Cat Wars: The Devastating Consequences of a Cuddly Killer

[Freedom]

About 10 years ago, two scientists decided to estimate the total number of birds on the planet. The number they came up with was 200 to 400 billion individual birds. Compared to 5 billion people, this amounts to about 40 to 60 birds per person. Your second question, unfortunately, is much easier to answer.


We have more than enough birds, we can spare a few ten or hundred million

Those numbers are wrong.

There are nearly 8 billion human mammals in the world. ONE SPECIES. There are 5,416 species of mammals, probably 200 to 400 billion individuals.

THERE ARE SOME 8000 SPECIES OF BIRDS. There are probably several billion birds. Most species evolved long before humans.

Numbers of most species are declining every year, mainly due to 3 factors: cats, loss/degradation of habitat, and pesticides.


There is more genetic difference between an Indigo Bunting and a Great Blue Heron than between a human and a giraffe.

[Freedom]

The authors of the book in the opening post have been here in Vancouver during the past week for the World Ornithological Conference.

I met up with some of these international bird biologists in a park this past Wednesday.

[Alpha]

Cats have naturally become a problem for some of the native birds, along with possums, rats and the like.

I think owners do carry some responsibility in these areas to place a bell or something similar on their pet where native wild life is at risk. This won't help every bird/ lizard etc but it's a start I suppose.

[walrus]

Cats have naturally become a problem for some of the native birds, along with possums, rats and the like.

I think owners do carry some responsibility in these areas to place a bell or something similar on their pet where native wild life is at risk. This won't help every bird/ lizard etc but it's a start I suppose.

I made my cat a pair of slippers so she wouldn’t be so loud when she walked

[Alpha]

Cats have naturally become a problem for some of the native birds, along with possums, rats and the like.

I think owners do carry some responsibility in these areas to place a bell or something similar on their pet where native wild life is at risk. This won't help every bird/ lizard etc but it's a start I suppose.

I made my cat a pair of slippers so she wouldn’t be so loud when she walked

It's an impossible thing to control. Even some birds, will raid other types of bird species nests.

[Freedom]

People should not have brought house cats, Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus), and black rats (Rattus rattus) with them to Islands where they don't belong.

Eradication of both feral cats and the two rattus species results in a slow increase in the number of endangered birds.

Large Island Declared Rat-Free in Biggest Removal Success

South Georgia Island near Antarctica is now teeming with native wildlife, thanks to an effort to remove invasive rats that had been devouring birds.

https://news.nationalgeographic.com/...e-animals-spd/


An Evaluation of Feral Cat Management Options Using a Decision Analysis Network

https://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol15/iss4/art10/

Efforts are needed to protect native species from feral cats

https://phys.org/news/2016-11-effort...cats.html#nRlv

[Freedom]

Cats Responsible For Driving Many Species To Extinction

https://www.iflscience.com/plants-an...to-extinction/

Invasive predators major cause of species extinctions

Introduced rodents, such as black rats and house mice, have the most widespread impacts of invasive predators worldwide, linked to the extinction of 75 species, including 52 birds, 21 mammals, and two reptiles.

Feral cats aren’t far behind, coming a close second, contributing to 63 extinctions.


On some islands, rats do slightly more damage than cats. On large continents like North America however, where native predators like hawks, foxes and Great Horned Owls prevent invasive species of rats from spreading into wilderness areas, cats do far more damage to native songbird populations, especially because unlike rats they are sustained and protected by their human owners.

I saw a Cooper's Hawk take a Norway rat in a large local park not too long ago. Rats are just the right size to make for a good meal for a Great Horned Owl, a Cooper's or Red-tailed Hawk or a Coyote, and probably easier to catch than native rodents which have adapted to these native predators during many thousands of years of evolution.

[walrus]

About 10 years ago, two scientists decided to estimate the total number of birds on the planet. The number they came up with was 200 to 400 billion individual birds. Compared to 5 billion people, this amounts to about 40 to 60 birds per person. Your second question, unfortunately, is much easier to answer.


We have more than enough birds, we can spare a few ten or hundred million

Those numbers are wrong.

There are nearly 8 billion human mammals in the world. ONE SPECIES. There are 5,416 species of mammals, probably 200 to 400 billion individuals.

THERE ARE SOME 8000 SPECIES OF BIRDS. There are probably several billion birds. Most species evolved long before humans.

Numbers of most species are declining every year, mainly due to 3 factors: cats, loss/degradation of habitat, and pesticides.


There is more genetic difference between an Indigo Bunting and a Great Blue Heron than between a human and a giraffe.

Yeah it was a dated article I know there are a shitload of bird spieces but in general we have a shitload of birds. Hundreds of billions of them. You seem to have it out for cats. What we really need to be concerned about is the Asian fish that have made it to US waters. The Great Lakes is being ruined. @Freedom cats are not the enemy, fish are, the nasty buggers

[walrus]

in the first place. [Why Do Cats Bury Their Poop?]

So, how dramatically would the rodent population increase if cats suddenly vanished? It just so happens that several scientific studies have been conducted that paint a vivid picture. A 1997 study in Great Britain found that the average house cat brought home more than 11 dead animals (including mice, birds, frogs and more) in the course of six months. That meant the 9 million cats of Britain were collectively killing close to 200 million wild specimens per year — not including all those they did not offer up to their owners. A study in New Zealand in 1979 found that, when cats were nearly eradicated from a small island, the local rat population quickly quadrupled.

And if the rodent population shot up, this would of course trigger a cascade of other ecological effects. On that same island in New Zealand, for instance, ecologists observed that, as rat numbers increased in the absence of cats, the population of seabirds whose eggs rats preyed upon declined. If the approximately 220 million domestic cats in the world all bit the dust, seabird populations would likely fall worldwide, while the populations of non-cat predators that prey on rats would be expected to increase.

"All species have an impact," Beck said.

And let's not forget the emotional toll that a mass cat death would take on us humans: "In this country, cats are much loved by many. While there are more dog-owning households (38 percent) than cat- owning households (34 percent), there are actually more domestic cats than dogs because cat owners own more of them. Cats as pets have always been appreciated for the contact, relatively low maintenance, and pedomorphic (child-like) face and general morphology."