Yet the scientific case for this claim is shaky at best. One oft-cited study in Nature Communications claims that 1.4 to 3.7 billion birds and 6.9 to 20.7 billion small mammals are killed by cats every year in the United States alone. Still, some conservationists claim that cats are the single largest threat to biodiversity regardless of ecological context. Of course, we might say the same about humans, although outside of extremists’ debates over politics and immigration, we do not use these terms nor advocate the mass slaughter of other people. Isolated Pacific islands that have never seen a cat are a far cry from cities where they are a normal element of urban ecology. ![]() However, whether cats are judged destructive is really a matter of context. They can also run amok by the standards noted above. The baseline for assessing damage is usually the natural world as it was before the European age of exploration.Ĭats are indeed an exotic species outside their ancestral home (Europe and North Africa), and they interact with the natural environment in myriad ways. ![]() Over the course of time, ecological communities adapt and immigrant species become native to their place. While there are historical criteria that play a role in making this determination, it is primarily a value judgment about where a species comes from, and whether it has a positive, neutral or destructive impact on the environment. Scientists often refer to species as native, exotic or invasive. This ability to disturb ecological communities should come as no surprise. A similar situation occurs in North American cities and countrysides, where coyotes vastly reduce the impact of outdoor cats on wildlife. In Australia, cats can be a threat to quolls, a carnivorous marsupial, and other indigenous wildlife if dingoes or Tasmanian devils are not around to keep them in check. On mainlands, areas of high biodiversity that are isolated from surrounding habitats can respond like “terrestrial islands” to introduced species. For example, when cats were introduced to Pacific islands by European colonists, their numbers grew until they frequently posed a threat to native wildlife.įeral cat map. This is especially true on oceanic islands whose wildlife evolved without cats and are consequently unadapted to feline predators. ![]() While there is a related debate over whether house cats are domesticated at all, they have nevertheless so thoroughly infiltrated human societies that they are now distributed throughout the world, and along with dogs are humankind’s favorite mammalian companion animal.įrom a scientific perspective, there is little doubt that under particular geographic and ecological conditions, outdoor cats can threaten native species. This makes a huge difference in their behavior.Īfter a certain point as kittens, cats are almost impossible to socialize and are “feral” – from the Latin term ferus for wild. Feral cats are house cats who have reverted to the wild, and are generally born and raised without human companionship or socialization. This category includes cats who are owned, abandoned or lost. When a house cat roams or lives outside, it is called an outdoor cat. Today’s house cat ( Felis catus) originated as the North African wildcat ( Felis silvestris lybica).
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