Dec 14 2007
Cats Protect Rare Birds
I keep on reading about the American Bird Conservancy (ABC) going on about how cats must be imprisoned to protect birds. I have mentioned this before but having read an article on the topic recently I will do so again.
Keeping cats inside to save birds isn’t necessarily going to work. Sounds like it would work, but have they done any studies on it? Well here in little old New Zealand they have. Here is the most recent finding on this topic. This is taken from the New Zealand Herald 12 December edition.
“Department of Conservation efforts to wipe out cats on Little Barrier Island to protect the Cook’s petrel backfired as rats became an even more deadly threat.
Efforts to rid the island of feral cats in 1980 failed to reverse the decline in numbers of the native Cook’s petrel, says Matt Rayner, a PhD student at the University of Auckland’s School of Biological Sciences.
While 32 per cent of breeding burrows fledged a chick when both cats and rats were preying on the petrels, only 9 per cent produced chicks after cats were removed from their breeding areas, he said in research published yesterday in the latest issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“The cats were suppressing the rat numbers, so the removal of the cats allowed rat numbers to increase, and as rat numbers increased … they [hunted] petrels more heavily,” said Mr Rayner.
Cook’s petrels used to be found everywhere in New Zealand, but they disappeared from the mainland in the 19th century through human impact on their habitat.”
So you see it isn’t always as cut and dried as it would appear. This is not the only time this has been observed. If you get rid of cats you must get rid of the prey the cats keep down if that prey is itself a danger to wild life. Taking one without the other is a big mistake.
Or, here’s an idea…let’s populate with colonies of feral cats, all those habitats that have birds plus rats but no cats!!!
On that note did you know that cats were persecuted in the Middle Ages due their association with witches. It has been said that if there had been more cats around the Plague would not have gained ground and killed so many thousands of people. The Plague was carried by the fleas on rats.
Clea Simon made some helpful suggestions on her blog but she does advocate keeping the cat indoors. I don’t but then I don’t live in the USA and we don’t have any coyotes in our suburbs thank heavens!
Tags: Predators, cats birds cat predators cats protect birds
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Very interesting! Thank you for posting! And thank you for posting on my blog to let me know! I’m curious, though - are the rats native or are they feral, too?
And, yes, here in the USA I recommend keeping cats indoors. We have coyotes basically almost up into the cities, fishers, and other predators, too, that regard your average domestic cat as a snack. Also, well, I do relate to the bird lovers - at least to the point of wanting to stay out of their way (the piping plovers are placid, ground-nesting birds and they are increasingly endangered).
- Clea
http://cleasimon.blogspot.com
Another case of the Law of Unintended Consequences, isn’t it?
Good to know!
I don’t let my cats out. We have a busy two lane road out front, a lake beyond that, and we live on the third floor. That’s way too many ways for something to go wrong!
I was telling my book group friends the other evening that US cats are kept inside. I have to say they were horrified! Guess it depends on what you are used to. My first cat did get run over when he was 11 years old. Very sad. Should we have kept him inside? I don’t think anyone even thought of it. He did have 11 great years though.