Yet these same folks who hate cats so much are not bothered about the amount of children they produce.....surely humans are a MILLION times more destructive to this whole planet than cats could ever be!
I refuse to believe that songbird numbers are being affected JUST by cats.....Surely it cannot be right that humans can overpopulate the planet and abuse it's resources yet STILL be blind to what is going on....preferring to instead blame cats or a natural predator like a sparrowhawk? :smoke:
Yes. Nice to see this thinking on BF!
Many people fail to recognise humanity as a part of biodiversity and an innate part of all ecosystems. They ignore that if any other organisms was observed to be so prolific and damaging, both directly and indirectly, then overall problems with the ecology would be instantly attributed to it. We should be taking more responsiblity for the problems we have caused.
Within a natural system no species could mutiply and grow the way we have, our big brains have found loopholes in ecology but what so many forget is that we are still untterly dependant on the environment, and that the health of our population is directly linked to global genetic diversity.
Anyway,
The effect of predation on the song bird population (which is made up of many species) has been most drastically effected by loss of habitat and envionmental disturbance. These are the findings of every comprehensive scietific study out there.
We know from experience that removing predators causes many long term effects which are generally degrading to and ecosystems health. These include artificial non-sustainable population booms, which eventually collapse when the pradator returns or a new one moves in (sparrow hawks and house sparrows). The plumeting population does not have the natural resources to effectively recover, and so remain at low numbers for much longer than we expect or would like. In an ailing environment this can mean extinction.
The arguments for predation control are tenuous and based on a poor understanding of ecology. Not to mention unsupported by scientific research, though this is often argued with simple one dimensional studies of predator prey relationships.
Predation is a completely natural and imperative relationship within ecology. Predators only threaten vulnerable populations, they are an effector of extinction not the cause of it.
Put a bell on your cats, it might help. Otherwise work with local conservation trusts and groups to replace lost habitat, that the best thing we can do for biodiversity.
