Please keep your cats inside. Most ecosystems aren’t supposed to have near-apex predators running around killing everything. Outdoor cats kill over 2 billion birds a year.
> The RSPB says there is “no clear scientific evidence” that cats are causing bird populations to decline, but there is a perception among some British bird-lovers that cats are a menace and should be kept indoors. (In countries where cats are not a native species, such as Australia and New Zealand, they can have a devastating impact on wildlife.)
> “I do feel that cats are an easy target,” says Bradshaw. “Skyscrapers kill more birds than cats do. But you don’t see people standing outside the factories where glass is made, saying: ‘You’re bird-killers.’”
I have a cat that's an expert hunter, and he now wears one of those collars daily. The collar has reduced his catch to essentially zero (maybe 1-2 birds / year).
A bird nest has what, 4 or 6 eggs? All those hatchlings are pretty much born to die in the first year. Because next year, the bird population is pretty much the same.
Cats can only catch birds when they are plentiful. When the population is back within bounds, cats find birds hard to find. Its a natural feedback cycle, been around for millions of years.
If the cats didn't do it, then most of those birds would starve the first winter. Is that more kind?
It's nice to feel positive thoughts about birds. But don't let that poison your feelings about cats, who are only doing their job.
I strongly recommend this book for a deeper understanding: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01CO34KU6/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?... There are MANY species that have gone extinct or are approaching extinction because of cats.
This natural feedback cycle has been around for millions of years, just not the human element.
So to repeat: Please keep your cats inside!
And again, when bird populations reach equilibrium the cats can't find more. That's independent of cat populations.
Also, feral cats tend to congregate close to human populations.
I'm not sure what your point is about equilibriums. Of course equilibria are reached naturally, but with the human factor these equilibria have been distorted beyond any natural capacity. In short, any human-impacted equilibria tends toward the rapid decrease in species populations, often to the point of species extinction.
There may have been inter-breeding involved with wild populations, but most, if not all, feral cats have their origins in domesticated, or captive (by humans), cat populations.
Also, have you ever noticed that feral cats tend to congregate near humans? That's because they find it easier to find food from dumpsters, handouts, garbage, etc. This is very similar to other species that rely on humans for their success (rats, corn, cockroaches, crows). This artificially increases their numbers. I say "artificially" because their food source comes indirectly or directly from humans.
So simply from the definition of the word "feral", and not even including the inter-species dynamics between humans and feral cats, humans have everything to do with feral cat populations.
In places where cats are essentially an invasive species, not native at all, this is different of course.
The feedback cycle is broken where the cats have ample food supplied and the cat population no longer depends on the prey population.
Bells on collars work, as does switching cats on to a premium, high-protein food diet, and giving them mental stimulation by playing with them in the morning. “Changing the cat’s food can reduce the amount of wildlife they kill by over a third,” says McDonald. “And playing with your cat, more than a quarter. These are positive actions for the cat that also have a positive outcome on their behaviour.”
As far as I've been able to tell where I am, everything out at night that a cat would be able to reasonably encounter is either too big for the cat to kill or something that I would like the cat to kill (rats and mice).
Well, I'm not sure about the weird floating blob thing that my cameras caught one night. It was a white featureless blob just floating in front of the camera jiggling around. I would have dismissed it as some optical effect, maybe some light somewhere shining right at the camera...except it was casting a shadow. It seemed small enough for a cat to take, but I have no idea what defenses it had. Here's the footage of the blob [1].
Also not sure what this thing is or how it would do versus a cat [2].
[1] https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/DUGe2BbORXOIQyQgmD65wA....
[2] https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/x0vVRDOYSJK9oaGArGUVfA....
And putting the cat out for the night is still very bad, both for the cat (average life expectancy of outdoor cats is something like 50-70% that of indoor cats) and for the environment (they are an invasive nonnative predator species).
She still "hunts" birds but hasn't been able to catch one since I put the collar on. I suppose eventually she will get one, but it helps immensely.
The only issue is about once every two months she loses the collar (it has break away elastic) and it has to be replaced.
Indoor cats don't really care about the outside, so no, it's not cruelty, as long as it's well fed and properly stimulated.
Do you think native bird populations would spiral out of control if they weren’t killed by cats? That is definitely not true I am not sure where you would have gotten that idea.