Marion Island – According to an article by John Yeld (Sunday Argus, 27 March, 2011), feral cats are responsible for destroying the environment on Marion Island. Although it has been described as “South Africa’s most successful large-scale conservation project,” the eradication of thousands of feral cats from Marion Island came at a huge cost. It took more than 30 years of protracted effort using a variety of inhumane methods including the introduction of viruses, poisoning, the use of dogs and finally hunting teams with semi-automatic shotguns to kill off the cats.