Island Landscape Board, the effort aims to remove more than 95 per cent of the remaining feral cat population across the eradication zone, with more than 800 traps opened across the Dudley Peninsula and west of the feral cat exclusion fence.
The program has also been supported by $1.61 million from the federal government in December 2025.
Feral cats are a major threat to native wildlife, including beach-nesting birds, reptiles, small mammals and other species.
They prey on threatened species such as the Kangaroo Island dunnart and southern brown bandicoot.
They also pose a risk to Kangaroo Island’s sheep industry through their role as carriers of diseases and parasites that can affect livestock, including toxoplasmosis.
Reducing feral cat numbers helps protect both biodiversity and farm productivity.
With landholders’ permission, the team uses specialist control tools and techniques, including soft-jaw leg-hold traps, thermal technology and detection dogs.
The program is also using about 280 4G-enabled remote cameras, which provide near real-time detections to guide field operations.
Thermal drones, vehicle-mounted thermal optics, ground-based thermal scopes and trained feral cat detection dogs are being used to find cats that avoid standard traps.
The program has already significantly reduced feral cat activity across the Dudley Peninsula, with the 2024 intensive winter effort reducing cat detections by 67 per cent.
Over the January to September 2025 control period, the team removed 196 feral cats.
Since the beginning of 2026, a further 90 feral cats have been removed, including 70 from the Dudley Peninsula and 20 west of the feral cat exclusion fence toward Muston, Florance and American River roads.
Minister for Climate, Environment and Water Emily Bourke said the state government was proud to support the KI Landscape Board’s work to protect the Dudley Peninsula’s unique native wildlife, farming businesses and future biosecurity.
“We haven’t wasted any time in delivering on this election promise, which allows one of the most important stages of the program to get underway, ensuring that this nationally significant program is on track to succeed,” she said.
“Once complete, the Dudley Peninsula will become the largest human-inhabited feral cat-free area in the world, which is an extraordinary conservation goal for South Australia.”
Member for Mawson, Jenni Mitton said the hard work, dedication and commitment to this world-leading program had made a significant difference on the Dudley Peninsula in recent years.
“The next stage of the program aims to see the Dudley Peninsula become the largest feral cat free island haven in the world, providing protection for critically endangered wildlife unique to Kangaroo Island,” she said.
Dudley Peninsula Feral Cat Eradication Program project leader, Paul Jennings said the funding from the state government had been critical in resourcing the 2026 knockdown phase before the program moves into mop-up and monitoring to confirm eradication success.
“The last remaining cats are always the hardest to find − that is why this program is combining specialist eradication skills with the latest tools and technology available,” he said.
“I would like to thank landholders across the Dudley Peninsula for their continued trust and support.
“Our team is very aware of the privilege of being trusted to access private properties, this is not something we take lightly, and every time our team enters a property, we follow strict biosecurity protocols and work respectfully around farming operations, livestock and property infrastructure.”
Jack Gough, Invasive Species Council chief executive said the KI project was exactly the kind of ambitious, practical feral cat action Australia needed more of.
“The Dudley Peninsula program shows what is possible when governments, landholders and communities back skilled eradication teams with the funding and tools they need,” he said.
“Once complete, this will be the largest successful feral cat eradication on a populated island anywhere in the world – and that’s a huge deal for Australia and globally.”
