Island resident employs unexpected tactic to fight back against dangerous predators: 'Harder than anything else I've done, purely because of how smart they are'

An Aussie man has teamed up with canine partners to gain the edge in his fight against feral cats, disease-spreading invasive predators on Kangaroo Island's Dudley Peninsula. 

As detailed by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Paul Jennings will deploy bluetick coonhounds to track and eliminate the feral cats.

Unfortunately, the cats' ability to transmit diseases and parasites has threatened Kangaroo Island's lucrative sheep and lamb livestock industry, which accounted for 62% of the island's total gross value in agriculture in 2015 and 2016, according to the University of Adelaide. 

The cats have also endangered the protective natural balance of the ecosystem by wreaking havoc on native species, raising fears about the future of the island's multimillion-dollar wildlife tourism economy, as the Department for Environment and Water notes.

"We know that feral cats predate on over 50 native species on Kangaroo Island," Jennings told the ABC. "For me the choice is clear, we need to remove cats from this island to allow our wildlife to recover and flourish." 

While individuals can take action to limit the impact of invasive species by choosing native plants for yards, getting rid of feral cats on Kangaroo Island has been a major undertaking.   

In recent years, Jennings has spearheaded what he called the world's largest feral cat eradication program on the island, and with scientific modeling suggesting only 100 to 200 remain, he believes his team could eliminate 95% of them by the end of Australia's winter in August. 

After training and catching 100 feral cats at the farm of Kangaroo Island Mayor Michael Pengilly, the bluetick coonhounds are ready to assist with efforts for the first time ever after Jennings learned to interpret their body language and unique barks. 

"I think it's a brilliant concept," Pengilly told the ABC. "Paul's got them trained so that they only chase and find cats." 

The hounds, a species of hunting dog bred in the United States, will wear GPS collars so Jennings can keep track of where they are, providing a boost to the program's system of sensor-fitted traps that have helped cut search times for cats in half. 

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Thanks to these developments, Jennings believes he has most of what he needs to control the feral cats on the Dudley Peninsula and expand the program. 

"Cats are hard … 100 times harder than anything else I've done, purely because of how smart they are," he told the ABC before pointing to the need for funding to finish the job, which has received around $7 million and is asking for another $6.2 million. 

"It comes down to money, money to finish it. That's the huge one," he added. 

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