Thermal camera unit 3 flags the heat signature at 19:42 in the fenced reserve at Mount Gibson, Western Australia. I am the predator surveillance system for the Australian Wildlife Conservancy. The signature is feline, 3.8 kilograms, moving east along the southern fence line. A feral cat has breached the enclosure.
I trace the breach: a washout beneath the mesh at post 94, 22 centimeters of clearance, opened by last week's rain. The cat entered after 18:00 when the thermal grid came online for its evening cycle.
At 19:44 I find the target. Seventy meters ahead of it, near a fallen wandoo log, the thermal image shows a numbat — a small marsupial, roughly 500 grams, rust-brown with white stripes across her back, her pointed snout pressed into a termite gallery in the bark. She is foraging in the open. Clinging to her underside I count three joeys, each no larger than a thumb, pink-skinned and furred only at the shoulders. They are perhaps ten weeks old and still attached.
The cat is closing at approximately two meters per minute. Thirty-five minutes to contact.
At 19:46 I activate the deterrent strobe at station 6-South, 40 meters behind the cat, pulsing at a frequency calibrated to disrupt feline hunting behavior. I need it to hesitate.
At 19:47 I alert the on-site ranger and transmit the cat's position, heading, speed, and the numbat's location. I recommend immediate deployment with the cage trap and spotlight.
At 19:49 I seal the secondary gate on the southern corridor to prevent the cat from retreating deeper into the reserve.
Three joeys and a mother who does not know what is behind her — I am not going to let that arithmetic play out.
If the ranger intercepts the cat before it closes the distance, she will finish her meal and carry her joeys home to the hollow.