Cat-astrophe: Outdoor cats are considered one of the worst invasive species by ecologists ...

[sl8]

https://www.noemamag.com/cat-astrophe/

Cat-astrophe

Outdoor cats are considered one of the worst invasive species by ecologists. And humans are bitterly torn over how to respond.

BY CARRIE ARNOLD
JUNE 6, 2023

Waking me at dawn is no easy task. A night owl through and through, I am far more likely to see the dawn by just not going to bed. So when my husband announced that he was headed to Old San Juan for some dawn photography, I was inclined to sleep in and join him several hours later at a more civilized hour.

Then my husband dropped the bomb: “I heard there were cats.”

[...]

“It’s not black and white,” says Lynette McLeod, an environmental psychologist at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. “It’s about sitting down with people and not demonizing the other. It’s trying to find solutions that can cater to all parties. There’s no easy answer.”

So what’s a cat lover to do? Until I stuck a tentative toe into this debate, I didn’t see an inherent conflict between my love of cats and my deep-seated beliefs in conservation. To a large extent, I still don’t. But with an estimated 3o to 80 million unowned cats roaming the outdoors in the United States plus an additional 30% of the country’s 60-80 million pet cats allowed outside and global bird numbers in free fall, we must all ask ourselves, which animals do we value, why, and are our cat problems instead human ones.

[...]

[multigraincracker]

1. Didn't they save Europe

from the plaque?

[GenThePerservering]

5. I think that was tooth brushing

(sorry, couldn't resist)

They *did* kill rats, but cats were also carriers of the plague. I think dogs are immune?

Here, we all now keep cats inside because coyotes moved in (this is not their natural habitat) and housecats are their chief diet.

Spay/neuter/release programs for feral colonies make a big difference.

[markie]

2. K&R

[mopinko]

3. i still have yet to see what i consider a full accounting of this.

remember that we wiped out the wolves in yellowstone to protect the deer and elk. how did that work out?
there is clearly a niche that is being filled here or they would die out. an ecosystem w such a tiny apex predator cant be stable. coyotes are moving in to many of these territories. i hope they bring some balance. but i dont want to live in a city where nothing eats the rodents.

[mike_c]

4. to be fair, so are honeybees

And while feral cats undoubtedly kill some birds, it's likely that they've simply refilled the roles of native predators whose populations have declined for a whole variety of reasons. Cats also hunt rodents and other taxa who compete with us for food and vector diseases.

Bird populations are also under severe bottom-up regulation due to declining insect populations and habitat loss.

[NickB79]

6. Cats hunt for fun, even when they don't need food

And a large number of them are fed by humans, meaning the typical natural population control of starvation doesn't always work. They aren't refilling the roles of native predators so much as they're decimating the prey those predators need, lowering the carrying capacity of the ecosystem. Most small predators in North America can coexist with humans just fine, even in suburban environments. Cats are one reason we don't see as many foxes, weasels, owls and hawks.