Comment on Meow
LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net 1 day agoI can see the logic but it does feel like the cat’s already out of the bag on this one. There are so many free-ranging and feral cats that I wonder if it makes any difference at this point.
People buy cats from shelters, then let them be outdoor cats. It does matter.
On the flip side, I’ve homed three outdoor/feral cats in my house. They adjust to being indoor cats fine.
Cats are an invasive species in most places and are super damaging to the local fauna.
Most places is a stretch… They’re invasive in around ⅓ of Earth’s land area and where less than ¼ of people live
I don’t think it’s true that they’re native to 2/3rds of the earth, is it?
⅔ may be overestimating, but yes, they’re native to all of the Middle East and Africa, and most of Europe (outside of Scandinavia) and mainland Asia (outside of Japan & deserts, Siberia etc.)
WeirdGoesPro@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
It does. Travel to a 3rd world country and look at the difference. Dogs and cats everywhere due to no cultural expectation to keep them indoors or neuter them.
Here is an article better clarifying the effect of our cute little killing machines:
scientificamerican.com/…/cats-kill-a-staggering-n…
1rre@discuss.tchncs.de 1 day ago
That article seems very new-world-centric
Europe, Mainland Asia & Africa all have native small cats and so the birds and small mammals have evolved to deal with them, the issue is that in Australia & the Americas they haven’t and so that’s where all the risk of species actually being wiped out is - in the old world the cats largely just replace the larger predators that humans have killed off in the ecosystem
LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net 23 hours ago
Even in the Americas we have cats though. Bobcats are slightly larger but not completely dissimilar. We even used to have ocelots across much of the US. So I find the claim that mainland birds are not able to handle cat predation to be a bit questionable. However I am not fully educated on this topic.
Maiq@lemy.lol 13 hours ago
Maiq has heard its dangerous to be your friend.
Klear@sh.itjust.works 9 hours ago
No lies detected.
LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net 22 hours ago
I’ve seen a lot of stats about cats and it seems very likely they have important conservation implications in island ecosystems where birds did not evolve with similar predators.
But I’ve not seen evidence of conservation impacts on the mainland where we do and did have similar predators in the past. Just stating that cats eat a lot of birds doesn’t mean they’re a threat to overall populations.
WeirdGoesPro@lemmy.dbzer0.com 22 hours ago
True, but that article says that over 350 of their prey species are at risk species, and that several of those are suspected to already be extinct.
I love cats—I think most people should have them—just be responsible with your furry murderers.
LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net 15 hours ago
Again it would depend on where those are—threatened species are disproportionately located on those islands I mentioned. Furthermore it doesn’t assign any causation to cat predation.
Maybe cats are a serious conservation threat on continental areas but I’m just saying I haven’t seen evidence of this.