Do this to slash bird deaths at a stroke (no cats involved)

Chicago Field Museum

If you want to slash bird deaths at a stroke then turn the lights off at night in city buildings. Ornithologists and bird lovers have long criticised the domestic, stray and feral cat for decimating bird numbers across the planet. They lobby governments to do all manner of things to stop this happening, some …

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Birdfeeder placement to help avoid attack by cats

Bobcat attacks and kills wild turkey feeding at feeder

I can think of two instances (but there are many more) of exposing, through good intentions, birds to predation by cats which, to me, highlights the need to be at least aware of the potential dangers. Although I’m a cat lover I am also an animal lover and I don’t like to see animals …

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Don’t blame cats for destroying wildlife – shaky logic is leading to moral panic

Colony cat

Are cats really to blame for the worldwide loss of biodiversity? Dzurag/iStock via Getty Images Plus William S. Lynn, Clark University; Arian Wallach, University of Technology Sydney, and Francisco J. Santiago-Ávila, University of Wisconsin-Madison A number of conservationists claim cats are a zombie apocalypse for biodiversity that need to be removed from the outdoors …

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Do domestic cats prefer mice or birds?

Mouse hunt is over

Domestic cats much prefer mice to birds no matter what source of information you refer to (including personal obesrvations by the cat owning public). In order to assess what, at a fundamental level, domestic cats prefer as prey animals you have to go back to their wild ancestor which is the African-Asian wildcat, otherwise …

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Do feral cats eat snakes?

Feral cats of Australia feed on geckos and many other reptiles including venomous snakes

Yes, feral cats do eat snakes, even venomous species, but it depends where the feral cat lives as this determines whether there are snakes to be eaten. Certainly in Australia there are plenty of snakes, some of which are venomous. As reported by phys.org, a study from Murdoch University in Australia revealed the prey …

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Museum display of stuffed tabby cat next to line of 34 stuffed birds is objectionable

Picture of stuffed cat and dead prey

I believe that this display is in a Dutch museum: the Natural History Museum Rotterdam. It is unpleasant. It also over-simplifies the issues of domestic cat predation and as a result misleads. All-in-all not a clever display. The creators of this display probably had the intention of summarising the predation of birds by domestic …

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Video of feral cat eating albatross

Feral cat eating an albatross chick

Right away we have to say that there is no evidence that this black feral cat killed the Shy Albatross chick. What annoys me slightly is that the video has been published on a bird website (birdguides.com) with, it seems to me, the intention of stirring up resentment at the predation of birds by …

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Bird loss USA: criticise humans not cats. It is time for a reality check.

Bird decline inforgraphic from Cornell

I for one have been fighting this battle for more than a decade. The sharp decline in bird species populations is mainly due to human behaviour. Yes, there are other factors, one of which is predation by outdoor cats but…it is all about us at the end of the day because even the cat …

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