Felicitous felicide

MOST Australians have heard of wombats, but few could place the numbat. Both marsupials are among 315 mammal species that roamed Australia at the time of the first European settlement in the late 18th century. The wombat has thrived. The smaller numbat, once widespread, clings on in only a few colonies in Western Australia. There it is listed as endangered, because of predation by feral cats. At least it survives. Australia has one of the world’s highest rates of mammal extinctions—29 have been recorded over more than two centuries. Feral cats are reckoned to be culprits in 27 of those disappearances: among them the desert bandicoot, the crescent nailtail wallaby and the large-eared hopping mouse.

Cats probably arrived in Australia on British ships carrying convicts. Unlike the convicts, their descendants have grown wilder and more menacing. The feral-cat population today is estimated at between 4m and 20m, most of them prowling outback habitats. They are often huge, weighing 15 kilograms. And they eat perhaps 75m Australian animals a day.