This is like saying because there are toads native to Australia, that Cane toads are fine. An invasive species is an invasive species, and is characterized by its spread, reproduction, and harm to the local ecosystem.
Comment on How do I get the damn cat to understand I can feed myself?
Brummbaer@pawb.social 1 week agoThe European wild cat exists. Domestic cats may have come from Africa, but cats have been native in Europe for a long time.
Nefara@lemmy.world 1 week ago
schipelblorp@sh.itjust.works 1 week ago
I think the problem with domestic cats is not the color of their passport, but the fact they are not subject to pressures limiting predators in the wild.
They have:
a) have permanent shelter b) have constant access to food
So while others animals are starving and being eaten, the cat just goes out there every day and kills everything it can find, and if it can’t find anything, it goes back and has a full meal, and it does this every day for most of its very long life no matter how much food is available or how cold it gets.
Brummbaer@pawb.social 1 week ago
That’s the reason wildcats are not a problem, they have small stable populations and barely interact with humans and domestic cats.
“Modern” Wildcats have been in all of Europe for at least 300k years, so they were just another predator species among many others.
schipelblorp@sh.itjust.works 1 week ago
What specific wild cat are you talking about in Europe? Do you mean feral domesticated cats (which are essentially this one small African cat)? Or larger critters like bobcats?
Brummbaer@pawb.social 1 week ago
The European wild cat - Felis silvestris.
Interestingly it seems that they avoided interbreeding with domestic cats for over 2k years.
ox.ac.uk/…/2023-11-06-european-wildcats-avoided-i…