> On average, 83% of captures were consumed by the cats (88% of invertebrates, 79% of reptiles and amphibians, 78% of mammals and 50% of birds) and the remaining items were left at the site of predation.
Most times I've seen mammals eating other mammals, they consistently leave behind what looks like the stomach and maybe some guts. Often it's very cleanly removed, and piled with other inedible bits like tails and paws
> Cats have been a driving factor in the extinction of most of the 34 mammals that have gone extinct in Australia
I wonder, how many mammals have gone extinct due to humans being the biggest driving factor? A quick search turns up:
"[Australia lost] 50 animal and 60 plant species in the past 200 years [with] the highest rate of mammalian extinction in the world over that period" [0]
According to the same article, main pressures faced by native plants and animals are:
- Habitat loss and degradation
- Climate change
- Land use practices
- Invasive plant and animal species
I suppose the "trapping, shooting, and even dropping poisoned sausages" to kill feral cats are aiming to address this last point.
As a cat lover, it hurts to hear this - but I also understand that 2 million feral cats can ravage the local ecology..
This article reads like a hit propaganda piece to eradicate cats that paints the feline as the villain.
Australia has been on cat-killing binge lately, and writing like that aims to justify it.[1]
In reality, the undisputed #1 threat to all wildlife is human activity — in particular, loss of habitat due to construction.
Now, wildlife activists have reasons to be pissed. But it's way easier to kill a million cats (yes, literally) than to maybe rethink construction.
So guess which is done.
This also applies to Bay Area, where Google forced a volunteer-run TNR program, gCat rescue, to shut down, ostensibly to help burrowing owls[2]. #1 reason for owls' decline? Loss of habitat.[3] Google's next step? Massive construction.[4]
And while the volunteer-run gCat was criticized in NYT as a threat to the owls, it's all crickets when it comes to construction.
Kinda odd how the article mentions'Trap Neuter Return' controversy in the USA in an article about Australia. Is TNR a thing in Australia? The article doesn't say.
In some places it's 'no big deal' if cats kill birds (sorry bird fans) but in places where feral cats would interact with threatened native species (ie. Australia/NZ) that's obviously a different story.
I was surprised last time I was in hyper bird protective NZ to see a big fat cat lounging in the sun outside, while dogs are banned in so many places there due to fears of their interactions with flightless birds.
I would support a ban against keeping cats as pets in Australia (and eventually their complete eradication from the continent).
I don't think I am about to get my way anytime soon though so I applaud those people with pet cats who keep them inside 100% of the time. I also applaud cat microchipping and registration controls that are increasingly being rolled out and enforced.
100% inside is not great description. Contained is better. I've got a secured garden that the cats can go to, but can't get out of. I've never seen a bird killed there (compared to >1 a month with unrestricted cats).
Anyway, my point is that we're likely after contained cats than inside cats. It gives them more fun and makes the house cleaner as well.
Can we just eradicate all foreign comers in the last 200 years from Australia? Perhaps one of the worst losses in Australia has been the near extermination of the native human population by a vigorously violent outside group of humans (who also were the ones that brought along the cats).
Note: this comes from an animal lover (and sure, I have a soft spot for cats) who finds flippant regards like "their complete eradication from the continent".
Nothing should ever be considered for eradication. The lazy solution is to eradicate. The hard solution is to "empathize" (i.e. study the 'problematic' component within a complex system) and figure out how to create a new space for it within the system/reconfigure the system around it.
Cats once had a function in pest control. These days, we're keeping cats solely for our pleasure. We can be the ones to not keep them anymore.
I find that people who lock cats inside don't empathize with them much. And those who let them roam don't empathize much with wildlife. The best system may be the one where cats are not considered pets anymore.
Readit News
Oddly, the abstract linked from that quote doesn't say that, but says:
> Eighty-three percent of kills occurred between dusk and dawn.
Though it wouldn't be surprising if they didn't fully consume every kill. Sometimes I don't clean my plate at restaurants, either.
> On average, 83% of captures were consumed by the cats (88% of invertebrates, 79% of reptiles and amphibians, 78% of mammals and 50% of birds) and the remaining items were left at the site of predation.
I wonder, how many mammals have gone extinct due to humans being the biggest driving factor? A quick search turns up:
"[Australia lost] 50 animal and 60 plant species in the past 200 years [with] the highest rate of mammalian extinction in the world over that period" [0]
According to the same article, main pressures faced by native plants and animals are:
- Habitat loss and degradation
- Climate change
- Land use practices
- Invasive plant and animal species
I suppose the "trapping, shooting, and even dropping poisoned sausages" to kill feral cats are aiming to address this last point.
As a cat lover, it hurts to hear this - but I also understand that 2 million feral cats can ravage the local ecology..
---
[0] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/feb/13/a-nation...
Australia has been on cat-killing binge lately, and writing like that aims to justify it.[1]
In reality, the undisputed #1 threat to all wildlife is human activity — in particular, loss of habitat due to construction.
Now, wildlife activists have reasons to be pissed. But it's way easier to kill a million cats (yes, literally) than to maybe rethink construction.
So guess which is done.
This also applies to Bay Area, where Google forced a volunteer-run TNR program, gCat rescue, to shut down, ostensibly to help burrowing owls[2]. #1 reason for owls' decline? Loss of habitat.[3] Google's next step? Massive construction.[4]
And while the volunteer-run gCat was criticized in NYT as a threat to the owls, it's all crickets when it comes to construction.
[1]https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/25/magazine/australia-cat-ki...
[2]https://www.paloaltohumane.org/facebook/tell-the-mountain-vi...
Also, don't ask me how stopping neutering cats helps the birds.
[3]http://burrowingowlconservation.org/burrowing_owl_facts/
[4]https://www.citylab.com/equity/2019/06/google-affordable-hou...
In some places it's 'no big deal' if cats kill birds (sorry bird fans) but in places where feral cats would interact with threatened native species (ie. Australia/NZ) that's obviously a different story.
I was surprised last time I was in hyper bird protective NZ to see a big fat cat lounging in the sun outside, while dogs are banned in so many places there due to fears of their interactions with flightless birds.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyall%27s_wren
I don't think I am about to get my way anytime soon though so I applaud those people with pet cats who keep them inside 100% of the time. I also applaud cat microchipping and registration controls that are increasingly being rolled out and enforced.
Anyway, my point is that we're likely after contained cats than inside cats. It gives them more fun and makes the house cleaner as well.
Note: this comes from an animal lover (and sure, I have a soft spot for cats) who finds flippant regards like "their complete eradication from the continent".
Nothing should ever be considered for eradication. The lazy solution is to eradicate. The hard solution is to "empathize" (i.e. study the 'problematic' component within a complex system) and figure out how to create a new space for it within the system/reconfigure the system around it.
I find that people who lock cats inside don't empathize with them much. And those who let them roam don't empathize much with wildlife. The best system may be the one where cats are not considered pets anymore.
Deleted Comment