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Gallery · Always

Murderous cats

The hunter on the sofa: billions of birds, island extinctions, and what owners and cities can do.

Always

The hunter on the sofa

biology

A house cat hunts even when it is well fed. Hunting and hunger are wired separately in the cat brain, so a full cat will still stalk, pounce and bring home prey. That is the trait farmers wanted around their grain stores, and it is the same trait that makes cats a problem for wildlife.

Can a trait be useful in one place and harmful in another?

Sources: Adamec, The interaction of hunger and preying in the domestic cat, Behavioral Biology 18 (1976)
SI painting, reconstruction · made with an OpenAI image model for newSchoolWorks.com
2013 estimate

Billions of birds

biologyeconomics

A 2013 study estimated that free-ranging domestic cats in the United States kill between 1.3 and 4.0 billion birds and 6.3 to 22.3 billion small mammals each year (estimate). Most of the toll comes from unowned cats, but pet cats allowed outdoors add to it.

Why is the range in this estimate so wide?

Sources: Loss, Will and Marra, The impact of free-ranging domestic cats on wildlife of the United States, Nature Communications 4 (2013)
SI painting, reconstruction · made with an OpenAI image model for newSchoolWorks.com
1800s to today

Cats on islands

biologyhistory

On islands, birds and reptiles often evolved without ground predators. Cats carried by ships have helped drive at least 63 bird, mammal and reptile species extinct (estimate), and the domestic cat is on the IUCN list of 100 of the world's worst invasive species. Australia estimates cats kill about 377 million birds a year there (estimate).

Why do island animals suffer most when a new predator arrives?

Sources: Doherty et al., Invasive predators and global biodiversity loss, PNAS 113 (2016); Woinarski et al., How many birds are killed by cats in Australia, Biological Conservation 214 (2017); IUCN Invasive Species Specialist Group, 100 of the World''s Worst Invasive Alien Species
Illustration: Urbanicity house studio (SI-generated)
Ongoing

What owners and cities can do

biologyeconomics

Keeping cats indoors or in outdoor enclosures, often called catios, protects wildlife and also lengthens cats' lives. Some towns require cats to be kept in at night. Trap-neuter-return programs for unowned cats are debated: supporters say they reduce colonies over time, critics say cats keep hunting while colonies shrink slowly.

Whose interests come first here: the cat, the bird, or the owner?

Sources: American Bird Conservancy, Cats Indoors; Alley Cat Allies, Trap-Neuter-Return
SI painting, reconstruction · made with an OpenAI image model for newSchoolWorks.com
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