Hi Kim,
I don’t doubt that the impact of cats varies considerably with the geographical
location, amount of natural habitat nearby etc. but there are native rats and
mice and I am sure the typical moggy won’t discriminate. I saw a photo
recently of a feral cat carrying a dead Ringtail Possum and cats often bring in
small gliders such as Feathertail Gliders. It would be good to have detailed
scientific data to prove the case but in the absence of that data I would
recommend that people keep their cats away from places where they can come into
contact with native animals. The impact on reptiles may be greater than the
impact on birds. There is also a school of thought that suggests that cats
have only replaced the natural predators such as quolls but it is unlikely that
the population size of quolls in a given area, even in their prime, would have
reached the population size of domestic cats.
Regards
Greg
Dr Greg. P. Clancy
Ecologist and Birding-wildlife Guide
| PO Box 63 Coutts Crossing NSW 2460
| 02 6649 3153 | 0429 601 960
http://www.gregclancyecologistguide.com
http://gregswildliferamblings.blogspot.com.au/
From: Kim Sterelny
Sent: Wednesday, July 02, 2014 4:57 PM
To: Greg and Val Clancy
Cc: Denise Goodfellow ; Carl Clifford ; Birding Aus
Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Threatened species commissioner appointed tohelpsave
native wildlife | Environment | theguardian.com
Folks
I have talked to quite a few ecologists about this at ANU, and the message I
hear is much more mixed, suggesting that cat impact varies a lot from place to
place, because cats do not only eat native animals, they eat a lot of rats,
mice and rabbits. That said, there is a lot of variation in opinion.
It is a while since I reread any of the work in WA on numbat reintroduction but
at one stage their experimental manipulations on small mammal populations
showed a large impact from fox control, but much less from cat control. Anyone
kept up to date on this?
I'll come clean on this: I do have a domestic cat in inner Canberra where we
rent, which takes a lot of rats (over 30 in one month) and no birds; I also
have a bush property, and I would never keep a cat there (not until too old to
hunt, anyway)
kim
Kim Sterelny
Philosophy Program
RSSS, ANU
e-mail
ANU Contact Information
Philosophy Program
Research School of the Social Sciences
Australian National University
0200 Canberra, ACT, Australia
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