Touchy subject today. First of all, I do not hate cats.
We just lost this sweet 24-year old tabby we had been fostering for three years (Not a misprint -- she was 24 years old). We miss her desperately. But, when it comes to prey and predators, the Sylvester chasing Tweety behavior can't be ignored. Cats kill millions of birds each year (again, not a misprint -- "millions").
In a recent New York Times article (March 20, 2011), Elisabeth Rosenthal reported on predation of birds by cats. Here's an excerpt:
"A new study in The Journal of Ornithology on the mortality of baby gray catbirds in the Washington suburbs found that cats were the No. 1 killer in the area, by a large margin.
Nearly 80 percent of the birds were killed by predators, and cats were responsible for 47 percent of those deaths, according to the researchers, from the Smithsonian Institution and Towson University in Maryland. Death rates were particularly high in neighborhoods with large cat populations.
Predation was so serious in some areas that the catbirds could not replace their numbers for the next generation, according to the researchers, who affixed tiny radio transmitters to the birds to follow them. It is the first scientific study to calculate what fraction of bird deaths during the vulnerable fledgling stage can be attributed to cats.
“Cats are way up there in terms of threats to birds — they are a formidable force in driving out native species,” said Peter Marra of the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, one of the authors of the study.
The American Bird Conservancy estimates that up to 500 million birds are killed each year by cats — about half by pets and half by feral felines.
This is not "nature taking its course" as I hear people say. There is nothing natural about a domestic cat. Cats were introduced to North America by European colonists. Scientists consider them an invasive species. That doesn't mean that my wife and I won't ever have another cat. We very well may, but it will be an indoor-only cat.
What can you do? It goes without saying (but I'm going to anyway) -- spay or neuter your cat. Also, support organized efforts to trap, spay and neuter feral cats. Finally, please keep your cat indoors as much as possible.
Up next: Birds vs. lawn and garden chemicals.
2 comments:
I agree about cats. As much as I love them ( I have Karla's 2 now), they need to be indoors or outside with a constant watch. But occasionally, the birds win. I had a front row view watching Tinkerbell try to leap at a catbird who was having fun with the cat. The bird flew out of the way with plenty of time and the cat dove into the pool. Needless to say Tink leaves the catbirds alone now lol.
Post a Comment