cats are formidable predators
Gary John Norman / Alamy
Domestic cats have been recorded to eat more than 2,000 other species, and the actual number of species they eat is probably much higher. This is the result of a first attempt to create a comprehensive list.
“We know that cats eat a lot, but I don’t think anyone has really looked into the full story,” he says. Christopher Lepczyk At Auburn University in Alabama. “We started thinking, how big is this problem? Are there any animals that cats aren’t eating?”
Based on scientific papers, his team created a database of what cats ate and where they ate. This list includes 981 birds, 463 reptiles, 431 mammals (including humans), 119 insects, 57 amphibians, and 33 species belonging to other groups.
Of these 2,084 species, 347 are considered endangered or already extinct in the wild, including the western quoll, green turtle, and Newell’s shearwater, including the Stevens Island wren. But the study didn’t consider how big a role cat predation played in these cases, Lepczyk said.
These numbers are far from telling the complete story, he says. “We are just the tip of the iceberg.”
For example, in many cases where cats were recorded eating insects or other invertebrates, the species was not identified.
“The range of cats’ diets far exceeds what we’ve seen in many other carnivores and predators,” Lepczyk said. “There are few things cats won’t eat.”
Some of the species included in the database are also scavenged by cats, which is part of the reason why the list includes species too large for cats to kill. But in some cases, such as green sea turtles, cats can catch juveniles, Lepczyk said.
The study did not consider what could be done to reduce the amount of wildlife killed by domestic cats. However, some helpful measures include keeping your cat indoors or in a fenced yard, microchipping, and having your cat spayed or neutered.
It was also recently discovered that cats can spread the brain-altering parasite that causes toxoplasmosis to both wildlife and humans.
topic:
Source: www.newscientist.com
