A new feral cat management device that uses lasers to detect the shape and movements of cats has been deployed in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands.

Dubbed the Felixer, the machine has been specially designed to help reduce the number of large feral cats that live in far north-west South Australia.

University of South Australia ecologist John Read helped develop the machine, which shoots toxic gel at cats walking past.

"Cats are very fastidious about grooming and they'll lick that off and go away and get poisoned," Dr Read said.

"We've found from lots of studies over the past 20 to 30 years that cats are mainly hunters and they don't often take bait and they're hard to trap.

"By squirting poison onto their fur, rather than throwing baits around, it's a more targeted way of getting feral cats."

Sensors detect cats

One of the main concerns about deploying a machine like the Felixer is the possibility of the machine incorrectly shooting a native animal.

But Dr Read was assured that would not happen.

"We've got some activation sensors which detect a cat's rump and its shoulder," he said.

"The animal's got to be that high in order to activate them, so shorter animals like rabbits or lizards or bilbies [and] other native animals are too short.

"There's also some blocking sensors, so there's a blocking sensor at about our knee height, which is high enough that dingos, kangaroos, people, will automatically block the machine.

"If that blocking sensor is activated, the whole machine shuts down for at least a minute.

Dr Read said cats had a higher "belly clearance" than native animals — another feature that distinguished the species.

Protecting endangered species

Local Anangu men Isaac, Quentin and Sherada with a Felixer at Wamitjara. ( Submitted: John Read )

The Felixer was deployed in the APY Lands because feral cats were a threat to the critically endangered black-footed wallaby, or warru.

APY Lands general manager Richard King said that was because of the sheer size of some outback feral cats.

"The cats are not like your normal cats that you have at home," he said.

"These cats are about 35 per cent bigger, and basically the meanest type of cat that you can get, almost like a bobcat."

Mr King said warru were on the brink of extinction, making it important they were protected.

Dr Read agreed.

"In the last two years alone, we've detected five different cats that have killed warru," he said.

"Warru only get to about three to five kilos in size and feral cats can easily get to four or five kilos, so they're a significant predator."

Dr Read said Felixers had been deployed throughout the APY Lands, including at Wamitjara, a habitat for warru.

Getting the locals involved

Mr King said as well as protecting the endangered warru, the Felixer was helping local Indigenous communities in the APY Lands learn new skills.

Aboriginal people work as rangers in the APY Lands national parks, and it will be their responsibility to refill the Felixer's gel cartridges when they run out.

The mountains at Wamitjara in the APY Lands are a habitat for warru. ( Submitted: Brett Backhouse )

"The warru enclosure, where we're breeding up warru, we have quite a few rangers in there that look after the traps, do weighing, monitor," Mr King said.

"All the charging, the battery charging, is done by all of our Anangu staff.

"The poisons are loaded by them and they work with the ecologist to get out there and make sure everything's working well."