The effect of Cats:
Unfortunately, cats do more than rounding up domoestict pests, the role we expect them to do. Their haul includes all sorts of small, indigenous animals too. In many areas lizards (including geckos and chameleons) far outnumber rats and mice.
Two student projects at UCT on cat predation around Table Mountain National Park (in the north and at the Glencairn wetlands, found that prey included a range of wild vertebrates: Shrews, Golden Moles, Geckos, Snakes and Sunbirds, among many other species. Dr Rob Simmons of the Percy Fitzpatrick Institute of African Ornithology , who supervised the research, reports that Scorpions and Baboon Spiders are also predated, and one cat nabs bats by sitting on the roof.
A Nature Communication publication estimates that free-ranging cats (pets and feral) in the USA kill 1.4-3.7 billion birds and 6.9–20.7 billion mammals annually – making cats the likely the single greatest source of anthropogenic (human-caused) mortality for US birds and mammals.
In some parts of the world, such as South Africa, owned free-ranging cats may be responsible for the highest portion of wildlife mortality. Although not driven to hunt by hunger, their higher density than feral cats, ups the numbers. (Glencairn has 300 pet cats per square kilometre!).
“Scientists knew domestic cat hunting was a significant threat to wildlife, but the Kitty Cams study, for instance, suggests that the predation rate is four-fold greater than had been thought. The Cape Town research indicates that cats in this area alone are killing between 3.9 million and 5.9 million animals each year – and I would say that’s a conservative estimate.”
Cats living on the urban edge hunt further from home and have a higher kill rate.
There are several simple measures to prevent your cat wiping out wildlife:
- Put a bell on your cat's collar. This reduces the kill rate by 50-60%.
- Get a CatBib, which interferes with their ability to pounce on prey, but not with other normal activities.
- Feed your cat regularly
- Keep your cat in at night
- Keep your cat confined to your garden. (tough on your garden fauna, but the kill area will be far smaller).
- Schedule regular play sessions: keep them entertained and exercised, and it may encourage them to stay closer to home.
- Apparently it’s possible to train most cats to walk with a harness and leash from kittenhood.
From Olivia Rose-Innes, EnviroHealth Editor http://www.health24.com/Lifestyle/Environmental-health/Animals/What-your-cat-gets-up-to-20130214
