There were no cats in Australia until they were brought there by European colonists in the 18th century. Cats, which were originally just pets, have become the most troublesome invasive alien species in Australia over time. About 3 billion animals become the prey of wild cats every year.

Emma Spencer, a researcher from the University of Sydney, installed multiple cameras in the Ethabuka Nature Reserve in the Simpson Desert in northwestern Queensland, Australia, to study the decomposition process of animal carcasses. As a result, while arranging the cameras, I discovered that I accidentally photographed a wild cat the size of a small wild dog, holding a freshly killed one in its mouth.

Tips: The sand monitor lizard (scientific name: Varanusgouldii) is distributed throughout Australia, with a larger number in the arid areas of the west. It is a medium-sized carnivorous monitor lizard and is not good at climbing trees. Its adult body length is 1-1.2 meters, and its weight is generally more than 3 kilograms.

Feral cats kill billions of native Australian animals each year, and while they typically target small mammals, they may also hunt reptiles during the warmer months. What surprised Spencer the most was: "

In addition, when sorting out the cameras, it was also found that large wild cats are becoming more and more common.

Although the images are somewhat shocking, Matthew Gentle, chief scientist of biosecurity in Queensland, said that this is not uncommon, but a bit abnormal. The team he led found a similar phenomenon through research on wild cats, and wild cats will be killed. The dead wallaby is dragged backwards to feed its offspring. In 2018, a wild cat was also photographed dragging away or eating a kangaroo carcass weighing about 30 kilograms.

Generally speaking, crows and wedge-tailed eagles are the main scavengers in the area, and even the dominant dingoes in the food chain rarely see scavenging behavior. However, it is a bit unimaginable that wild cats show scavenging behavior.

Many studies have shown that Australia’s wild cats have caused irreversible damage to the Australian ecology. There are currently 5.6 million wild cats covering almost every corner of Australia. Since 1788, wild cats have played a leading role in 34 species of extinct mammals in Australia. This is also the main reason why at least 123 native species are endangered.

Australia has now passed. Methods such as "shooting, releasing poisonous meat, and trapping and euthanizing" have been used to control the number of wild cats, but the results are quite limited. Because wild cats have no fixed time and location, if poisonous food is released, some native animals that need to be protected may not be poisoned. Later, Australia built a 44-kilometer "anti-cat wall" to put some extremely endangered wild animals in. How effective it is remains to be tested