Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!rice!uw-beaver!zephyr.ens.tek.com!wrgate!dadla!denise From: denise@dadla.WR.TEK.COM (Denise Caire) Newsgroups: rec.birds Subject: Re: Cats & WIld Birds Message-ID: <855@wrgate.WR.TEK.COM> Date: 29 Nov 89 18:44:51 GMT Sender: nobody@wrgate.WR.TEK.COM Reply-To: denise@dadla.WR.TEK.COM (Denise Caire) Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Beaverton, OR. Lines: 51 In article <3765@ccnysci.UUCP> christ@ccnysci.UUCP (Chris Thompson) writes: >In article <822@wrgate.WR.TEK.COM>, denise@dadla.WR.TEK.COM (Denise Caire) writes: >weeks ago. The article appeared sometime over the summer (I can get an >exact citation if anyone is interested). In short, the researchers found >that housecats- real pets, not feral or semi-feral-- were THE leading >cause of mortality among birds and small mammals in Britain. (Small Don't the British people have a different attitude towards cats? I've seen television shows (PBS) documenting the stray population. Quite a different approach than we take here in the US. Also, the size of the land mass is also quite different. But that aside, I do find this an eyeopener. >mammals included not only house mice and rats, but field mice, shrews, >voles, and anything else they could catch (I presume)). Their method the researchers', that is) was to go to all the household Did they give any statistics on the rate of depopulating the birds? Or, what ratio of bords to the total estmated population were being killed by cats? Also, were stray cat kills tallyed? > >Finally, with regards to feeders: not all birds will forage at a feeder. >Some, like palm warblerss, are ground feeders (as are juncos). I'm sure >we could come up with a lot more, so safeguarding your feeder is not enough. Chris, you make another good point here. The context was that cats are not soley nor are they mainly responsible for depopulating the earth of birds. The study you mention in Britain is still of a much smaller and more densely populated area than the US. >people are lousy, it's mankind's fault, so I won't have any part-no matter >how small-in the solution." Doesn't it make sense to make an effort at >doing something- in this case, trying to keep your cat from nailing a bird? You do not know that my cat has ever nailed a bird. He is 2 years old, neutered, and stays around the house because of the pecking order in my neighborhood. I've seen him watch birds, but I have never seen him go after one nor seen any evidnce in my yard that he has ever killed one. I DO make an effort, no matter how small it may seem in relative terms, to change our attitude toward the environment and other living things. To imply that I do not care or make an effort surely shows how little you know of me. Denise Caire :-) That's the smiley I owe ya. denise@dadla.WR.TEK.COM Brought to you by Super Global Mega Corp .com