The RSPB say that domestic cats do not cause bird populations to decline. A bold statement that requires serious consideration. I remember addressing this issue a dozen years ago when the RSPB said the same thing then. For those who are unsure, the RSPB is the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. It is a charitable organisation in the UK which was founded in 1889. It is a very much respected charity.
They recognise that large numbers of birds are killed by domestic cats in the UK. I’m sure that they also recognise the fact that the same problem exists in other countries including the USA. But critically, they state that there is no clear scientific evidence that bird mortality caused by domestic cats is causing a decline in their population numbers.
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Their argument is partly based on scientific evidence from the Mammal Society. They have a study on the Wiley Online Library. It is called “Predation of wildlife by domestic cats in Great Britain”. It is dated May 27, 2003 and is therefore getting on for 20 years old.
Referring to this study they say that “cats may kill as many as 27 million birds every year in the UK. However, there is also evidence that cats tend to take weak or sickly garden birds. It is likely that most of the birds killed by cats would have died anyway from other causes before the next breeding season, so cats are unlikely to have a major impact on populations.”
The study referred to states that in 2003 there were approximately 9 million cats in the UK. They would have “brought home in the order of 27 million birds”. The number is large and the RSPB also state that millions of birds die naturally annually through other forms of predation, disease and starvation.
The RSPB is challenging the conventional viewpoint which is constantly disseminated by ornithologists and promoted by bird lovers that domestic cats decimate bird populations and drive them to the brink of extinction. The RSPB deny that this is the case.
However, the charity has been criticised by the Countryside Alliance in the UK. They state that the RSPB don’t want to upset their supporters, many of whom are cat lovers and cat caregivers. They donate to the charity and they don’t want to limit the donations by saying that cats kill too many birds. And the reason why the Countryside Alliance have suggested this is because the RSPB has consistently attacked the shooting of birds for entertainment. They want a clampdown on game shooting and the Countryside Alliance is a supporter of game shooting. To promote game shooting is one of the reasons for the existence of the Countryside Alliance.
And now they want the RSPB to carry out further studies which either disprove or support what the RSPB state about the predation of birds by domestic at UK. Of course, I am with the RSPB in their argument. I would also like to see further studies. All estimates on the predation of birds by cats are based upon quite small and localised studies, the numbers of which are extrapolated to cover the entire country. This is prone to error. There is nobody on this planet who is certain as to the level of predation of birds by cats at present. The information simply isn’t there. The problem is that the estimates are converted to fact by ornithologists and then the public read these so-called facts and start to believe in the numbers.
Below are some more articles on the predation of birds by cats.
I want to know the number of people who support cats and birds, who has more, can you tell me
The number of people who support cats and those who support birds is greater
Hello, according to some people, the rsbc is going to re-evaluate the impact of cats on birds in light of the latest research, and I don’t know what their conclusions will be, I hope their conclusions haven’t changed, and of course I agree with cat owners to take proactive measures to reduce predation by cats, but I don’t want cats to get the blame they don’t deserve, because their research is not just for the UK, It will also have an impact on China and other places, which will inevitably lead to abuse and hatred of cats and people who sympathize with cats, because for various reasons, Chinese people have more and more hatred of cats, and more and more abuse of cats
Thanks for your wise thoughts. I’d like you to name yourself!
I don’t know what to do
About what?!
How to cancel anonymity to give yourself a name
Habitat destruction, degradation, environmental pollution, climate change, hunting and so on are the main factors affecting all kinds of animals, hunting is rarely mentioned
Thanks for your input. I think you are agreeing with me at least substantially.
Why did the rspb remove this comment from their website? Have they changed their views? Can you tell me
Why did the rspb remove the claim that cats don’t affect birds from their website? Can you tell me? Have they changed their views? Is it true that other studies have been used to change their minds?
I did not know that they did that. I have read many studies and I have never seen one which claims that cat predation is threatening a bird species with extinction. I believe that the statistics about cat predation on birds in a country are inaccurate as they are extrapolated figures from small scale studies. There are many guessed statistics presented as fact. They are not facts. Unrealiable in my view. They are pushed by bird lovers and cat haters.
Yes, I didn’t find any information about cats on their website, I don’t know if I didn’t find it or if they removed it, I see bird lovers saying the rspb changed their mind because of other research and so removed it
I don’t think they have changed their mind and I read lots of studies.
所以我新闻有一个肯定的答案，在中国猫与鸟辩论也非常激烈，中国爱鸟人士说英国皇家鸟类协会已经改变了注意
子能为我言中文网站之链接乎?
Can you share some of the research that you’ve seen, preferably the most recent, but I have a question, why can’t domestic cats be naturalized, can’t they be part of the ecosystem, and they’re always stripped out
It seems that you are saying that domestic cats are always considered to be invasive species which happens. But they are not invasive species where they originate which is in the Syrian area. But the concept of invasive species is based on bias from cat haters and bird lovers. Domestic cats have been in the UK for almost 2000 years. It’s wrong I believe to call the domestic cat an invasive species in the UK. They same applies elsewhere. Domestic cats have been in China for a similar time as I recall. The same argument applies. I have some articles on that. Here is one:
https://pictures-of-cats.org/making-the-case-that-domestic-cats-are-not-an-invasive-species-in-america.html
And another:
https://pictures-of-cats.org/26-facts-about-invasive-species-focusing-on-the-uk.html
There are many more! 😉
Here are some pages on domestic cat predation:
https://pictures-of-cats.org/tag/domestic-cat-predation
The best thing to do is to go to Google Scholar and search for domestic cat predation.
Here are some articles labelled ‘cat study’:
https://pictures-of-cats.org/tag/cat-study
Your article is great, but is there an academic article by a more authoritative institution or scholar
Fine but my articles are based on studies on Scholar or other reliable sources so there is little difference. Sometimes mine are better because I know cats better than the scholars 😎.
Yes, I didn’t find any information about cats on their website, I don’t know if I didn’t find it or if they removed it, I saw some bird lovers say the rspb changed their mind because of other research and so removed it, so did the RSPB change their mind? Is there a positive answer