This number intrigued the researcher in me (I work at the Victorian
Parliament).
I started to chase down some of the sources and citations, and found I was
running into a minefield of "he said, she said", where everyone is quoting
what other people are saying, but they're only quoting someone else.
However, before I got too far, I found that Auntie ABC has already done most
of the legwork when they passed one of Greg Hunt's claims to the Fact Check
elves.
Have a look at
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-11-20/environment-department-response-to-abc-fact-check-on-feral-cats/5907366
The funniest thing is that Gregory Andrews, Threatened Species Commissioner,
Department of the Environment, responded to the ABC by running through the
same figures again, calling them "conservative", and then carefully citing
three of the same sources that the fact checkers had already listed. He
said, she said, now Gregory Andrews says.
Bill
--------------------------------------------------
From: "Philip Veerman" <>
Sent: Friday, March 06, 2015 5:46 PM
To: "'Andrew Hobbs'" <>; "'Birding Aus'"
<>
Subject: Cat control
Michael asked: "One query I have re AWC figures is their claim that 75
million native animals are killed every night by feral cats"
Things like that should be justified. How does that calculation as Andrew
forwarded justify inserting the word "native". Also if that is the night
numbers then what are the day numbers? Even if the population numbers are
right, unless this issue is included I suspect it is based on one very
wrong
assumption: that cats only eat native animals, which is of course a total
nonsense. They also eat rabbits, mice and other ferals and carrion. So
native fauna killed is a fraction of the total. Whether that fraction is
99%, 95%, 75%, 10% or whatever, is another issue and will surely vary
geographically and temporally. The problem with cats is that they can be a
generalist or a specialist, allowing them to switch to whatever is
available.....
Also the question is somewhat pointless as it is also true that native
carnivores (hawks, owls, quolls, etc) eat X million animals too. In the
end
the estimated number doesn't matter a lot. What matters is establishing
whether cats are a specific danger, over and above other predators (in
many
cases circumstantial evidence suggests they are) and which native species
are severely impacted by cats, in what places......
Philip
-----Original Message-----
From: Birding-Aus On Behalf
Of
Andrew Hobbs
Sent: Friday, 6 March 2015 4:33 PM
To: Birding Aus
Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Cat control
How about
"Feral cats occur right across the continent in every habitat type
including deserts, forests and grasslands. Total population estimates
vary from 5 million to 18 million feral cats, with the Federal
Government citing a figure of 18 million cats in its statutory Threat
Abatement Plan.
"Each feral cat kills between 5-30 animals per day. While they appear to
prefer small mammals, they also eat birds, reptiles and amphibians.
Taking the lower figure in that range (five) - and multiplying it by a
conservative population estimate of 15 million cats - gives a minimum
estimate of 75 million
native animals killed daily by feral cats."
Remember that 'animals' is used in its wider zoological sense to include
birds, reptiles etc., not just marsupials. The number of animals killed
per day is well documented from studies of stomach contents.
With the area of Australia being around 8,000,000 square Km. that is 1
to 3 cats per square Km. Given the number of feral cats I have seen in
some areas that number could even be an underestimate.
see
http://www.australianwildlife.org/media/27964/AWC-Wildlife-Matters-Summer-20
12-2013.pdf
Cheers
Andrew
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