Predators on the Peaks - Saving the Mountain Pygmy possum
Feral cats kill an estimated 15 billion native animals every year in Australia. More than 200 threatened species list feral cats as a major risk including one of our smallest and most vulnerable mammals, the Mountain Pygmy possum. Fewer than 2,000 remain in the wild.
For the past seven years, the North East CMA has been working with Alpine Resorts Victoria (Falls Creek and Mount Hotham) to reduce predation pressure on this critically endangered species. Our predator control program uses cage trapping and ground shooting to target feral cats and foxes with long-term cameras monitored to track trends over time.
Trail cameras capture everything from cats making fresh tracks through the snow, cats chasing Bogong moths and sometimes, unfortunately carrying small native mammals they've caught as prey. The hardest images to review are those with small native species on camera closely followed by a feral cats passing through the same spot moments later. These images remind us why this work matters.
Over the past two years alone, teams at Falls Creek and Mount Hotham have completed:
🔹 1,414 trap nights
🔹 285 km of ground shooting patrols
🔹 36 feral cats and 10 foxes removed
While complete eradication isn’t possible with new cats continually moving in from the surrounding landscape, our goal is to keep numbers as low as possible and use data to guide our actions.
A huge thank you to our project partner Alpine Resorts Victoria (Falls Creek and Mount Hotham) for their ongoing commitment to protecting this iconic alpine species.
This project is funded by the Australian Government’s Natural Heritage Trust and delivered by North East CMA.
