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Feral felines threaten wildlife

BETWEEN 60 and 100 million feral cats (wild cats that shun human contact) currently roam the U.S. Conservative estimates suggest that these cats annually kill some 1.4 billion small animals and birds, but the real number may be much higher. A recent University of Wisconsin study states that perhaps as many as 217 million birds are killed by rural free-roaming cats in Wisconsin alone.

The hardest-hit birds are ground nesters. "We don't have any data, but there is no doubt quail are affected by feral cats; quail are at the bottom of the food chain," explains Dr. George Wallace of Florida Fish and Wildlife, who heads up the state's Cats Indoors program, which seeks to curb the recent trend toward creating so-called "cat colonies."

Cat colonies are tended by volunteers who feed and attempt to trap, neuter and release cats into the open space of a colony, which in theory would shrink in size as non-reproducing cats die off. In reality, the rural cat colonies become convenient dumping grounds for unwanted pets and attract other species of wildlife, which are then exposed to cat-- born disease. Feral cats are suspected of spreading feline leukemia to California mountain lions and infecting Florida panthers with feline distemper.

Cats have been primarily responsible for the extinction of eight species of birds and currently threaten two endangered mammals on Key Largo. Wallace states that to maintain nature's balance, feral cats have to be taken out of the ecosystem, and domestic cats need to be kept indoors. "The urge to hunt is independent of the urge to eat; cats are hard-wired to catch prey. They can't help it. They're just being cats! -Ted Hatfield.

# posted by Medical Information : 6:07 AM