Cats could be killing more wildlife than previously thought, according to a study which suggests the dead birds and rodents our pets leave on our doormats are just the tip of the iceberg.
While most domestic cats appear docile and seem to spend most of their time asleep, researchers found that about one in three regularly hunts prey, killing an average of two animals per week.
Many owners are accustomed to finding the occasional dead animal on their doorstep, but researchers found that these account for less than a quarter of cats’ overall tally.
Thirty per cent of the wildlife killed by domestic cats is eaten immediately, while forty nine per cent is simply left to rot where it died, the study showed.
The findings suggest that cats’ impact on wildlife is greater than previously imagined because prior studies have not accounted for the majority of kills that our pets do not bring home, researchers said.
Kerrie Anne Lloyd, of Georgia University, attached cameras to the collars of 60 domestic cats in Athens, Georgia, and monitored their daily movements for a week to ten days.
Cats are true carnivores. They need protein, not cereal to live. Feed a cat dry food and when they go outside they look for meat.
Is this a recycle of old stuff? I’ve been reading about problems with (feral, mostly) cats diminishing wild bird populations for years.
I wonder if there were cats and other predators before – well – cats. And, if so, how many birds they killed. And whether the urban habitat is unnaturally low on predators and high on birds.
Where’s the “like” button? I was thinking the same thing – mankind is notorious for rooting out carnivores when we move into an area. How many ecosystems are “carnivore light” because of our interference?
I’m only an Aussie but I’m under the impression North America has/had a variety of cats, ranging down from jaguar in the south through ocelot and leopard, lynx, bobcat and mountain lion/cougar. Is this not so?
Wrt felis catus (fmrly domesticus) they are indeed responsible for decimating island wildlife following accidental introduction during the age of sail/discovery. It is plausible they give wildlife a pounding (certainly the case in Australia with small macropods, lizards and amphibians).
We have a variety of wilds cats, though the leopard is African and Ocelots and panthers are South American (Wild Cats of North America lists include Mexico’s Yucatan, which has a climate and widlife equivalent to South American rainforest, so it’s not representative of the USA). The main cats are breeds of lynxes (including the bobcat) and the cougar.
The main thing I can see are that housecats are smaller and of a much higher population density than wildcats ever were (wildcats are territorial, housecats are willing to co-mingle), so song birds in American suburbs are much more likely to be prey than a road runner in the New Mexico desert.
As someone who is tired of finding gutted rabbits and dead birds in my yard courtesy of my neighbor’s carnivore, I hope these studies continue. If I come over and stomp on a bird in your yard and leave it, I am horrible. But the cat is only “doing what cats do”? NO-they are doing what the owner allows them to do. You own the cat, you let it kill birds. Direct line of bird and rabbit and rodent kills to the owner, not the cat. Why is it okay to kill and destroy using a dog or cat, but not if one just tears up a flower bed or whacks birds in the neighbor’s yard themselves?????
Are we now going to micro-manage cats? Just like burning our feed grains for fuel or attempting to micro-manage our economy, most busybody-feelgood regulations end with unintended consequences and failure. By the way, quit hatin’ on cats.
I like cats – they taste like chicken
I don’t hate cats, I hate the stupid owners that use them to kill birds and rabbits in my yard and tear up flower beds to use as litter boxes. The cat is the innocent victim of the owner.
If we’re talking about domestic cats (pets) in America – and the article and research clearly is – the American urban habitat is the one in question and it clearly favors the bird over the cat and other predators that would be present if not for the urbanness of it all. I have a couple of bird feeders and no predators while a pair of robins nest in a wreath on my front door every spring while ducks lay egss in the flower bed. I have no shortage of rodents of every type. And when I travel to Florida, I do not notice nor do I hear of a shortage of lizards and amphibians. (And I wish to hell a neighbor would quit throwing food out on a vacant lot thjat attracts skunks and possums.)
Speaking of research, did they place cameras on the representative population of domestic cats , or just the few that are let out of the house or apartment? Did they research across America or just in Athens, GA. Is this an anecdote analyzed by statistics? A related research question, 30% and 49% of what exactly? If they kill five birds of which 79% of the time they eat it or leave it, how important is that if there are a thousand starlings and sparrows in the area?
Yes, feral pigs are a problem of some note in America and there is no question that rats were a big problem wherever ships landed. But despite the stray cats in New York – not the subject of this fine research, the streets are unthreatened by cats with regard to birds and rats and the cat let loose from its apartment is not that common.
As far as I can tell, if you live in an American suburb and the neighbor’s cat is leaving a dead bird on your doorstep, that’s bertween you and your neighbor while urban “nature” does not hang in the balance. But, hey, the nation’s woodlands and prairies may be overrun by feral cats not researched or discussed here, so watch out when you visit Glacier National.
The only threat to urban wildlife in my suburban neighborhood is the threat of coyotes to squirrels. Look!! – Back to the subject – Which is also a bad thing for the very few meandering cats of the suburb..
Dunno Coach, I would expect the experiences to be very different between continents simply because NA wildlife evolved with cats various while Aussie critters did not – the worst they faced was the marsupial lion (long extinct), marsupial wolf (not a very advanced predator), quolls (called native cats but more like a possum), Tassie devils (cantankerous little mongrels that spend most of their time fighting amongst themselves) but no predators so efficient as cats. Mainland Australia has only had dingoes (wild dogs) for maybe 40Ky, not really enough time to cause significant evolutionary change and they don’t tend to go after birds, small critters so much and they sure don’t get up trees taking birds from the nest as feral cats do (brushtail possums will raid nests). Once cats went feral here they did decimate wildlife.
Feral housecats are a nusciance, but not overly so in any area that I know. I’m really not sure what the article is hand-wringing over. The study was a perfectly calm and reasonable analysis of the behavior of felis domseticus.
