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<\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n KENMORE,\u00a0 Queensland,\u00a0 Australia\u2013\u2013<\/strong>Two new studies from scientists associated with the Australian Pet Welfare Foundation and the University of Queensland challenge the notion that cat predation has much of anything to do with bird population declines.<\/p>\n Perhaps only New Zealand is more militantly mobilized against outdoor cats,\u00a0 both feral and domestic,\u00a0 than Australia,\u00a0 based on the long politically amplified claim that cats rather than agriculture and urban development are primarily to blame for losses of birds and endangered species.<\/p>\n (See Cat-haters Down Under set up rare birds for an attack of H5N1 avian flu.)<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n <\/a> Aussie feral cat on a skategoat.<\/strong><\/em> But Birds are Still Singing in Our Suburbs:\u00a0 Contemporary Hunting Data for Pet Cats <\/em>in Urban Australia<\/em>,\u00a0 a 38-page review of data and of the presumptions behind the data,\u00a0 knocks the quasi-scientific underpinnings out from beneath the theory that cat predation on birds is anywhere near as frequent as is commonly claimed.<\/p>\n Birds are Still Singing in Our Suburbs<\/em> follows by barely a month the release of a study by an overlapping team entitled Bella & Charlie Are Not the Problem\u2014It\u2019s Us: The Real Causes of Wildlife Rescue in New South Wales.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cHunting of wildlife by pet cats is an important concern in Australia, \u00a0resulting in claims pet cats are \u2018sending our suburbs silent,\u2019\u00a0 begin Jacquie Rand of the Australian Pet Welfare Foundation,\u00a0 who is a former University of Queensland veterinary professor,\u00a0 and three University of Queensland co-authors in Birds are Still Singing in Our Suburbs.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em>One of the University of Queensland co-authors,\u00a0 wildlife ecologist Kate J. Dutton-Regester of the School of Veterinary Science, \u00a0also co-authored Bella & Charlie Are Not the Problem.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/a> Jacquie Rand, Australian Pet Welfare Foundation chief scientist. (Australian Pet Welfare Foundation photo)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n \u201cNational estimates of predation by pet cats are limited and depend on assumptions about how many cats hunt, \u00a0how much prey they catch, \u00a0and how much prey is not observed by owners,\u201d\u00a0 Rand et al<\/em> observe.<\/p>\n Countering the guesstimates,\u00a0 Rand et al<\/em> collected data reported by \u201c2,405 owned and semi-owned cats from lower-income suburbs in Ipswich, \u00a0Queensland, \u00a0whose carers enrolled them in a free sterilization program and were required to complete a questionnaire\u201d in order to receive the free spay\/neuter service.<\/p>\n \u201cMost cats were not reported to hunt: \u00a077% were reported never to hunt,\u201d\u00a0 primarily because the cats were kept indoors,\u00a0 \u201cand even among cats with outdoor access, \u00a058% were not reported to hunt,\u201d\u00a0 Rand et al <\/em>found.<\/p>\n Not hunting,\u00a0 or not hunting successfully,\u00a0 might chiefly reflect a lack of vulnerable prey in the cats\u2019 habitat during the hours when the cats are outdoors.<\/p>\n <\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n \u201cAmong cats reported to catch prey, \u00a0insects and rodents were most common,\u201d\u00a0 wrote Rand et al<\/em>,\u00a0 affirming previous studies and common belief,\u00a0 \u201cwhile birds were least commonly reported and were usually caught in low numbers.\u201d<\/p>\n Moreover,\u00a0 Rand et al<\/em> suggest,\u00a0 most of the cat predation that does occur in Australian suburban environments is \u201ccompensatory,\u201d\u00a0 rather than \u201cadditive.\u201d<\/p>\n Only \u201cadditive\u201d predation actually contributes to population losses among prey species.\u00a0 \u201cAdditive\u201d predation is predation on the healthy,\u00a0 potentially successfully reproducing part of the prey population.<\/p>\n Almost all animal predation,\u00a0 however,\u00a0 not just by cats, \u00a0is \u201ccompensatory,\u201d\u00a0 meaning that the predators kill and eat mainly the sick and injured,\u00a0 the aged and infirm,\u00a0 and unattended young.<\/p>\n None of these victims are likely to contribute any more to the reproductive success of their species than they already have.<\/p>\n <\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n \u201cWhen the observed hunting frequency and number of prey observed to be caught in this population were used to generate national predation estimates,\u201d\u00a0 Rand et al<\/em> continued,\u00a0 \u201cthe resulting totals were substantially lower than previously published Australian estimates.