Like many involved in the Mortlock Connections project, Wheatbelt Landholders are passionate about rehabilitating their rural lifestyle.

Landholders from Dukin are revegetating their block as well as removing weeds and feral animals as part of their participation in the Mortlock Connections project. With their closest neighbours living over 3km away, as the crow flies, they enjoy spending all the time they can looking after their patch. Over the past ten months, they have been making a dent in their local population of foxes, feral cats and rabbits.  So far they have captured and euthanased 8 foxes and 7 feral cats.

In May this year, they set a cage trap on their property and much to their surprise captured this whopping 13kg tomcat. 

Feral cats are generally considerably smaller than domestic cats because they live a lot rougher than their domestic counterparts do. The average adult male feral cat is 6.5kg, making this guy a true heavy weight.  There are records from across Australia of feral cats making it to 12-15kg, but it is not common. The landholder believes they had seen the footprints of this cat around and had assumed they were from a fox, due to the size. 

An animal of this size would require a great deal of food to keep him satisfied and would have made quite an impact on the local wildlife population.