Hoy all
Thanks people for referrals to articles.
One more shot on the cat front though, just wondering if it's just me or
what, but the increasing pressure being put on government, including
local councils, by cat advocacy organisations pushing for a desex and
return policy I find quite worrying. I'm sure many people would be
aware of the arguments being used, but my concern has been intensified
as many of these lobby groups are quoting what they contend to be hard
scientific evidence that cats don't harm indigenous ecologies to any
significant extent. Local government at least is likely to want to avoid
any negative publicity generated by the cat lobby: they most certainly
want nothing to do with the image of malicious "cat exterminators" that
has been generated by the cat lobby recently.
Here's an example from a site called "Animal Active" [accessed
2/12/04]url:
http://backend.ewock.com/ewocksql3/asp/index.asp?ID=332&Action=Standard&IDPage=1731&Secure=False]
"Myth: Killing free-living cats helps to protect native wildlife.
Fact: Cats are not considered responsible for the extinction of any
species of native wildlife in Australia. Research indicates that nearly
50% of domestic cats do not hunt at all. Of those that do, 40%catch rats
and mice only, 24% catch introduced birds and only 4% catch native
birds. Strays subsist on rats, mice and garbage. Killing cats can only
serve to strengthen the cat population, unless you kill every single
solitary cat in an area. Cats are rapid and prolific breeders. In a very
short time, fertile, healthy cats will fill every niche you have
emptied. Depending on what methods you used to kill the previous
generation, these cats are likely to be bigger, stronger, faster and
more resistant to extermination than the past generation. Darwin called
this process 'survival of the fittest'. Therefore, if cats are a problem
for native wildlife, sustained lethal control can only increase the
problem.
Myth: The Australian natural environment would be much better off
without cats.
Fact: In the 500 years cats have been in Australia many native species
have adapted to their presence and could be weakened by their removal,
particularly those whose native predators have been vastly reduced or
become extinct. Additionally, cats eat rats, mice, rabbits and
introduced birds which both prey on and compete with many native
species."
So are we all familiar with this stuff? What is to be done?
regards
Craig Williams
>>> Regan Scheuber <> 12/02/04 10:37 AM >>>
Hi everyone,
For a paper on this topic available free online, try Susan Hutchings,
"The diet of feral house cats (Felis catus) at a regional rubbish tip,
Victoria" Wildlife Research. 30 (1):103-110, 2003 -
http://publish.csiro.au/?act=view_file&file_id=WR99067.pdf . The study
deals predominantly with the cats' tendency to scavenge in favour of
catching live prey.
Regan.
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