Kereru © James Allan
19th December 2025
In a significant development for biodiversity protection across Aotearoa New Zealand, feral cats have now been officially added to the Predator Free 2050 strategy, joining rats, stoats, and possums as target species. The Whakatipu Wildlife Trust submitted in support of this change, and we’re delighted to see this recognition of the serious threat feral cats pose to our native wildlife.
We know many in our trapping community are keen to get out there and start targeting feral cats straight away – and we absolutely understand that enthusiasm! However, this doesn’t mean community trapping groups will suddenly be targeting feral cats across the Whakatipu. We need to take a careful, step-by-step approach, and be very clear about what this change means locally, and what it doesn’t mean.
An essential part of this conversation is understanding that not all cats are the same. There are three distinct categories:
Companion (owned) cats live with their families and rely on humans for their care. These are the cats we love and share our homes with.
Stray cats are unowned or semi-owned cats with varying levels of human interaction. They often live close to people and may have some of their needs indirectly supplied by humans, for example they may be fed by well-meaning people, or scavenge from our rubbish.
Feral cats are completely independent, unsocialised, and have no relationship with or dependence on humans. They live in remote areas – farmland, braided rivers, forests, reserves, national parks, and even in subalpine and alpine environments. They are 100% self-reliant and must hunt to survive. These are the cats that are now part of the PF2050 strategy.
All cats in New Zealand are technically domestic (descendants of domestic cats), but feral cats behave as apex predators in our environment, with no other natural predators controlling their numbers to keep them in balance. With an estimated 2.5 million feral cats across New Zealand and numbers growing, their impact on our native wildlife is devastating.
Our native wildlife evolved without land-based mammalian predators and has no defences against cat predation. Recent examples show just how urgent this issue is: a single feral cat wiped out 87 of 95 black-fronted tern nests in a weekend on the Clarence River in Canterbury last December. Feral cats were responsible for one in five monitored kea deaths in Arthur’s Pass between 2019 and 2021. One cat in Central Otago was found to have eaten 28 native lizards in a single feeding.
Here in the Whakatipu, trail camera monitoring by Southern Lakes Sanctuary shows a significant and increasing feral cat population, even in remote areas. With takahē now released and breeding in the area and threatened ground-nesting birds like black-fronted terns and banded dotterels on the Lower Shotover River, uncontrolled feral cats undermine all our restoration efforts.
WWT has supported the inclusion of feral cats in the PF2050 strategy, as we believe their inclusion will result in more funding, innovation and research towards humane and targeted solutions for feral cats. It would also set a clear policy direction for ORC and QLDC, giving more motivation for them to create a local cat management strategy. WWT has been working with QLDC to develop a cat management plan for our district, submitting in favour of a cat management bylaw, and bringing together conservation groups, vets and cat rescue groups to discuss the issue.
While we wholeheartedly support the inclusion of feral cats in the Predator Free 2050 strategy, implementing this locally requires careful planning and coordination. Many WWT community traplines are close to residential areas, making them inappropriate for lethal feral cat control due to the risk to pet cats. A single companion cat accidentally harmed would significantly damage our credibility and community support – something we take very seriously.
Feral cats are also extremely difficult to trap, often requiring live capture techniques and firearm use that is beyond the scope of most community trapping groups. When feral cat control gets underway, it should be strategic targeting of feral cats in areas of high biodiversity value, particularly at critical times – such as native forests, significant lizard habitats, or where endangered birds are ground nesting on our river beds and wetlands – and with community consultation and communication.
In early 2026, we’re convening a meeting with stakeholders including local conservation groups, DOC, QLDC, and Otago Regional Council to discuss how to proceed with feral cat management locally, coordinate community communications, create guidelines for community trapping groups, and identify strategic priorities and locations.
We want to acknowledge the valuable work our local cat rescue organisations do, bringing feral and stray kittens in from the cold and into loving homes. These groups are already under pressure with the number of kittens needing care. Their work trapping feral and stray kittens in peri-urban areas and finding them homes is an important part of reducing cat overpopulation and preventing more cats from entering the feral population.
The growth of stray and feral cat populations is directly linked to uncontrolled breeding of companion cats. This is where all of us can make a real difference.
The Whakatipu Wildlife Trust supports responsible companion cat ownership, which includes:
We’re also continuing to advocate for a QLDC cat management bylaw to require microchipping and desexing of companion cats, which will help protect both cat welfare and native biodiversity.
The addition of feral cats to Predator Free 2050 is an important step forward, but it’s not a quick solution. This is a long-term commitment that requires sustained effort, collaboration, and careful planning.
We’re taking a measured, thoughtful approach that prioritises:
We’ll keep you updated as our stakeholder discussions progress and local plans develop. In the meantime, if you’re a cat owner, the best thing you can do to protect both your cat and nature is to ensure your cat is microchipped, desexed, and kept safe and happy at home.
If you are a community trapper and are seeing feral cats in your area, let us know! The better we understand where feral cats are a problem, the better we can plan for their management.
Together, we can protect both the cats we love and the native wildlife we’re working so hard to restore.
Want to learn more about responsible cat ownership? Visit the SPCA’s guide on keeping cats safe and happy at home: www.spca.nz/advice-and-welfare/article/keeping-your-cat-safe-and-happy-at-home
Questions or concerns? Contact us at hello@whakatipuwildlifetrust.org.nz
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Tags: feral cats