In 1951, France released two cats on Kerguelen Island to control rodents and their Feral population reached about 7,000 and began hunting Albatross chicks

In 1951, two cats from mainland France were brought to Port-aux-Français on the remote Kerguelen Islands to help control rodents around the newly established research station. The plan was practical, but the cats were not under human care for long. They escaped, survived in the wild and began reproducing across Grande Terre, the archipelago's main island. Two more cats, from Madagascar and South Africa, were brought in five years later. By 1998–2000, researchers estimated that around 7,000 feral cats were living across Grande Terre. The French Southern and Antarctic Lands administration now identifies feral cats as one of the major threats to wildlife on Kerguelen.

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