G'day guys,
I was halfway through typing a post, correcting mistakes and myths that people have made in this thread. It was growing to be quite a large post, so I scrapped it and decided I wouldsummarise a few things.
1 - People do not feed knobtail geckoes/blue tongues etc to our animals because they are native, they are protected, they do not cause any unnatural destruction to wildlife populations, they are expensive, they offer no benefits over rodent/mammalian prey, and finally - it's illegal!
2 - To those people trying to downplay the negative effects of feral cats in Australia, please take the time to research some facts, rather than relying on presumptions and emotion. It is estimated that two and seven BILLION native animals are killed each year by feral cats, and that is a very conservative estimate. Also, that estimate is just feral cats, it doesn't include the moggy down the road with the bell around its neck and the naive owners who swear their cat doesn't hunt. ALL cats hunt, regardless of age/size/breed/training, it is instinct. They are, if I remember correctly, the second biggest killer of native wildlife outside of habitat destruction.
Some links -
http://www.feralcat.com/sarah1.html
http://www.reptilesdownunder.com/articles/facade/
There was also a paper by Hal Cogger that was really informative, but I can't seem to find it.
Sorry if I come across as harsh in this post, it isn't my intention, however this subject is something I am passionate about, as should anyone who has an interest in native wildlife. The best thing for Aussie animals at this point (besides totally bannings feral animals as pets), is a permit system for cats and dogs, the removal of them from pet shops, and a law brought in to make the possession of undesexed cats/dogs illegal, outside of a few (read - very few!) registered breeders. This, coupled with more biological control research into feral animals, would be the biggest turning point for wildlife populations.
Cheers
Jonno