Call to halt spread of feral cats in the US

‘This is a human-caused tragedy'November 2011: American Bird Conservancy (ABC) is calling on US mayors to stop the epidemic spread of feral cats that threaten national bird populations as well as scores of other wildlife.

Letters have been mailed to mayors of the fifty largest cities in the Unites States, urging they support responsible pet ownership and oppose Trap-Neuter-Release (TNR) programmes that promote the feeding of outdoor cats.

‘Cat overpopulation is a human-caused tragedy that affects the health and well-being of cats, our native wildlife, and the public,' says Darin Schroeder, Vice President for Conservation Advocacy for ABC in a letter to the mayors. ‘Numerous published, scientific studies have shown that trap, neuter, re-abandon programmes do not reduce feral cat populations and that outdoor cats, even well-fed ones, kill hundreds of millions of wild birds and other animals each year in the US, including endangered species. Birds that nest or feed on the ground are especially vulnerable to cat attacks.

'About as fair as shooting of fish in a barrel'‘The domestic cat is an extremely effective predator that has been introduced by modern man into an environment whose species have evolved few, if any natural cat defences. Non-native, well-fed, inoculated, healthy cats versus defenseless prey is about as fair in the world of nature as the proverbial shooting of fish in a barrel,' he said.

Studies indicate that there are 95 million outdoor and feral cats in the United States that kill at least 532 million birds, and possibly significantly more. Given the well-documented impacts of cat predation on wildlife, ABC urges the mayors to oppose TNR programmes and the outdoor feeding of cats as a feral cat management option.

Through the Cats Indoors! campaign, ABC and its many partners encourage people to keep their cats indoors, train them to go outside on a harness and leash, or build outdoor cat enclosures. Cats should be spayed or neutered before they can produce an unwanted litter, and should never be abandoned. Abandoning cats is illegal in many areas, is extremely cruel to cats, and is harmful to birds and other wildlife.

‘TNR is not humane to the cats or the wildlife. Free-roaming cats are in constant danger of being hit by cars, contracting diseases and parasites, or being attacked by other animals or people,' said Schroeder. ‘Colonies often become dumping grounds for unwanted pets, thus continuing the inhumane cycle.'

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/feral-cat1112011.html

Deer are bad news for birds

Deer may be affecting some bird species on far larger scales than previously appreciated, new research has found. The study, published this week in the British Ecological Society's Journal of Applied Ecology, provides evidence that the populations of several woodland bird populations fare worse in areas that have high, rather than low, numbers of deer.

The research led by Dr Stuart Newson from the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) applied new methods of analysis to large national bird and deer monitoring data. The study focused on eleven woodland bird species in lowland England and their relationships with three widespread and abundant deer species: muntjac (Muntiacus reevesi), roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) and fallow deer (Dama dama). The eleven bird species depend on low dense vegetation in woodland and scrub, and are therefore potentially vulnerable to browsing by deer which tends to reduce this vegetation.

There was evidence that increases in deer have been associated with large-scale population declines for five of the eleven bird species. Of these, it was suggested that the impacts of deer are likely to have been greatest for two species of conservation concern, the amber listed Nightingale and the red listed Willow Tit. These two birds have declined by 54% and 65% respectively over the last ten years.

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