Threatened species commissioner appointed tohelpsave native wildlife | Environment | theguardian.com

Hi Kim, I don’t doubt that the impact of cats varies considerably with the geographical location, amount of natural habitat nearby etc. but there are native rats and mice and I am sure the typical moggy won’t discriminate. I saw a photo recently of a feral cat carrying a dead Ringtail Possum and cats often bring in small gliders such as Feathertail Gliders. It would be good to have detailed scientific data to prove the case but in the absence of that data I would recommend that people keep their cats away from places where they can come into contact with native animals. The impact on reptiles may be greater than the impact on birds. There is also a school of thought that suggests that cats have only replaced the natural predators such as quolls but it is unlikely that the population size of quolls in a given area, even in their prime, would have reached the population size of domestic cats. Regards Greg Dr Greg. P. Clancy Ecologist and Birding-wildlife Guide | PO Box 63 Coutts Crossing NSW 2460 | 02 6649 3153 | 0429 601 960 http://www.gregclancyecologistguide.com http://gregswildliferamblings.blogspot.com.au/ From: Kim Sterelny Sent: Wednesday, July 02, 2014 4:57 PM To: Greg and Val Clancy Cc: Denise Goodfellow ; Carl Clifford ; Birding Aus Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Threatened species commissioner appointed tohelpsave native wildlife | Environment | theguardian.com Folks I have talked to quite a few ecologists about this at ANU, and the message I hear is much more mixed, suggesting that cat impact varies a lot from place to place, because cats do not only eat native animals, they eat a lot of rats, mice and rabbits. That said, there is a lot of variation in opinion. It is a while since I reread any of the work in WA on numbat reintroduction but at one stage their experimental manipulations on small mammal populations showed a large impact from fox control, but much less from cat control. Anyone kept up to date on this? I’ll come clean on this: I do have a domestic cat in inner Canberra where we rent, which takes a lot of rats (over 30 in one month) and no birds; I also have a bush property, and I would never keep a cat there (not until too old to hunt, anyway) kim Kim Sterelny Philosophy Program RSSS, ANU e-mail Kim.Sterelny@anu.edu.au, Kim.Sterelny@vuw.ac.nz ANU Contact Information Philosophy Program Research School of the Social Sciences Australian National University 0200 Canberra, ACT, Australia _______________________________________________ Birding-Aus mailing list Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org To change settings or unsubscribe visit: http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org