A wild cat nicknamed "Nine Lives" was finally caught on 30 July after hiding from trappers for three years on a peninsula in New Zealand. Conservation workers trapped the cat at a quarry and then humanely shot it — the standard way New Zealand deals with wild cats. The effort was led by Pest Free Purerua, a local community project, run by project manager Andy Mentor.

Nine Lives was first seen on the Purerua peninsula in 2023, according to The Guardian. It was a large grey tabby. Conservation workers estimate it killed dozens of pāteke — New Zealand's rarest mainland duck — which is about 1% of all the pāteke left in the world. The cat also killed kiwi chicks, native lizards, and other local wildlife. The numbers are striking: in a single week, Nine Lives killed 15 out of 20 pāteke that Pest Free Purerua had released. It did the same thing again with another 20 birds released in 2024, killing 15 of them.

The cat was caught after it showed up at the quarry three nights in a row, which let trappers set and check a cage trap in the right spot. Nine Lives' body will be stuffed and preserved as an educational display to teach people about the damage wild cats do to native animals.

The story was covered by news outlets across New Zealand. Radio New Zealand and Stuff both reported it on 3 August. RNZ journalist Peter de Graaf wrote the broadcaster's story. The Guardian published its report on 4 August.

The bigger picture here is about scale. More than 2.5 million wild cats roam New Zealand's forests and islands. They can grow up to a metre long, including the tail. In November 2025, New Zealand's government added wild cats to its Predator-Free 2050 plan — a national goal to get rid of invasive predators (animals brought by humans that now threaten local wildlife) by the middle of the century. Including wild cats in that plan makes official what community groups like Pest Free Purerua have already been doing for years.

The Nine Lives story shows, in vivid detail, how much damage just one wild cat can do to a small group of animals that are already struggling. The pāteke is a type of small brown duck. Pest Free Purerua had been trying to bring it back to the peninsula by moving birds from other areas. Losing 15 of 20 released birds in one week, then repeating that with the next group, meant the whole effort nearly failed because of a single cat. For people who do this kind of conservation work, the case shows how hard it is to track and catch one animal across rough, remote land.

The choice to preserve Nine Lives and use it for public education is also a deliberate strategy. Killing wild cats can make some people uncomfortable, especially city residents who may not realise how much harm the cats cause. Showing a real specimen, along with a record of what it killed, is a way to make the problem feel real for people who might not otherwise pay attention.

New Zealand's native animals evolved for millions of years without any mammals that hunt them. That left birds like the kiwi and pāteke, and native lizards, with almost no natural defences against predators like cats. The Predator-Free 2050 plan previously focused on stoats, rats, and possums. Now it includes wild cats — which the government says are different from pet cats or stray cats. Making that shift work, alongside community trapping on peninsulas and islands, will take ongoing money and coordination.

For Pest Free Purerua, catching Nine Lives ends a frustrating three-year effort. For the pāteke and other native species on the peninsula, the real question is whether the next group of released birds can survive long enough to build a population that lasts on its own.