<\/p>\n \u201cFor birds, \u00a0our estimated annual mortality of 0.38 million was 161- to 311-fold lower than<\/p>\n the widely cited estimates of 61\u2013118 million birds killed each year by pet cats,\u00a0 and was more consistent with estimates of Australia\u2019s total urban bird population of 11 million,\u201d\u00a0 who are obviously not extirpated by cats multiple times per year and then somehow replenished,\u00a0 as would be necessary to achieve the claims of higher predation.<\/p>\n Actual Australian bird population turnover per year,\u00a0 Rand et al <\/em>mentioned,\u00a0 is scientifically reported as about 3.6 million per year,\u00a0 meaning that about one bird in three dies,\u00a0 and about one bird in three is in his or year first year of life.<\/p>\n These figures are in the normal range for population studies of most birds and other wildlife.<\/p>\n <\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n \u201cPublished estimates of predation by pet cats have led to claims that pet cats are having a devastating effect on native wildlife,\u201d\u00a0 Rand et al<\/em> wrote,\u00a0 \u201cbased on data collected between 32 and 37 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n The Birds are Still Singing in Our Suburbs<\/em> data can perhaps best be compared to what is still the mostly widely cited study of cat predation,\u00a0 and the study most often cited out of context by people who want to blame cats for vanishing birds,\u00a0 published by the British-based Mammal Society in February 1998.<\/p>\n To produce that survey,\u00a0 800 British cat owners\u2013\u2013about a third of the Australian sample\u2013\u2013recorded their cats\u2019 kills for six months,\u00a0 amounting to 144,000 cat-days of activity.<\/p>\n <\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n Among all those cats,\u00a0 the most active killer was Missy,\u00a0 with 125 documented kills in 180 days,\u00a0 including 28 birds.\u00a0 Almost all of the rest of her known kills were mice,\u00a0 voles,\u00a0 and other small rodents.<\/p>\n The runner-up was Kipper,\u00a0 with 82 known kills in 180 days,\u00a0 including six birds.<\/p>\n Between them,\u00a0 Missy and Kipper,\u00a0 by far the most actively predatory cats in the British sample,\u00a0 accounted for 34 bird kills in 360 cat-days.<\/p>\n Those two most skilled of feline killers managed to kill birds at a rate amounting to just 16% of their total prey,\u00a0 and succeeded in killing a bird on only 9.4% of the days they hunted.<\/p>\n <\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n Concluded Birds are Still Singing in Our Suburbs <\/em>co-authors Rand et al,\u00a0 <\/em>\u201cpreviously published estimates of pet cat predation in Australia are exaggerated.<\/p>\n \u201cUsing the most recent published estimate of the Australian pet cat population,\u00a0 5.83 million,\u00a0 \u00a0which is 1.5 times higher than the populations used in the previous extrapolations,\u201d\u00a0 done respectively by Charles Darwin University conservation biologist John Woinarski and Australian National University wildlife ecologist Sarah Legge,\u00a0 \u201cestimates of bird predation by pet cats would increase to 92 million (Woinarski) and 177 million (Legge), \u00a0greatly exceeding the estimated total urban bird population.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (Download Birds are Still Singing in Our Suburbs <\/em>at https:\/\/www.preprints.org\/frontend\/manuscript\/64e19c9833a18a7b3203d341a75aea1b\/download_pub<\/a>.)<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em>To produce Bella & Charlie Are Not the Problem\u2014It\u2019s Us: The Real Causes of Wildlife Rescue in New South Wales,\u00a0 <\/em>Jacquie Rand,\u00a0 Kate J. Dutton-Regester,\u00a0 and Antong Liang of the School of Agriculture and Food Sustainability at the University of Queensland \u201canalyzed 11 years of records from the New South Wales Wildlife Rehabilitation Data Dashboard,\u201d\u00a0 gathered from 2013 to 2024,\u00a0 covering 52,475 rescued animals from 158 threatened species,\u201d\u00a0 they reported.<\/p>\n \u201cOutcomes for rescued threatened animals were often poor,\u201d\u00a0 Rand et al<\/em> acknowledged.\u00a0 Only 24.1% were released alive, \u00a058.5% died in care, \u00a0and 17.5% \u201chad another recorded outcome,\u201d\u00a0 which could include escapes.<\/p>\n \u201cThe most common recorded reason for rescue,\u201d \u00a0Rand et al<\/em> found,\u00a0 \u201cwas Unknown, \u00a0followed by Entanglement, \u00a0Weather Event, \u00a0Abandoned or Orphaned young, \u00a0Unsuitable Environment, \u00a0and Motor-Vehicle Collisions.<\/p>\n <\/a> Australian pig hunters.<\/strong><\/em> \u201cTogether, \u00a0these accounted for 68% of threatened species rescues. \u00a0Animal attacks made up 4.4% of recorded rescues. \u00a0Dog attacks were more than three times as common as cat attacks, while cat attacks accounted for 0.6% of threatened species rescues.