This year, the symposium's field trip will focus on the tools, methods and activities that make up the Kangaroo Island Landscape Board's (KILB) Feral Cat Eradication Program, the most extensive program of its type in the southern hemisphere.

KILB's Feral Cat Eradication team are implementing improved trapping techniques and the latest technology to eliminate cats from the Dudley Peninsula.

KILB has introduced a new suite of cutting-edge technology to eradicate feral cats from the Dudley Peninsula, including artificial intelligence (AI) for image recognition, geospatial technology for real-time trap checking, over 600 traps linked to a 4G network which allows images to be sent for AI process in near real-time, thermal optics, and drones as part of a targeted shooting program to eliminate feral cats.

KILB spent the summer months installing more cage traps with improved monitoring, which alerts the team when a trap is triggered. This technology has increased the program's efficiency by more than 70%, as only triggered traps need to be checked, allowing the team to open more traps, cover much larger areas with less staff, and focus on using other specialist control tools to remove harder-to-trap feral cats.

Trapping will continue until mid to late spring when temperatures warm and cage traps become less effective.

The team will then change the focus to applying tools and techniques that are more effective during the warmer months, including soft jaw leg hold traps, Felixer grooming traps, specially trained cat detection dogs and a targeted shooting program using drones and thermal optics at night to detect cats.

The KILB are also working with more than 30 Dudley landholders participating in an Agriculture Kangaroo Island-supported community trapping program during the productive winter period.

This year, KILB has set up a 'Feline Hotline' for Dudley Peninsula residents to 'Call in a Cat' on 0459 952 830.

Rapid reporting from residents on the Dudley Peninsula allows the team to target cats using various tools.