My home in Virginia (like most in the county) has woods that begin at the property line. The woods provide a habitat for many animals I don’t want in my home – spiders, copperheads, termites, voles, mice, raccoons, opossums, etc.
This is partly why I have several cats. They are also better company than rodents.
Acknowledged – again, I think but more specifically. I don’t see how this article is about invasive species though.
Additionally, the research, as such, seems of no use with regard to wildlife and predation in urban Athens, GA without demonstrating that there is a threat to wildlife in Athens GA. The term “wildlife” maybe unintentionally stretched the Kitty Cam beyond it’s explanation of what your kitty does if you let it wander – in Athens, GA. Apparently, more than 2 out of 3 of the kitties that get let loose from time to time don’t even act like a cat when they don’t have to except to maybe drink something out of a puddle without a chemcial analysis of the puddle.
This is about leash laws for cats. I still don’t see the need even there in Athens, but if one wants to apply the precautionary principle to protect one’s cat, don’t let it outside ever. And if you want to apply the same principle to your dog, keep it away from the President.
Cats do not fare well without humans. They can be a problem in rural areas where they doi take large numbers of birds of all kinds. Not helped by urbanite owners who unceremoniously dump their unwanted cats at the barn door of farms. When one gets away from the houses the cats no longer become an issue. They are controlled there by cougars, coyotes, bobcats, foxes, owls, eagles, diseases, cars and so on. Wildlife fares better around my rural dwelling because of cats. The amount of wildlife life succumbing to traps and rodenticides would be much greater were it not for my cats.
Again that depends on the “where” – in Aus we have nothing to control cats, no winter freeze, no significant predators (wedge tailed eagles will take the odd one but never heard of a dingo doing so). Cats will kill rabbits but find it easier to clean up the dumb Aussie wildlife first.
Here in the inland in Southern California, cats and small dogs are food for Coyotes.
Indonesia had an island where the “experts” became outraged because the feral cats were eating shore birds. The killed every cat on the island and dusted their hands in satisfaction. The feral rabbit population exploded and denuded the island. There was no more food or shelter for shore birds and they vacated the island. It cost the government millions of US dollars to try to restore the vegetation and balance.
We have a few feral cats here and they keep the feral rabbit population under control.
I sense a weeping and wailing over a few birds killed by feral cats, which are a very small part of their diet. But turning a blind eye to the much greater killing of birds by wind farms.
Hmm… I think I have enough credit as an established aerial cuisinart basher that I might risk an appearance above the parapet – the situation may be very different outside Australia but cats (we have a significant feral problem and no freezing winters to thin them out) are killing machines far beyond the scope of windfarms. The only reason you see more anti-windfarm stuff for the sake of the ickle birdies is that we are forced to pay for the rotten things while cats just go quietly about their murderous little lives.
10,000 years ago, they were all wild. Some argue they were never really domesticated. As Oliver said, “If your cat was bigger, it would eat you.”
Hey, give your cat a neck-band with a little bell and it won’t have a chance. Welcome, mice and rats!
Real problem is the feral cats who wander around there. It’s they who kill most bunnies and birds.
A cat’s relationship to humans is not symbiotic it’s parasitic.
feral cats in australia kill 14 million birds ,lizards possums, frogs and other critters each and every night,won’t take long to not have any left at that rate.a study was done here with a camera attached to a few of them,stomach contents examined from dead cats found they each consumed 7 critters each night plus the others ,they just kill.i am all for letting the amy have target practice on the lot of them
Ooh! Horses for courses and critters for places grannie. Feral cats down-under are a problem and should be controlled (no getting rid of the buggers) but that isn’t a brush that should be applied to all cats everywhere.
Feral cats are listed as predators in some parts of America. The problem, cat lovers out there, is YOUR cat tears up MY property. As stated before, if I came over and killed rabbits in your yard or dug up your flower beds, you would call the police. So you use a cat to do the same to me so you don’t end up arrested. The cat allows you to cause property damage with impunity. Meaning you are not a nice person–that’s just how it is. You may be happy with Mr. Kitty, but keep him in your yard and let him destroy your landscaping and wildlife.
In contrast, how many humans feed birds? For several years, I was providing a feast, year round, to the feathered visitors to my yard … and as the free lunch proved attractive, it built up to about 40 lbs per week in bird seed…. I was supporting a rather sizable population of song birds and other birds (including California Quail — and even a pheasant for a time). Based on the cacophony of bird noise in my yard (I had more than 50 trees as well), I figured that I’d increased the population in my yard by a factor of 10 or more compared to the non-feeding households in my neighborhood. So, if human owned cats are “decimating” wildlife (mostly birds) is there any offset for the humans providing birds with extra rations to birds. (I note, too that I also was supporting a fairly wide variety of squirrels, possums, raccoons, and skunks who either feasted on the leavings from the birds or, in the case of the squirrels, directly stole from the feeders.)
I further note that I am an advocate of “indoor” cats, who live a life of leisure and do not terrorize the wildlife — and tend to live twice as long as “outdoor” cats.
This thread turned into a bit of a cat fight (sorry!) and I wasn’t expecting that. In fact I was in two minds about posting it at all, wondering if there’d be sufficient interest to justify it.
Here, Kestrils and hawks kill far more birds than feral cats do.
Methinks the editor is not familiar with the reactions of cat owners if he did not see this “cat fight” coming! Just mention confining kitty to the house and with many owners, the fight is on. What is most amazing is how so many owners say the cat is “part of the family” and then let it run in the street, etc. Scary.
You got me Rc, my place is awash in rescued and pensioner dogs but I don’t seem to have much interaction with cats or “cat people”.