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Do Cats Kill Or Help Other Animals Survive

Written By Saturday, June 11, 2022 Add Comment Edit

Interspecies animal beliefs

Cat predation on wildlife is the issue of the natural instincts and behavior of both feral and domesticated cats to chase small prey, including wildlife. Some people view this as a desirable phenomenon, such as in the case of barn cats and other cats kept for the intended purpose of pest command; however, opposite to popular belief, there is no scientific evidence that cats are an constructive ways of rodent control, and ecologists oppose their use for this purpose because of the disproportionate damage they practise to beneficial native wild fauna. As an invasive species[one] and superpredator,[ii] they exercise considerable ecological damage.[2]

In Australia, hunting by cats helped to drive at least 20 native mammals to extinction,[three] and continues to threaten at least 124 more.[3] Their introduction has caused the extinction of at least 33 endemic species on islands throughout the world.[2] A 2013 systematic review in Nature Communications of data from 17 studies plant that feral and domestic cats kill billions of birds in the U.s.a. every year.[4]

Birds [edit]

A 2013 study by Scott R. Loss and others of the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Constitute and the U.Due south. Fish and Wildlife Service found that gratis-ranging domestic cats (by and large unowned) are the pinnacle human being-caused threat to wild animals in the U.s.a., killing an estimated 1.iii to 3.7 billion birds and 6.3 to 22.iii billion mammals annually.[4] [v] These figures were much higher than previous estimates for the U.S.[4] : 2 Unspecified species of birds native to the U.S. and mammals including mice, shrews, voles, squirrels and rabbits were considered most likely to be preyed upon by cats.[iv] : 4 Peradventure the kickoff U.South. report that pointed to predation past cats on wildlife as a concern was ornithologist Edward Howe Forbush's 1916 written report for the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture, The Domestic True cat: Bird Killer, Mouser and Destroyer of Wildlife: Means of Utilizing and Decision-making It.[6]

Island settings pose particular challenges for wildlife. A 2001 report identified cats lonely every bit responsible for the plight of some island bird species, such as the Townsend's shearwater, socorro pigeon, and the Marquesan ground dove.[7] : 400 The same report identified the greatest crusade of endangerment of birds equally habitat loss and degradation, with at to the lowest degree 52% of endangered birds affected,[vii] : 399 while introduced species on islands, such as domestic cats, rats and mustelids,[7] : 403 affected only 6% of endangered birds.[7] : 399 Other studies caution that removing domestic cats from islands can take unintended consequences, as increasing rat populations can put native bird[8] and mammal species[9] [10] at risk.

Bear on by location [edit]

Australia [edit]

Cats in Australia accept been establish to have European origins.[xi] This is important to annotation considering of their issue on native species. Feral cats in Australia have been linked to the reject and extinction of diverse native animals. They accept been shown to cause a meaning impact on ground nesting birds and small-scale native mammals.[12]

Feral cats take also hampered whatever attempts to re-introduce threatened species back into areas where they take become extinct as the cats accept hunted and killed the newly released animals.[13] Numerous Australian environmentalists claim the feral cat has been an ecological disaster in Australia, inhabiting about ecosystems except dense rainforest, and being implicated in the extinction of several marsupial and placental mammal species.[14] Some inhabitants have begun eating cat meat to mitigate the damage that wild cats practise to the local wildlife.[15]

In 2020, it was reported that a alternative of feral cats that had recently begun in Dryandra Woodland, in Western Commonwealth of australia, had caused the population of numbats to triple in number, the largest number of the endangered marsupial to have been recorded there since the 1990s.[16]

Canada [edit]

A 2013 written report estimated that between 100 and 350 one thousand thousand birds are killed annually by pet cats in Canada.[17]

Red china [edit]

Domestic cats are common throughout Cathay, and the number of pet cats in the country increased at a rate of 8.vi% from 2018 to 2019. A 2021 approximate based on a public survey estimated that outdoor cats impale "1.61–4.95 billion invertebrates, i.61–3.58 billion fishes, i.13–3.82 billion amphibians, ane.48–4.31 billion reptiles, 2.69–5.52 billion birds, and three.61–9.fourscore billion mammals" there each twelvemonth.[18] The authors recommended policies be implemented, such every bit a public educational activity initiative to encourage people to continue their cats indoors, and building more animal shelters. They also recommended that TNR programs "should be limited until rigorous, peer-reviewed studies are able to evidence that such efforts consistently achieve the sterilization rates needed to effect in stabilization and permanent reject of unowned true cat populations," as they said that most TNR programs fail to practise this.[18]

