Outdoor cats kill between 1.4 billion and 3.7 billion birds a year, study says

[Independent voter]

Murderers.







https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...e79_story.html



Outdoor cats are the leading cause of death among both birds and mammals in the United States, according to a new study, killing 1.4 billion to 3.7 billion birds each year.

The mammalian toll is even higher, concluded researchers from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, ranging from 6.9 billion to 20.7 billion annually.

The analysis, published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications, suggests that feral and owned cats pose a far greater threat than previously thought. One study in 2011 estimated that cats in the United States kill roughly half a billion birds annually.

Peter P. Marra, the paper’s senior author and a research scientist at the Smithsonian institute, said he and his colleagues “pulled together all the best estimates” from 90 studies to reach their estimate, taking into account the difference in behavior between owned and unowned cats.

“I don’t think there’s ever been an attempt like this,” Marra said in a telephone interview, adding that the new estimate is “conservative.”

Researchers estimate that one pet cat kills one to 34 birds a year, while a feral cat kills 23 to 46 birds annually. As a result, the new study provides a wide range of the total bird death count. “It’s not a single number,” Marra said.

George H. Fenwick, president of American Bird Conservancy, said in a statement that the findings should serve as “a wake-up call for cat owners and communities to get serious about this problem before even more ecological damage occurs.”

“The very high credibility of this study should finally put to rest the misguided notions that outdoor cats represent some harmless new component to the natural environment,” Fenwick said. “The carnage that outdoor cats inflict is staggering and can no longer be ignored or dismissed.”

Cats pose the greatest danger to birds and mammals living on islands because there are fewer opportunities for these animals to escape. Cats are responsible for helping drive 33 species of birds, mammals and reptiles to extinction on islands, including the Stephens Island wren in New Zealand in the late 1800s, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Scientists have a hard time measuring the effect of cats on small mammals in the United States because they lack precise population counts for these species, Marra said.

“We don’t know how many Eastern cottontail rabbits are out there, and we don’t know how many chipmunks are out there,” he said.

By contrast, researchers estimate that the United States is home at least 15 billion adult land birds. Cats kill about 10 percent of them each year, according to the analysis.

Marra and two other scientists, the Smithsonian institute’s Scott R. Loss and Tom Will from Fish and Wildlife, conducted their analysis as part of a broader study of humans’ impact on bird mortality. Roughly 150,000 to 400,000 birds in the United States die annually in wind turbines, according to recent estimates, while 10 million to 1 billon birds die after colliding with glass.

The fact that humans can take action to prevent some of these deaths — such as adopting policies to reduce feral cat populations and altering how wind turbines are designed — should provide hope, Marra said.

“These are things that are reversible once we understand them,” he said. “That’s the important thing here.”

[Hana Song]

Okay, so why is this a problem?

[Arrashi]

"Predators hunt other animals". Holy shit those guys gonna win next nobel prize.

[Deleted]

Stop breeding cats in the US then.....

Seriously though it's just another example of colonists fucking up a ecosystem

[derpkitteh]

my cat doesn't hunt anymore, and never killed birds when she did hunt. caught a squirrel or two in her time, and lizards. that's about it.

and i don't plan to get a new cat when she goes.

[Yvaelle]

Birds are meant to die. Cats are meant to kill.

[Release]

"Predators hunt other animals". Holy shit those guys gonna win next nobel prize.

It's more the numbers of these animals are not in balance with nature because we keep them as pets and the impact that has on natural ecosystems and the steps we can take to reduce that impact.

[zenkai]

I need some outdoor cats around my house, constantly spray birdshit off my deck. But then again outdoor cats would pee in my mulch, oh the conundrum.

[Hana Song]

It's more the numbers of these animals are not in balance with nature because we keep them as pets and the impact that has on natural ecosystems and the steps we can take to reduce that impact.

Start eating the cats then

[zenkai]

It's more the numbers of these animals are not in balance with nature because we keep them as pets and the impact that has on natural ecosystems and the steps we can take to reduce that impact.

Catch them and give them to PETA, PETA kills a lot of cats and dogs.

[Release]

Start eating the cats then

I was thinking something slightly less drastic such as making it mandatory that they have a bell on their collar if they actively hunt.

[Fargus]

Feral cats are a massive problem in Australia because morons take their cats outside. As a result, it has damaged the natural fauna and has driven many species to near extinction.

[Damajin]

Of course they do, cats are fucking killing machines. Good for them, keep it up.

[Tulune]

Birds are meant to die. Cats are meant to kill.

This idiotic statement coming from a mod, just wtf? Cats can wreak havoc on natural animal populations, and humans are 100% responsible for that. Yeah cats have a kill instinct, but humans have an obligation to keep that in check. And birds are "meant to die"? What kind of moronic statement is that?

[Jotaux]

I don't think my cat has killed any birds yet. When she is outside she just sits in the windowsill or out on the concrete steps to get some sun. There's also a tree she likes to sit in and watch everything.

[Judge Malthred]

Birds are meant to die. Cats are meant to kill.

Nature finds equilibrium. Humans are artificially inflating the population of cats, this leads to an imbalance in their effect on the environment, which leads to other stuff they probably go over in their research that has negative effects that should be prevented.

Look at it this way, if you aren't being intentionally obtuse about it that is, something mankind is doing - most likely the use of pesticides - is having a very adverse effect on bee populations. If we manage to kill bees, the ones the pollinate plants, then no more plants. No more plants, no more things that surviving by eating plants, and then no more things that survive by eating things that eat plants.

I used to work at a summer camp that had a large bat infestation. The higher ups thought bats were bad, so they hired an exterminator to come in and wipe out their population. End result? Bats weren't around to eat mosquitoes. Mosquitoes began to thrive. They had to come in and spray the whole campsite for mosquitoes every week after that.

Just leave the bats be IMO.

TDLR; Cats killing birds in huge numbers that would not otherwise be happening in nature could have adverse unforeseen effects on the world around you.

[Release]

This idiotic statement coming from a mod, just wtf? Cats can wreak havoc on natural animal populations, and humans are 100% responsible for that. Yeah cats have a kill instinct, but humans have an obligation to keep that in check. And birds are "meant to die"? What kind of moronic statement is that?

Have to agree with you I was a little surprised as well and then Damajin's statement keep it up I mean wtf why would you say that?

[Damajin]

This idiotic statement coming from a mod, just wtf? Cats can wreak havoc on natural animal populations, and humans are 100% responsible for that. Yeah cats have a kill instinct, but humans have an obligation to keep that in check. And birds are "meant to die"? What kind of moronic statement is that?

Rofl, we have a responsibility to keep that in check. Sorry but no.

Yes, they're meant to die, it's part of the food chain and the cycle of life. Predators hunt prey, and prey avoids being hunted or it dies, simple.

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Have to agree with you I was a little surprised as well and then Damajin's statement keep it up I mean wtf why would you say that?

Probably because I have an exceeding fondness and favoritism for cats.

[muto]

I don't think my cat has killed any birds yet. When she is outside she just sits in the windowsill or out on the concrete steps to get some sun. There's also a tree she likes to sit in and watch everything.

It's likely, mostly feral cats.

[Release]

Rofl, we have a responsibility to keep that in check. Sorry but no.

Yes, they're meant to die, it's part of the food chain and the cycle of life. Predators hunt prey, and prey avoids being hunted or it dies, simple.

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Probably because I have an exceeding fondness and favoritism for cats.

Do you not understand that we have a responsibility because we keep them as PETS and so we already alter the cycle of life and the natural balance within ecosystems. Not to mention introducing them into places they were not native in the first place.

You just sound so ignorant.