\u201d<\/p>\n The greater frequency of dogs injuring animals brought to wildlife rehabilitation centers has been informally reported by some U.S. rehabilitation centers,\u00a0 but has been explained as a matter of cats being more selective and more efficient killers:\u00a0 cats are said to not attack what they cannot quickly kill,\u00a0 and though cats may play with their prey,\u00a0 rarely let injured prey escape.<\/p>\n However,\u00a0 among wildlife brought to wildlife rehabilitation centers,\u00a0 neither cats nor dogs account for much that could be considered \u201cadditive\u201d rather than \u201ccompensatory\u201d predation.<\/p>\n <\/a> Cats\u00a0 & Australian-invented \u201cFelixer\u201d cat-killing machine.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong><\/em>(Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n \u201cPublic discussion in Australia often presents pet cats as a major cause of wildlife decline,\u201d\u00a0 observed Rand et al<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cCat management,\u201d\u00a0 a euphemism for extermination,\u00a0 \u201cis frequently promoted as a major conservation response. \u00a0However, this focus may draw attention away from other common and preventable recorded causes of threatened species rescue.<\/p>\n \u201cMany of these claims,\u201d\u00a0 about the supposed extent of cat predation,\u00a0 \u201care based on modeling and estimates drawn largely from non-peer-reviewed sources and from data collected 32 to 37 years ago, \u00a0including cat owners\u2019 reports of prey brought home,\u201d\u00a0 Rand et al<\/em> continued,\u00a0 as they noted a month later in Birds are Still Singing in Our Suburbs.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/a> Formerly feral cat named Salem.<\/strong><\/em> \u201cThis is important,\u201d\u00a0 Rand et al<\/em> explained,\u00a0 \u201cbecause urban cat ownership and containment practices have changed substantially over time.\u00a0 Older estimates used in influential modeling were based on approximately 29% of cats being contained, \u00a0whereas recent Australian data indicate that approximately 65% of pet cats are fully contained, \u00a0and a further 24% are contained at night.\u201d<\/p>\n Cat containment at night,\u00a0 however,\u00a0 would much more significantly influence predation on rodents,\u00a0 who are most active and vulnerable at night,\u00a0 than on birds,\u00a0 who except for ground-nesting species are seldom vulnerable to cats after dark.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (Bella & Charlie Are Not the Problem <\/em>may be downloaded at https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2076-2615\/16\/14\/2174<\/a>.)<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/a> Edward Howe Forbush.<\/strong><\/em> As Rand et al<\/em> found in Australia,\u00a0 the most often mentioned U.S. estimates of cat predation on birds are projected from obsolete data,\u00a0 some of which goes all the way back to the grossly inaccurate claims of then-Massachusetts state ornithologist Edward Howe Forbush in a 1916 tract entitled The Domestic Cat: Bird Killer, Mouser and Destroyer of Wild Life; \u00a0Means of Utilizing and Controlling It.<\/em><\/p>\n Among other errors,\u00a0 Forbush conflated with cat predation the predation of other species including raccoons,\u00a0 bobcats,\u00a0 and even gulls.<\/p>\n (See How a birder\u2019s mistakes incited 100 years of cat hatred<\/a>.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/a> Feral domestic shorthand cat.\u00a0 (Beth Clifton photo)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute ornithologists Scott Loss and Peter Marra and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service biologist Tom Will on January 29, \u00a02013 used numbers almost as absurd in a much cited Nature Communications<\/em> article alleging that domestic cats in the U.S. kill up to 3.7 billion birds and as many as 20.7 billion mice, \u00a0voles, \u00a0and other small mammals.<\/p>\n Loss,\u00a0 Marra,\u00a0 and Will\u2013\u2013and the pro-cat organization Alley Cat Allies,\u00a0 at the time\u2013\u2013projected a claim that there were 80 million feral cats in the U.S.,\u00a0 a claim that appears to have originated in a 1934 Nature<\/em> article, \u00a0which also projected a pet cat population of about 40 million.<\/p>\n This was more than twice as many owned as any actual survey would find before 1950.<\/p>\n The combined total of 120 million cats was derived not by counting cats, \u00a0but by simply guessing that two-thirds of all cats might be feral, \u00a0and then multiplying the number of U.S. households by 1.25 to get the guesstimated number of cats per home.<\/p>\n Skeptical of the math in the Nature <\/em>article, \u00a0the American Humane Association in late summer 1934 surveyed five neighborhoods in Albany, \u00a0New York, \u00a0finding just one cat per 10.7 households.