New Zealand [edit]

The creature of New Zealand has evolved in isolation for millions of years without the presence of mammals (apart from a few bat species). Consequently, birds dominated the niches occupied by mammals and many became flightless. The introduction of mammals after settlement past Māori from well-nigh the 12th century had a huge effect on ethnic biodiversity. European explorers and settlers brought cats on their ships and the presence of feral cats was recorded from the latter decades of the 19th century.[19] Information technology is estimated that feral cats have been responsible for the extinction of vi endemic bird species and over 70 localised subspecies as well as depleting bird and lizard species.[20]

South Africa [edit]

In a 2020 report, approximately 300,000 domestic cats in Cape Town impale 27.5 one thousand thousand animals a year; this equates to a cat killing xc animals per year. Cats on the urban edge of the city of Cape Town kill more than than 200,000 animals in the Tabular array Mount National Park annually. Reptiles constituted 50% of killed casualty, but only 17% of prey brought home; mammals constituted 24% of prey, but 54% of prey brought habitation. Non-native species accounted for only 6% of animals killed by cats from the urban edge, and 17% from deep urban cats.[21]

United Kingdom [edit]

Sir David Attenborough in his Christmas Day, 2013, edition of BBC Radio 4 programme Tweet Of The Day said "cats impale an extraordinarily high number of birds in British gardens".[22] Asked whether true cat owners should buy bell collars for their pets at Christmas, he replied: "that would be good for the robins, yes".[22] In the UK, the Regal Society for the Protection of Birds says in that location is no scientific testify that predation past cats is having whatsoever effect on the population of birds UK-wide.[23] Nick Forde, a trustee of the UK charity SongBird Survival, said the RSPB's merits of no evidence was disingenuous because adequate studies had not been done.[24]

In the Uk, it is mutual to allow pet cats admission to the outdoors.[25] SongBird Survival considers that "the prevailing line that 'there is no scientific evidence that predation by cats is having any impact on bird populations in United kingdom' is simply no longer tenable",[26] and that "no study has always examined the impact of cats on songbirds at the population level; bear witness shows that the recovering sparrowhawk population in the 1970-80s resulted in the turn down of some songbird populations; cats kill around 3 times every bit many songbirds as sparrowhawks; the mere presence of cats near birds' nests was constitute to decrease provision of food by a third while the resultant mobbing clamour from parent birds led in plow to increased nest predation past crows and magpies; [and that] it is therefore far more probable that cats accept an even greater impact on songbird populations than sparrowhawks".[26]

Islands [edit]

Consequences of introduction [edit]

Many islands host ecologically naive animal species. That is, animals that practise non take predator responses for dealing with predators such as cats.[27] Feral cats introduced to such islands have had a devastating impact on these islands' biodiversity.[28]

They have been implicated in the extinction of several species and local extinctions, such equally the hutias from the Caribbean, the Guadalupe storm petrel from the Pacific coast of Mexico, and Lyall'southward wren. In a statistical study, they were a significant cause for the extinction of xl% of the species studied.[28] Moors and Atkinson wrote, in 1984, "no other conflicting predator has had such a universally dissentious effect."[27]

Feral cats, along with rabbits, some sea birds, and sheep, course the entire big animal population of the remote Kerguelen Islands in the southern Indian Ocean. Although exotic mammals form the bulk of their nutrition, cats' impact on seabirds is very important.[29]

Restoration [edit]

Because of the damage cats cause in islands and some ecosystems, many conservationists working in the field of isle restoration have worked to remove feral cats. (Isle restoration involves the removal of introduced species and reintroducing native species.) As of 2004[update], 48 islands have had their feral cat populations eradicated, including New Zealand's network of offshore island bird reserves[30] and Australia'due south Macquarie Island.

Larger projects have also been undertaken, including their complete removal from Ascension Isle. The cats, introduced in the 19th century, acquired a plummet in populations of nesting seabirds. The project to remove them from the island began in 2002, and the isle was cleared of cats by 2004. Since so, seven species of seabird that had not nested on the island for 100 years accept returned.[31]

In some cases, the removal of cats had unintended consequences. An example is Macquarie Isle, where the removal of cats acquired an explosion in the number of rabbits, that started feeding of the island'due south vegetation, thus leaving the birds without protection to other predators, similar rats and other birds[32] [33] [34] even if the eradication was positioned within an integrated pest direction framework.[35] The removal of the rats and rabbits was scheduled for 2007 and it could take upwardly to 7 years and price $24 million.[36]

Mice and rats [edit]

