AY Honors/Cats - Advanced/Answer Key

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Rescued feral kittens

Most feral kittens have little chance of surving more than a few months and are vulnerable to starvation, predators, disease and even flea-induced anemia. Here, kittens from two feral litters are fostered by a domestic mother.

A feral cat is a cat which has been separated from domestication, whether through abandonment, loss, or running away, and becomes wild. The term also refers to descendants of such cats, but not to Wild Cats, whose ancestors were never domesticated. Adult feral cats that were born feral usually cannot be socialized. Adult feral cats that were born in a domestic environment and reverted to the feral state can sometimes be re-socialised. Feral kittens, however, can often be socialized to live with humans if they are taken from a feral colony before they are about twelve weeks old. About 10% of cats cannot be socialised at all due to genetic factors.

Feral cats may live alone, but are usually found in large groups called feral colonies with communal nurseries, depending on resource availability. Many abandoned pet cats join these colonies out of desperation; these cats can usually be readopted into a new home. The average life span of a feral cat that survives beyond kittenhood is usually cited as less than two years while a domestic housecat lives an average of twelve to sixteen years , however ferals cats aged nineteen (Cat Action Trust) and twenty-six (Cats Protection) have been reported where food and shelter are available.

Cityscapes and North America are not native environments for the cat; the domestic cat comes from temperate or hot, often dry, climates and was distributed throughout the world by humans. Cats are extremely adaptable and feral felines have been found in conditions of extreme cold and heat. They are more susceptible to cold, damp conditions than to cold alone. With a need for a diet of 90% protein, many feral cats lack adequate nutrition. In addition, they have no defense against or understanding of such predators as dogs, coyotes and even automobiles. The current population of twenty to forty million feral felines in the United States is due, initially, to human interference by environmental introduction and later, by simple human irresponsibility and neglect.

Major Places with Feral Cats

United States of America

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Some adult feral cats can be socialized, depending on the degree of human interaction throughout their lives; feral kittens have a good chance of socialization and adoption up to about four months of age. This feral cat has had the tip of one ear severed, which identifies it as having been sterilized and innoculated by a Trap-Neuter-Return program.

In the United States, there is an ongoing debate about how to deal with feral cat populations. There is little doubt that feral cats are extremely effective at controlling or even eradicating small animal populations, and some cite the utility of cats in controlling populations of verminous rodent species. However, conservationists argue that feral cats contribute greatly to the killing of songbirds and other endangered birds, with estimates that bird loss is at one hundred million a year due to predation, however research into the causes of bird deaths has also found that transparent windows constitute the biggest threat that birds face [1]. Additionally, it is argued that the resurgence of other small predators such as the gray fox (urocyon cinereoargenteus), fisher or pekan (martes pennanti), coyote (canis latrans), and puma (puma concolor) is a contributing factor in conserved bird deaths.

While it is widely agreed that the loss of conserved species due to overbuilding and fragmentation of native habitat by humans far exceeds deaths due to feral cat predation, some still feel it is necessary to control feral populations.

Websites such as The Feral Cat Hunt [2] advocate culling feral cat populations by hunting, arguing that it is the most cost effective method of population control. However, a proposal in the state of Wisconsin to legalize the hunting of feral cats in an attempt to reduce their population was recently (April 2005) blocked by the state's lawmakers. South Dakota and Minnesota allow wild cats to be shot.

Trap-Neuter-Return or TNR programs, presented as a humane method of feral cat population control, are facilitated by many volunteers and organizations in the States. These organizations trap and sterilize feral cats as well as providing inoculation against rabies and other viruses. Sometimes long-lasting flea treatments are also applied before release. Frequently, attending veterinarians cut the tip off one ear to mark the individual as spayed or neutered and inoculated, as these cats will more than likely find themselves trapped again. Volunteers often continue to feed and give care to these cats throughout their lives, unfortunately, it becomes very difficult to domesticate and adopt a feral cat unless it is trapped and socialized before four months of age.

October 16 is National Feral Cat Day in the United States.

Australia

Feral cats have been present in Australia since before European settlement, and may have arrived with Dutch shipwrecks in the 17th century. Intentional releases were made in the late 19th century in the hope that cats would control mice, rabbits and rats.

