It is not much of a stretch to bring this back on topic, as the loss of natural
sound beneath anthropogenic noise may be an important factor contributing to
the success of the house cat as a predator on native song birds.
John Hartog
rockscallop.org
-- In Tony Whitehead <>
wrote:
>
> 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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