Abstract:
Cats on Marion Island. This was with M38, 1981/82 and seem they were the very last of the pet cats kept at Marion Island since 1948. Marthan Bester has written: Petrus van Rensburg and I kept 2 cats up in the Mammal Lab in the summer of 1981/82, to test the cat exclosures. We became quite attached to them, but put them down before the ship arrived for the 1982 March/April takeover. The two cats (I have pictures) were perfectly tame, and when we went hunting in the evenings, we had to chase them back to the lab! So they roamed around and in the lab, but were happy to be inside. They would always come to us when called (Gooks & Slet). Petrus van Rensburg wrote: I caught them as very small kittens. They [had] just started to wandering outside the den. They did put up a fight when I caught them but calmed down quickly. Back at the lab they had started already to purr. Yes, they were very tame and it is a pity we couldn't bring them back to SA just for a Marion strain of domestic cats! Anyhow, the policy didn't allowed it.