<\/p>\n Taking over the project, \u00a0National Family Opinion Survey founders Howard and Clara Trumbull, writing as \u201cJohn Marbanks,\u201d \u00a0reported that as of 1937 the total U.S. cat population was about 35 million.<\/p>\n The Trumbulls continued their research in 1947-1950, \u00a0finding that by 1950 the U.S. cat population had increased to about 50 million, paralleling the post-World War II increase in the number of U.S. households.<\/p>\n Their surveys found about 13.2 million barn cats, \u00a06.5 million other rural cats, \u00a07.0 million cats in urban homes, \u00a0and 23 million ferals\u2013\u2013at least 42 million cats outdoors.\u00a0 This was more than any actual surveys of cat populations, \u00a0roadkills, \u00a0or animal control intake have projected within the past 20 years.<\/p>\n (See D.C. Cat Count confirms low feral cat population, lots of free-roaming pets<\/a>.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n The Trumbulls also compared their findings to six studies of cat predation done by conservation biologists between 1936 and 1951, \u00a0mostly by investigating the stomach contents of dead cats.<\/p>\n \u201cAll tended to indicate the same thing\u2013\u2013cats have been badly and unjustifiably maligned,\u201d \u00a0they wrote in the June 1953 edition of The National Humane Review<\/em>.<\/p>\n The three-year,\u00a0 $1.5 million D.C. Cat Count study,\u00a0 completed in 2021,\u00a0 is the most recent comprehensive cat population study.<\/p>\n <\/a> Beth & Merritt Clifton.<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n The D.C. Cat Count finding of 3,000 bona fide<\/em> feral cats in Washington D.C. projects to 1.4 million feral cats nationally.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (See also What if your cat could kill 10 billion insects?<\/a>,\u00a0 Predation is nature\u2019s disease control, including for Tweety & Sylvester<\/a>,\u00a0 and Who killed 2.9 billion birds since 1970? Not cats, says a look through the glass!<\/a>)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" (Beth Clifton collage) Birds are Still Singing in Our Suburbs and Bella & Charlie Are Not the Problem,\u00a0 argue team from the University of Queensland KENMORE,\u00a0 Queensland,\u00a0 Australia\u2013\u2013Two new studies from scientists associated with the Australian Pet Welfare Foundation and the University of Queensland challenge the notion that cat predation has much of anything to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7068624,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12022],"tags":[4808,229696,229705,229697,229698,229699,13483,229700,229701,229702,16535,31180,229703,229704],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-7068623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-activist","tag-cats","tag-edward-howe-forbush","tag-exonerate","tag-jacquie-rand","tag-john-woinarski","tag-kate-j-dutton-regester","tag-merritt-clifton","tag-peter-marra","tag-sarah-legge","tag-scott-loss","tag-studies","tag-sylvester","tag-tom-will","tag-tweety"],"yoast_head":"\nBirds are Still Singing in Our Suburbs and Bella & Charlie Are Not the Problem,\u00a0 argue team from the University of Queensland<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n
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(Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\nNew studies deliver a one-two punch to scapegoating cats<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\nChallenging unsupported assumptions<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\nInsects & rodents<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\nCats are not killing six times more birds than exist<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\nObsolete data<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\nMissy & Kipper<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\nJacquie Rand et al <\/em>vs. John Woinarski & Sarah Legge<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\nWildlife rehab records<\/h2>\n
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(Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\nDogs harm more wildlife than cats<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\nFocus on cats ignores more effective ways of protecting wildlife<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
(Beth Clifton photo)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\nTwice as many cats are kept indoors now<\/h2>\n
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(Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\nGhost of Forbush haunts ornithology<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\nLoss,\u00a0 Marra,\u00a0 & Will<\/h2>\n
<\/a>The 1934 claim did not stand up even in 1934<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\nFrom Howard & Clara Trumbull to the D.C. Cat Count<\/h2>\n
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