Rats in the Belfry

Showing posts with label dogs. Show all posts

8.12.11

Feral Cats - pet, pest or plague?

The full title of this should probably be "Feral Cats and Why I Hate Them". Why do I have 'issues' with these cute little balls of fur?

Here's why....

Some feline experts now estimate 60 million pet cats and 70 million feral cats live in the United States. Britain has an estimated 7 million pet cats and 1 million ferals.

Num num num...

Exact numbers are unknown, but some experts estimate that each year domestic and feral cats kill hundreds of millions of birds, and more than a billion small mammals, including rabbits, squirrels, and chipmunks.

Cute little feral kitten eating the head of a bunny.

Cats can have two litters a year, averaging four kittens a litter. Few survive to become adults but those that do are weaned at 8 weeks and become sexually mature at approximately 12 months.

Adult feral eating the head of a bunny.

"Cats are an aggressive, invasive, nonnative, subsidized predatory species whose presence results in loss of wildlife," Dr. David Jessup, a senior wildlife veterinarian for the state of California contends.

NEW ZEALAND
It is estimated that cats kill up to 100 million birds in New Zealand each year. Many of the victims are natives such as tuis and kūkupa.
In New Zealand, it's estimated that feral cats have been responsible for the extinction of six endemic bird species and over 70 localised subspecies, as well as depleting bird and lizard species.
HAWAII
The State of Hawaii Department of Health estimates that there are 500,000 cats on the Island of Maui. Thousands of these are feral, non-domesticated animals left to hunt and capture prey in the wild...

Maui feral eating tropical bird.

According to David Duffy, Ph.D., a botany professor at the University of Hawaii, they pose the biggest risk for other protected species especially on islands*.
Although cats generally prefer small mammal prey items, they utilize a wide range of food resources including native avifauna. Forest birds that forage in the understory, such as the poouli, are especially vulnerable to cat predation. Predation by feral cats has had serious negative effects on populations of insular avifauna.

Japanese feral eating endangered Amami rabbit.

Studies show free roaming feral domestic cats killed millions of small mammals, song and game birds. Estimates range from a minimum of 47 million up to 139 million songbirds are killed each year.
WISCONSIN
In Wisconsin alone, says Stanley A. Temple, Ph.D., of the Department of Wildlife Ecology of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, there are probably 1.4 million free-roaming and feral cats in the state, who bag an estimated 7.8 million birds each year.

Temple characterizes these cats as 'subsidized predators' in that they receive food, shelter and other benefits from their relationship with human beings, yet also hunt.

"Their predation on native wildlife can have serious consequences for species already stressed by other sources of human-caused environmental degradation," he adds.

Nice kitty.

NEBRASKA
A Nebraska report estimates that 60 million feral cats kill 480 million birds every year, and the American Bird Conservancy estimates they kill more than a billion small mammals annually.

... and so it goes- island by island, and state by state around the world.

BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE!!!

Not only do feral cats slaughter billions of native birds and mammals every year, they frequently come with parasites and diseases such as sarcosporidiosis and toxoplasmosis, which can infect humans!

How cool is that?

Many people, including me, think feral cats are free-range vermin and should be dealt with accordingly. Others seem to think they are cute or something...

If you're one of those people, and you want to help feral cats in their drive to hunt birds and small mammals to extinction, there's a special day just for you!

http://www.alleycat.org/Page.aspx?pid=388

SOURCES/FURTHER READING

http://www.feral.org.au/pest-species/cat/

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10346/1109893-358.stm#ixzz1Kp46L3eEhttp://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/09/0907_040907_feralcats.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feral_cat#Diet_and_predatorshttp://wildlifeprofessional.org/blog/?http://veterinarynews.dvm360.com/dvm/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=31506www.abcbirds.org

http://www.goldcoast.qld.gov.au/t_standard2.aspx?pid=8236

http://sandhill.typepad.com/sandhill_trek/2005/03/wisconsin_feral.html

http://mauiforestbirds.org/articles/23

25.9.11

Cats, cats, cats!

Some people love cats.
Some people do not.

i believe my position is clear.

*

21.5.11

fetch him, Ratcliff!

Ratcliff looked up at 'his' human, and to all intents and purposes rolled his eyes. It was far too hot and the hare had far too great a head start to be 'fetching' anything. He smiled as broadly as he could, given the stupidity of the suggestion.

Humans certainly had their uses, and really, they asked very little in return but every once in a while, a dog really had to remind them who was holding the leash.

17.5.11

LS 33 - Look and see

oh look look and see scalpel blindness chien Andalou

28.4.11

dog demotivators

dogs are so naturally photogenic
and expressive that it's not surprising
to find them featured in some
excellent demotivational posters...

woof!

*

12.11.10

Random Ridiculous Whatever

...some days just suck.

like today.

whatever.

the worst thing one can do
is take a day that sucks seriously
when it's over.
have a smoke.
have a drink.

do google image searches
using unlikely search terms
and see what comes up....

well, strangely enough,
that helped.

- 30 -

10.11.10

My Feline Vindication!

I have never felt comfortable around cats.

Maybe it's a genetic thing- I remember my Aunt Pat referring to them as "nasty, skulking creatures" on more than one occasion and thinking "right on"!

Years ago, I came to believe that they were an alien race from outer space, who somehow fell to earth during the time of ancient Egypt.

Looking at the relics of the pharaohs, it seemed clear to me that cats had arrived out of the blue and taken over their minds, turning them into feline love slaves who devoted themselves to cat comfort at the expense of their once-thriving empire.

The rest, as they say, is history...

Needless to say, my theory has been rejected
and ridiculed over the years by many humans. Curiously, all of them claimed to "love" cats
and many kept them as "pets".

Say hello to Toxoplasma gondii.

T. gondii, as they call it down in the lab, sexually reproduces in cats. Our feline 'friends' may be their primary host, but until they need a love nest, these parasitic protozoa can live in all kinds of animals, including humans.

T. gondii infections have the ability to change the behavior of rats and mice, making them drawn to, rather than fearful of, the scent of cats.

This effect is advantageous to the parasite, which will be able to sexually reproduce if its host is eaten by a cat.

Studies have also shown behavioral changes
in humans, including slower reaction times and a sixfold increased risk of traffic accidents among infected males.

A study of 191 young women in 1999 reported higher intelligence and lower guilt proneness
in Toxoplasma-positive subjects.

The normal sex ratio in humans is 104 boys born for every 100 girls, but in women with high levels of antibodies against the parasite (ie - infected!), the ratio was 260 boys for every 100 girls.