However, if we dig deeper into the study by the Journal of Nature Communications, we'll see that only one out of three birds are killed by owned cats. If we take a look at European figures, we can see that this changes, there is no significant relationship between the two, though they have found that cats do affect birds in the heathland. In Australia, 100 animal species are currently at threat due to the increase in feral cats, which has increased significantly since the 1960s. The president of the American Bird Conservancy stated that one in three birds in America is in decline due to cat predators. Moreover, according to biologist Roger Tabor, a cat in a village will kill an average of 14 birds whereas a cat in the city will kill 2 per year. 2 out of 3 of these birds were killed by cats that are not owned (farm,strays and colony cats), whereas the rest were killed by domesticated and owned pets. Current statisticsĪccording to a study by the Smithsonian Conservatory Biology Institute over 2.4 billion birds are killed by cats in the U.S, though cats will only kill birds during their first years of life, when they are agile enough to prance on them which is why birds count as only 10% of their usual prey. As many of these animals lost their ability to fly due to lack of predators (especially those native to New Zealand), these birds were the easiest prey for cats. If we take a closer look, we'll see that all of these animals became extinct during the 19th century, due to the fact that it was European settlers that introduced cats, rats and dogs into the countries where these animals lived. Here is a list of the birds that have become extinct due to the introduction of cats:Īs you can see, the birds that became extinct due to cats are all from islands, where cats were not native more specifically in islands, due to the increased frailness and uniqueness of its endemic habitat. Have cats really extinguished 33 bird species?Ĭats have been cataloged as invasive species by the International Union for Conservation, as they have allegedly contributed to the extinction of 33 species, not birds, around the world. It may not seem much to you, but with the high breeding speed and the increased population of feral cats (an estimate 30 million strays only in the U.S), you can do the math.īut let's take a look at real statistics, figures and reasons behind all of this. Domestic cats are said to kill an average of 9 birds per year.
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