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Re: Buzzards

Subject: Re: Buzzards
From: "Tony Whitehead" soundings23
Date: Thu Jul 26, 2012 6:42 am ((PDT))
Although this is way off topic re nature recording ... all these well
documented studies prove, repeatedly, is that cats eat large numbers of
birds. But there is little evidence so far that this predation is a having
a population level effect (other than on island populations where their
effect is proved beyond doubt)

The simple fact that here in the UK many common garden bird populations are
doing well (eg blackbird, goldfinch, great tit, blue tit ) rather suggests
they are not. But one village study has shown that house sparrow numbers
have been effected locally by cats. So for me the court is out on this one.

cheers

t

On Thu, Jul 26, 2012 at 2:09 PM, Jim Lee <> wrote:

> **
>
>
> Sorry David. My original post was not a reflection on the pampered and
> "supervised" elite of the pedigree trade. It was about domestic and
> feral cats as a whole. The following study deals only with domestic cats
> and the .92 million animals (27 million birds) they brought home over a
> five month period in Britain alone.
>
>
> http://www.mammal.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=256&Itemid=289Abstract
>
> Want something from the US? Here is a study from the American Bird
> Conservancy.
> http://www.abcbirds.org/abcprograms/policy/cats/materials/predation.pdf
>
> Jim
>
>
> On 7/25/2012 10:58 AM, Avocet wrote:
> >
> > > In many places, domestic and feral cats are indeed the sources of
> > > "uncontrolled predation."
> >
> > As a former pedigree cat breeder asd show, I must defend the keeping
> > of domestic pet cats. Feral and semi-feral cats are another matter and
> > they don't have a pleasant life and have a huge mortality rate.
> >
> > One of the Cat Fancy's slogans s "every kitten a wanted kitten." We
> > cat fanciers look after our cats and often keep them indoors with the
> > breeding cats. We most certainly don't put them out at night.
> >
> > I still have five "favourites and failures" who go outside in acres of
> > woodland if they want to but "under supervision". When they were
> > younger, they brought in occasional captures but in almost all cases
> > these were either already dead or "nature's failures". With a long
> > gone favourite cat, she would bring me live and dead specimens with an
> > appropriate call.
> >
> > Unneutered cats running wild can be a menace, but with few exceptions,
> > even these do little more than clearing up nature's failures. Any
> > species having, say, 5 young a year will have an average survival rate
> > of 2 out of 7 or only 28%.
> >
> > It's called the survival of the fittest, and releasing pheasant poults
> > into that environment without some losses is not feasable, buzzards or
> > no buzzards. Almost all of the other pheasants are going to die by
> > gunfire anyway, and there is a lot of that in this valley - and it is
> > another noise source in my recordings but that is a different thread,
> > :-).
> >
> > David
> >
> > David Brinicombe
> > North Devon, UK
> > Cogito cogito ergo cogito sum - Ambrose Bierce
> >
> >
>
> --
> Jim Lee --- Bamboo Turtle Studio
> Website: http://www.bambooturtle.us
> Blog: http://bambooturtle.blogspot.com/
> Rock Nest Monster:http://www.bambooturtle.us/Rock_Nest_Monster.html
>
>
>  
>









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