Project Eden

As I may have mentioned before, the entire peninsula containing Monkey Mia, Denham, Francois Peron and other places has been set aside as a special wildlife refuge. The aim here is to rid the entire area of all feral animals with a  high-security vermin fence and to reintroduce species made locally extinct by habitat degradation and predation by feral cats and foxes.

With the sheep now gone, and a comprehensive baiting program having all but eliminated the fox population, the land is slowly regenerating, and the reintroduced species are starting to take hold. The one remaining serious problem is the feral cats and rabbits. The rabbits will never be eliminated by trapping, and so the main method is disease. The number of rabbits we have seen in the couple of days we have spent in the area shows there is still a long way to go. While the rabbits remain, they become the staple diet for the cats in the area, and so maintain the cat population. The cats are harder to control because they will not take baits. There is still a way to go here.

Here are some of the animals benefitting from Project Eden, as it has been dubbed.