Nine Lives, the feral cat that terrorised New Zealand’s rare ducks, is caught after three years

Large tabby cat that wiped out dozens of rare pāteke, or brown teal, has been killed after eluding trappers with its ‘very erratic’ behaviour A notorious feral cat given the name “Nine Lives” because it eluded trappers for three years has been caught and killed in New Zealand , ending its devastating rampage against one of the country’s rare duck populations. The cat, a large grey tabby, is estimated to have killed dozens of New Zealand’s rarest mainland duck – or 1% of its population – plus a host of kiwi chicks, native geckos and other native wildlife during the three years it was known to be roaming the Purerua peninsula, near the top of the North Island. “We don’t take for granted that we’ve had this success because it had us baffled for so long,” said Andy Mentor, the project manager for Pest Free Purerua, a conservation project. New Zealand has one of the highest rates of cat ownership in the world, and the impact of feral and domestic cats on biodiversity ignites fierce debate. So it was humanely shot,” Mentor said.

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