Talk about an inflammatory headline (and yes I know it is the Daily Mail). Still, here's the original study site. In additional to asking for cats that DO and DON'T hunt, they're also asking participants in the study to change the diet of the cats. I can only assume it is to check if it affects what they hunt and how much they hunt. It is a very small number of cats though and one wonders how representative it would be.
It's also disturbing to read about the declining house sparrow population - and how there is a mention of how cats may be contributing. I recently spotted some bluebirds in my garden and from some of the reading I've been doing, house sparrows are the bane of the universe. House sparrows have been known apparently to destroy bluebird eggs and to kill adult bluebirds sitting on nests. It's interesting how in some countries they seem to proliferate (they aren't even a native bird in the US), and in others they are dying out. Also interesting are the reasons some believe that house sparrows are declining in the first place. All else being equal, cats have always been around - but our encroachment on their natural habitat is not.
9 comments:
You cannot control what is "nature" esp when 'wildlife' is close to urban development.
Even if you are able to remove cats, there are other predators - rats will destroy birds' eggs.
Good point!
Stupid sensationalism. This can go two ways. Either A)They find evidence that cats are not responsible for wildlife decline as previously thought, or B)The results of the study are used to propagate an anti-cat agenda. Here's hoping for the former.
It has been suggested that urbanization is the main cause of biodiversity loss in most cases. Through destruction of natural habitats and the creation of artificial man-made environments, we have created the perfect conditions for introduced species (eg.cats, rats pigeons etc) to thrive while creating conditions hostile to wildlife. Haven't you noticed how densely forested areas have more native wild birds while hardly any introduced animals? At the end of the day human activity is the root cause of most conservation problems. There's an elephant in the room, and it's getting bigger by the day.
That is a good article Anonymous 7.07pm.
Yes it is - plus I worry that even if the results do show (A) that it will somehow be sensationalised. So far, the cats seem to have brought back mainly mice and rats - so how did sparrows come into the equation?
At any rate the study is very small - 250 or so cats. It also doesn't account for the fact for example that the cat may have picked up a dead animal and brought it home. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I found a dead bird under my tree once - no visible marks I could see or anything. By the next day it was gone - something had probably carried it off.
Arrgh, they must have watches too much cartune Sylvester and Tweety!
Cats are a NON NATIVE PREDATOR!!!
Why is it ok to allow them to roam and kill freely? Why is it ok to let a predator out of your house to do as it pleases all day? People need to take responsibility for their pets! They not only kill millions of birds (both NATIVE and non native species), but they also kill millions of native mammals, reptiles and amphibians. Why is that considered alright? Please help me to understand where the logic comes from?
Anonymous - there is a large difference between a pet and a feral cat. The latter is not a pet. I agree that pets should be kept indoors - but what about feral cats that live outdoors?
Also, where is the evidence that cats kill millions of animals? These numbers are bandied around without any evidence or studies to substantiate them.
In fact, some of the birds whose numbers are decreasing are known to be high flying birds - which cats cannot get to.
I have a question to pose back to you - is it then okay (or 'natural') if say a hawk kills chickadee? Is the difference in that they are 'non-native'? How far back do we want to go to define native because in that case, I think people would not make the cut - and we are the main reason that is causing declines in populations of ALL animals.
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