Cats killing billions of animals in the US
By Rebecca Morelle Science
reporter, BBC World Service
Cats are
one of the top threats to US
wildlife, killing billions of animals each year, a study suggests.
The
authors estimate they are responsible for the deaths of between 1.4 and 3.7
billion birds and 6.9-20.7 billion mammals annually.
Writing
in Nature Communications, the scientists said stray and feral cats were the
worst offenders.
However,
they added that pet cats also played a role and that owners should do more to
reduce their impact.
The
authors concluded that more animals are dying at the claws of cats in the United States
than in road accidents, collisions with buildings or poisonings.
The
domestic cat's killer instinct has been well documented on many islands around
the world.
Felines
accompanying their human companions have gone on to prey on the local wildlife,
and they have been blamed for the global extinction of 33 species.
But their
impact on mainland areas has been harder to chart.
To find
out more, researchers from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute
(SCBI) and the US Fish and Wildlife Service carried out a review of studies
that had previously looked at the predatory prowess of cats.
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“Start Quote
Our study
suggests that they are the top threat to US wildlife”
Dr. Pete
Marra SCBI
Their
analysis revealed that the cat killings were much higher than previous studies
had suggested: they found that they had killed more than four times as many birds
as has been previously estimated.
Birds
native to the US, such as the American Robin, were most at risk, and mice,
shrews, voles, squirrels and rabbits were the mammals most likely to be killed.
Dr Pete
Marra from the SCBI said: "Our study suggests that they are the top threat
to US
wildlife."
The team
said that "un-owned" cats, which they classified as strays, feral
cats and farm cats, were killing about three times as many animals as pet cats.
However, they said pet cats were still killing significant numbers of animals,
and that their owners should do more to limit the impact.
Dr Marra
said: "We hope that the large amount of wildlife mortality indicated by
our research convinces some cat owners to keep their cats indoors and that it
alerts policymakers, wildlife managers and scientists to the large magnitude of
wildlife mortality caused by cat predation."
A
spokeswoman for the animal welfare charity the RSPCA said that a properly
fitted collar and bell could reduce a cat's success when hunting by at least a
third.
Source of Info:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21236690