Cats are sometimes intentionally released into urban environments on the popular assumption that they will command the rat population; merely there is niggling scientific basis for this. The reality is that cats find rats to exist big and formidable casualty, and then they preferentially hunt caught wildlife such every bit lizards and songbirds instead. Scientists and conservationists oppose the use of cats as a form of rodent command considering they are so inefficient at destroying pest species that the harm they practice to native species in the process outweighs any benefit.[37] [38] [39]

Despite this, true cat rescue groups sometimes release unadoptable feral cats into rat-infested neighborhoods nether the pretext of giving the cats "jobs" as rat command, as is being done in Chicago and Brooklyn; the cats will largely ignore the rats and instead will beg for food from people or swallow garbage and whatever small-scale wild fauna they tin catch. Jamie Childs, a public health researcher who has studied urban feral cats, told The Atlantic that he sees cats and rats peaceably eating from the same pile of garbage at the aforementioned time.[40] [41]

Cat assail outcomes [edit]

Wild fauna that are attacked by cats fare poorly, even when provided with veterinarian treatment past licensed wild fauna rehabilitators (over 70% of mammals and over eighty% of birds died in spite of treatment in one report).[42] : p. 171 Even those that had no visible injuries from the cat set on often died (55.8% of birds, 33.nine% of mammals).[42] : p. 169 Typical wild animals injuries caused past cats include cuts, degloving (the stripping off of skin), and small puncture wounds acquired by prey being gripped by the cat's teeth that are easily hidden past fur or feathers.[42] : p. 171 Systemic infection, commonly caused by Pasteurella multocida, a highly pathogenic bacterial species that's constitute naturally in true cat mouths, can kill minor animals in as little equally 15 hours.[42] : p. 171 Few other causes of injury that are commonly seen by wildlife care facilities lead to decease as rapidly[42] : p. 171 or as frequently as interaction with a true cat.[42] : p. 170

Cat owner attitudes [edit]

According to a study published by People and Nature in 2018, predation by pet cats is an ecology issue that cannot be resolved until cat owners accept that the problem exists and individually take responsibility for addressing it.[43] Surveys of cat owners find they often view the depredation of wildlife as a normal thing that cats exercise, and rarely feel an individual obligation to prevent it.[43] They may feel some level of cognitive dissonance toward the discipline, because when surveyed they're more likely than the general public to believe that cat predation isn't harmful to wildlife, despite the likelihood they take witnessed acts of predation firsthand, and in many cases have been receiving "gifts" of animal carcasses from their cats.[44] Those that express concern also often express a belief that, despite owning the animal, they have no control over what it does, or believe that they can't manage its behavior without compromising the cat'due south welfare in some way.[43] A few cat owners even take pride in the animals their cats return dwelling house, believing information technology represents the cat'south actuality or skill.[43]

See also [edit]

  • Surplus killing, biology

References [edit]

