

Secret life of the cat: What do our feline companions get up to? - Daniiltje
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22567526

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yareally
Unfortunately, one of their favorite activities while roaming around includes
killing a large number of birds[1]. While some may scoff at that, birds (even
the ones considered less desirable) contribute to lowering the populations of
insect pests that would annoy us or eat our crops. China nearly wiped out the
common house sparrow in the 1960s and it helped lead to The Great Famine[2] as
the sparrows ate much more insects than they did grain. Many types of the less
invasive bird species also do not reproduce nearly as fast or in abundance as
their feline predators. So while cats might have a few litters or more each
year, the birds they are killing might only have one successful clutch, if
that. Unlike mammals, most bird species also need both parents to raise their
young. If one is killed, the other will most likely abandon the nest.

Countries like New Zealand[3][4] have had to worry about the size of cat
populations lately just to keep birds like the kiwi from being wiped out. New
Zealand originally had no native mammals and the birds there have not yet
built up a sense of fear to them (or even us) in many cases. Although cats are
a guilty party, we also did some damage by wiping out some unique New Zealand
species, such as the Moa[5]. Until mammals came along, birds were the dominate
species of the island, which is one of the factors that makes its ecosystem so
interesting to study.

[1] [http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-
way/2013/01/29/170600655/beh...](http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-
way/2013/01/29/170600655/behind-cute-face-a-cold-blooded-killer-study-finds-
cats-kill-billions-of-animals)

[2]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Pests_Campaign](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Pests_Campaign)

[3]
[http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objecti...](http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10860618)

[4]
[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/8021...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/8021992/Deodorant-
sought-to-save-New-Zealands-smelly-birds.html)

[5] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moa)

~~~
keenerd
I think these studies underestimate how lazy a well-fed cat is. Lots of
annecdotes ahoy!

I feed (and fix and tame and try to place) a decent number of local strays. In
the past five years I've only seen a cat _really_ hunt twice - after being
thrown out of his house (but before realizing I'd feed him) he killed and ate
two squirrels. There has been maybe half a dozen mice and voles, and maybe
twice as many cicadas. I've seen cats watch birds but I've never seen them
pounce. Only very hungry cats bother with hunting fast moving prey, and our
local bird population remains stable. (Counterpoint, I am pretty sure
everything here nests in trees and out of reach of all but the most determined
cat. Other areas with lots of ground-nesters are probably more vulnerable.)

What has been wrecked is the local snake population. The area used to have
small, cute and harmless Northern Brown snakes everywhere. Adorible things,
about 10 inches long and become tame after 15 minutes of handling and never
bite. Every spring I'll pull a bunch of these snakes out of the jaws of a cat,
maybe half survive. Snakes are too slow and irresistible to surive a bored
cat.

Feed the cats and the birds will do fine.

* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storeria_dekayi](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storeria_dekayi)

~~~
yareally
I tend to agree that domestic cats with owners are not really the problem
(ours when I was a kid living a farm did kill some birds/snakes/rabbits, but
not in large numbers). Although cats as pets might not be killing as much as
their feral cousins, the impact of a bird being killed by a cat though is a
bit worse than non-bird victims. The likelihood the offspring of the victim
bird will not reach adulthood is near 100% versus only 50% (or less in animals
that don't require parental rearing) with other animal victims[1].

The problem is more with feral cats that people dump and have no source of
food other than what they catch. Combined with most of them not being spayed
or neutered, the feral cat populations in many countries grows at an alarming
rate as they tend to not have any natural predators. However, that has changed
a bit here in the United States with the rise of the coyote populations
recently and may help to stabilize the feral cat problem.

[1] near 100% since most birds need both parents to raise their young (and
will likely abandon the nest if one is killed) and the 50% coming from the
chance the animal killed was a female non-avian species.

------
ancarda
I wonder what kind of equipment they use. I can't imagine strapping a
Raspberry Pi to my cat to find out what he's up to. Do they use custom built
hardware?

~~~
smethod
[http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/internet/posts/Cat-Secret-Life-
Ca...](http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/internet/posts/Cat-Secret-Life-Camera)

------
deletes
Do not watch the video of cat number 4. You have been warned.

~~~
sdfjkl
I imagine most cat owners are quite familiar with this.

~~~
yareally
I can guess what the video is about (not really wanting to watch it) and I saw
it quite a bit of it living on a farm when I was younger where we kept cats to
take care of the rodent problem.

I like cats well enough, but I never really got used to seeing the results of
their "sadistic side" (if you can call it that) and what they left behind.
Kind of silly, but I would avoid them for a period of time after one of them
decided to make a cardinal, rabbit or goldfinch its living play toy. We fed
them well on top of the rodents they caught, but cats being cats, can't help
themselves[1]. I know it's the way they are, but I like pretty much all
animals, so seeing senseless killing was just somewhat irritating.

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birds_Anonymous](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birds_Anonymous)