The feral cat has been an ecological disaster in Australia, inhabiting most ecosystems except dense rainforest, and being implicated in the extinction of several marsupial and placental mammal species but there is no proof to support this view. (Cats are not believed to have been a factor in the extinction of the only mainland bird species to be lost since European settlement, the Paradise Parrot; their role in the loss of rare species on Australasian islands, however, has been significant.) “Convincing evidence that cats exert a significant effect on native wildlife throughout the mainland is lacking” - Environment Australia

Folklore has it that some feral cats in Australia have grown so large as to cause inexperienced observers to claim sightings of other species, and subsequent news stories of mysterious animals being sighted. Typical locations for such sightings are south-west Western Australia, and the Nullarbor.

Control programs are difficult to devise due to the nocturnal and solitary nature of feral cats, broad distribution in the landscape and continuous additions to the population from abandoned domestic cats. Due to the danger posed to humans handling the animal, captured feral cats are almost always killed. Although trap neuter and return programs such as those in the United States are not prevalent in Australia, they are now being introduced in some urban and suburban areas such as Adelaide. More recently, such programs have been introduced in Sydney by the "World League for Protection of Animals".

Rome

Rome, Italy is perhaps the place with most feral cats, the total number being estimated between 250,000 and 350,000, organized in about 2,000 colonies, some of them living in famous ancient places such as the Colosseum.

Feral cats and island restoration

Feral cats introduced to islands with ecologically naive fauna (that is, species that have not evolved or have lost predator responses for dealing with cats) have had a devastating impact on these islands' biodiversity. They have been implicated in the extinction of several species and local extinctions, such as the huitas from the Caribbean and the Guadalupe Storm-petrel from Pacific Mexico. Moors and Atkinson wrote, in 1984, "No other alien predator has had such a universally damaging effect." Given the damage they do, many conservationists working in the field of island restoration (literally restoring damaged islands through removal of introduced species and replanting and reintroducing native species) have worked to remove feral cats. As of 2004, 48 islands have had their feral cat populations removed, including New Zealand's network of offshore island bird reserves (Nogales et al, 2004). Larger projects have also been undertaken, including their complete removal from Ascension Island. The cats, which had been introduced in the 19th century and had caused a collapse in the nesting seabirds. The project to remove them from the island began in 2002, and the island was cleared of cats by 2004. Since then seven species of seabird which had not nested on the island for a hundred years had returned.[3].

Feral cats, along with rabbits and some sea birds, are the entire animal population of the remote Kerguelen Islands in the southern Indian Ocean.

Activism

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A volunteer runs this stray cat sanctuary in Ottawa, Canada.

Feral cats colonies often arise from stray or abandoned unneutered cats. The cats breed rapidly and have multiple-kit litters although relatively few kittens survive to breeding age. Often the owners do not have the capacity or desire to care for a large number of cats.

The conditions lived in by feral cats vary immensely. Some have short, dangerous, unhealthy, desperate lives, in deplorable conditions. Others are welcomed as working cats around factories and farms and while their lives not luxurious, some live well into their teenage years. Cat Action Trust has encountered ferals up to 19 years old; the record age for a feral is 26. Because of the perceived dangers to humans, other species, and the cats themselves, and out of compassion toward the animals, many people, including celebrities such as Bob Barker, campaign to encourage people to spay and neuter their pets and support the humane control of feral cats.

A growing number of animal societies realize that feral cats are wild animals and should not be judged by pet animal standards. Where the cats perform a useful task or are not a threat to the local ecology, the approach is to trap, neuter and return them to their own habitat, while removing any ill, injured or tameable individuals.

References

• Tabor, Roger, Arrow Books (1983). The Wild Life of the Domestic Cat. ISBN 0099312107
• Moors, P.J.; Atkinson, I.A.E. (1984). Predation on seabirds by introduced animals, and factors affecting its severity.. In Status and Conservation of the World's Seabirds. Cambridge: ICBP. ISBN 0-946888-03-5.
• Nogales, Manuel et al (2004). A review of feral cat eradication on islands. Conservation Biology. 18 (2), 310-319. [4]

External links

• Alley Cat Allies Feral Cat Resource - provides information about how to deal with feral cats humanely.
• Feral Cat Coalition
• Cat Action Trust 1977
• Original Cat Action Trust
• Defenders of Wildlife. Plight of the Vanishing Songbirds
• [5] Australian Department of Environment and Heritage: Overview of the impact of feral cats on native fauna (pdf)
• lovethatcat.com: List of US spay & neuter programs
• Why Extermination of Ferals is Ineffective
• Taming Feral Kittens
• Feral cats (BBC)
• Animals Australia: Feral Cat bibliography
• Feral cats (The Wildlife Society)