  1. ^
  2. ^ a b c Nogales, Manuel; Vidal, Eric; et al. (ane October 2013). "Feral Cats and Biodiversity Conservation: The Urgent Prioritization of Island Management" (PDF). BioScience. 63 (10): 804–810. doi:ten.1525/bio.2013.63.ten.7.
  3. ^ a b "Tackling Feral Cats and Their Impacts - Oft asked questions" (PDF). Australian Government Department of the Environment and Energy. Retrieved 12 May 2018.
  4. ^ a b c d Loss, Scott R.; Will, Tom; Marra, Peter P. (2013). "The affect of complimentary-ranging domestic cats on wildlife of the United states". Nature Communications. 4: 1396. Bibcode:2013NatCo...4.1396L. doi:10.1038/ncomms2380. PMID 23360987.
  5. ^ Morelle, Rebecca (29 Jan 2013). "Cats killing billions of animals in the US". BBC News . Retrieved 12 February 2013.
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  7. ^ a b c d Collar, N. J. (2001). Endangered Birds (PDF). Vol. ii. New York: Bookish Press. p. 400. in Encyclopedia of Biodiversity
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  10. ^ Popkin, Gerald (29 August 2013). "Feral cats help some endangered mammals survive, written report says". The Sydney Morning Herald.
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  12. ^ Dickman, Chris (May 1996). Overview of the Impacts of Feral Cats on Australian Native Fauna (PDF). The Director of National Parks and Wildlife – Australian Nature Conservation Bureau – Institute of Wildlife Inquiry. ISBN978-0-642-21379-2. Archived from the original (PDF) on iv March 2016. Retrieved 11 February 2013.
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  15. ^ Mercer, Phil (2007-09-02). "Australians cook up wild cat stew". BBC News.
  16. ^ Dobson, Johnson; Hussey, Toby. "Numbat numbers at WA's Dryandra Woodland grow equally feral true cat alternative programme kicks in". ABC. Retrieved 20 November 2020.
  17. ^ Blancher, Peter (2013-09-30). "Estimated Number of Birds Killed past House Cats (Felis catus) in Canada". Avian Conservation and Ecology. 8 (two). doi:10.5751/ACE-00557-080203. ISSN 1712-6568.
  18. ^ a b Li, Yuhan; Wan, Yue; Shen, Hua; Loss, Scott R.; Marra, Peter P.; Li, Zhongqiu (January 2021). "Estimates of wildlife killed by gratuitous-ranging cats in China". Biological Conservation. 253: 108929. doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2020.108929. ISSN 0006-3207.
  19. ^ Rex, Carolyn (1984) Immigrant Killers. Auckland: Oxford University Printing. ISBN 0-19-558121-0
  20. ^ Eason, Charles T.; Morgan, David R. & Clapperton, B. Kay (1992). Toxic bait and baiting strategies for feral cats. University of Nebraska – Lincoln: Proceedings of the Fifteenth Vertebrate Pest Conference 1992.
  21. ^ Seymour, Colleen L.; Simmons, Robert East.; Morling, Frances; George, Sharon T.; Peters, Koebraa; O'Riain, Yard. Justin (2020-09-01). "Caught on camera: The impacts of urban domestic cats on wild prey in an African city and neighbouring protected areas". Global Ecology and Conservation. 23: e01198. doi:10.1016/j.gecco.2020.e01198. ISSN 2351-9894. S2CID 225177409.
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  26. ^ a b "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2016-07-31. Retrieved 2017-03-22 . {{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived re-create every bit title (link)
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  34. ^ Draper, Michelle and La Canna, Xavier (14 January 2009) True cat kill devastates Macquarie Island. Nine News
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  36. ^ Macquarie Isle World Heritage Expanse. Programme for the Eradication of Rabbits and Rodents on Macquarie Island. Parks and Wildlife Service, Tasmania. parks.tas.gov.au
  37. ^ Kobilinsky, Dana (3 October 2018). "Rats! Feral cats fail at urban rodent control". The Wildlife Club . Retrieved 28 Feb 2020.
  38. ^ Parsons, Michael H.; Banks, Peter B.; Deutsch, Michael A.; Munshi-South, Jason (27 September 2018). "Temporal and Space-Use Changes past Rats in Response to Predation past Feral Cats in an Urban Ecosystem". Frontiers in Ecology and Development. six. doi:x.3389/fevo.2018.00146.
  39. ^ Solly, Meilan. "Cats Are Surprisingly Bad at Killing Rats". SMITHSONIANMAG.COM. Smithsonian Mag. Retrieved 28 February 2020.
  40. ^ "North Side's 47th Ward Using Feral Cats To Catch Rats", CBS Chicago, 28 June 2012.
  41. ^ "Cats Are No Match for New York City's Rats". The Atlantic. 28 September 2018.
  42. ^ a b c d east f Mcruer, Dave L.; Grey, Lincoln C.; Horne, Leigh-Ann; Clark Jr., Edward East. (21 June 2016). "Free-roaming True cat Interactions With Wildlife Admitted to a Wild animals Hospital". Journal of Wild fauna Management. 81: 163–173. doi:10.1002/jwmg.21181.
  43. ^ a b c d Crowley, Sarah 50.; Cecchetti, Martina; McDonald, Robbie A. (2019). "Hunting behaviour in domestic cats: An exploratory study of risk and responsibleness among cat owners". People and Nature. one (1): 18–thirty. doi:ten.1002/pan3.half dozen.
  44. ^ Loyd, Kerrie Ann T.; Hernandez, Sonia M. (2015). "Public Perceptions of Domestic Cats and Preferences for Feral True cat Direction in the Southeastern Us". Anthrozoös. 25 (3): 337–351. doi:ten.2752/175303712X13403555186299. S2CID 42912883. Retrieved 2 March 2021.

Farther reading [edit]

  • Marra, Peter P.; Santella, Chris (2016). True cat Wars: The Devastating Consequences of a Cuddly Killer. Princeton University Printing. ISBN978-0691167411. .
  • Spotte, Stephen (2014). Gratis-ranging Cats: Behavior, Ecology, Direction. Wiley. ISBN978-1-118-88401-0.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_predation_on_wildlife

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