
A Single Male Cat’s Reign of Terror - pseudolus
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/07/cat-birds-australia/595048/
======
DennisP
> they ate just 83 percent of what they killed

Oddly, the abstract linked from that quote doesn't say that, but says:

> Eighty-three percent of kills occurred between dusk and dawn.

Though it wouldn't be surprising if they didn't fully consume every kill.
Sometimes I don't clean my plate at restaurants, either.

~~~
kuusisto
Found it in the Results section:

> On average, 83% of captures were consumed by the cats (88% of invertebrates,
> 79% of reptiles and amphibians, 78% of mammals and 50% of birds) and the
> remaining items were left at the site of predation.

~~~
dsr_
Right. Feathers and bones don't digest well.

~~~
im3w1l
I think they meant the cat left 50% of birds completely alone. Not that they
ate 50% of the mass of every bird. This is based on owning an outdoor cat and
having it bring intact corpse trophies to the door.

------
lioeters
> Cats have been a driving factor in the extinction of most of the 34 mammals
> that have gone extinct in Australia

I wonder, how many mammals have gone extinct due to _humans_ being the biggest
driving factor? A quick search turns up:

"[Australia lost] 50 animal and 60 plant species in the past 200 years [with]
the highest rate of mammalian extinction in the world over that period" [0]

According to the same article, main pressures faced by native plants and
animals are:

\- Habitat loss and degradation

\- Climate change

\- Land use practices

\- Invasive plant and animal species

I suppose the "trapping, shooting, and even dropping poisoned sausages" to
kill feral cats are aiming to address this last point.

As a cat lover, it hurts to hear this - but I also understand that 2 million
feral cats can ravage the local ecology..

\---

[0]
[https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/feb/13/a-nation...](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/feb/13/a-national-
disgrace-australias-extinction-crisis-is-unfolding-in-plain-sight)

------
romwell
This article reads like a hit propaganda piece to eradicate cats that paints
the feline as the villain.

Australia has been on cat-killing binge lately, and writing like that aims to
justify it.[1]

In reality, the undisputed #1 threat to all wildlife is human activity — in
particular, _loss of habitat_ due to construction.

Now, wildlife activists have reasons to be pissed. But it's way easier to kill
a million cats (yes, literally) than to _maybe_ rethink construction.

So guess which is done.

This also applies to Bay Area, where Google forced a volunteer-run TNR
program, gCat rescue, to shut down, ostensibly to help burrowing owls[2]. #1
reason for owls' decline? Loss of habitat.[3] Google's next step? Massive
construction.[4]

And while the volunteer-run gCat was criticized in NYT as a threat to the
owls, it's all crickets when it comes to construction.

[1][https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/25/magazine/australia-cat-
ki...](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/25/magazine/australia-cat-killing.html)

[2][https://www.paloaltohumane.org/facebook/tell-the-mountain-
vi...](https://www.paloaltohumane.org/facebook/tell-the-mountain-view-city-
council-not-to-stop-trap-neuter-return-on-google03/)

Also, don't ask me how stopping _neutering_ cats helps the birds.

[3][http://burrowingowlconservation.org/burrowing_owl_facts/](http://burrowingowlconservation.org/burrowing_owl_facts/)

[4][https://www.citylab.com/equity/2019/06/google-affordable-
hou...](https://www.citylab.com/equity/2019/06/google-affordable-housing-
california-real-estate-development/591991/)

------
astrea
I'm honestly surprised it took a stakeout to make the connection. They even
mention seeing the cat in there previously, even eating something.

------
Tiktaalik
Kinda odd how the article mentions'Trap Neuter Return' controversy in the USA
in an article about Australia. Is TNR a thing in Australia? The article
doesn't say.

In some places it's 'no big deal' if cats kill birds (sorry bird fans) but in
places where feral cats would interact with threatened native species (ie.
Australia/NZ) that's obviously a different story.

I was surprised last time I was in hyper bird protective NZ to see a big fat
cat lounging in the sun outside, while dogs are banned in so many places there
due to fears of their interactions with flightless birds.

------
chris0x00
Hmm, maybe one of Tibbles' relatives?

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyall%27s_wren](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyall%27s_wren)

------
oska
I would support a ban against keeping cats as pets in Australia (and
eventually their complete eradication from the continent).

I don't think I am about to get my way anytime soon though so I applaud those
people with pet cats who keep them inside 100% of the time. I also applaud cat
microchipping and registration controls that are increasingly being rolled out
and enforced.

~~~
bmer
Can we just eradicate all foreign comers in the last 200 years from Australia?
Perhaps one of the worst losses in Australia has been the near extermination
of the native human population by a vigorously violent outside group of humans
(who also were the ones that brought along the cats).

Note: this comes from an animal lover (and sure, I have a soft spot for cats)
who finds flippant regards like "their complete eradication from the
continent".

Nothing should ever be considered for eradication. The lazy solution is to
eradicate. The hard solution is to "empathize" (i.e. study the 'problematic'
component within a complex system) and figure out how to create a new space
for it within the system/reconfigure the system around it.

~~~
lolc
Cats once had a function in pest control. These days, we're keeping cats
solely for our pleasure. We can be the ones to not keep them anymore.

I find that people who lock cats inside don't empathize with them much. And
those who let them roam don't empathize much with wildlife. The best system
may be the one where cats are not considered pets anymore.

~~~
malvosenior
Don’t people still keep cats for pest control? They’re really good at it.

~~~
lolc
It is rarely a consideration.

~~~
malvosenior
You must not live in a place with a lot of rodents. Cats are regularly
employed to help keep them out of your house. This goes for the city and
country. Cats are super useful in New York for instance.

------
oceanghost
How was the solution not to trap the cat? Or shoot it? I realize its
distasteful, but natures red in tooth and claw?

~~~
CamperBob2
After careful consideration, the decision of the committee is that the cat
should be downvoted.

------
jumelles
My two cats live indoors. It's safer for them and better for everything
outside — win-win!

------
trhway
a few observations - the cat went for easy prey, ie. land based birds. The
people could have started feeding that cat, and that would have probably
decreased his hunting drive. The people staking out there may have probably
added to the distress of the colony of the birds who seems to not be a big fan
of people. City limit of 2 cats seems to be typical bureaucrat knee jerk
reaction - after all one specific cat was supposedly enough to drive the
colony away, so why 2? not 1, 0, 3, 4? or why the limit at all?

~~~
m463
Cats will hunt even when well fed.

~~~
bmer
Source?

~~~
m463
"Turner, D. C. 2000. The domestic cat: the biology of its behaviour. Second
edition. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom."

:)

------
hartator
Not sure why bird lives > cat lives. NB: The city has decided to kill the cat:
[https://www.mandurahmail.com.au/story/6290650/mandurah-
counc...](https://www.mandurahmail.com.au/story/6290650/mandurah-council-
moves-to-strengthen-cat-ownership-laws/)

~~~
mastazi
In Australia the well being of native species > well being of introduced
species (aka feral pests). That's why, for example, there was so much
controversy over brumbies population management [1]

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zArrMjNp1Hw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zArrMjNp1Hw)

~~~
mannykannot
_Continued existence_ of native species > well being of introduced species.

~~~
mastazi
Exactly, we already had a hefty share of extinctions [1], many of those due to
introduced pests

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_extinct_animals_of_Aus...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_extinct_animals_of_Australia)

(Edited for clarity: obviously not all of those animals in the linked list
became extinct exclusively because of introduced species)

