Lecture 40 Monday May 2, 2005

How the Tail Wags the Dog: Feral Cats and Wildlife

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Announcements:

(1) Review sessions, makeup exams to be announced Wednesday

(2) Two handouts today

I. Feral Cats and Wildlife: What do we know and what don’t we know?

American Bird Conservancy (ABC), “Cats Indoors”

Alley Cat Allies (ACA): Trap-Neuter-Release (TNR)

Other interested parties

II. Effects on migratory songbirds

USFWS Migratory Songbird Conservation pamphlet

III. Prof. Stan Temple’s cat predation estimates

University of Wisconsin

Coleman, John S., Stanley A. Temple, and Scott R. Craven. "Cats and Wildlife: A Conservation Dilemma." University of Wisconsin-Extension, Cooperative Extension, 1997.

Coleman, John S., and Stanley A. Temple. "On the Prowl: In Suburban Backyards and Rural Fields, Free-Roaming Cats Are Pouncing on Songbird Populations." Wisconsin Natural Resources 20, no. 6 (1996): 4-8.

How Many Birds do Cats Kill? (handout)

IV. Other sources of information

Tabor, Roger K. The Wild Life of the Domestic Cat. London: Arrow Books, 1983.

Turner, Dennis C., and Patrick P. G. Bateson. The Domestic Cat: The Biology of Its Behaviour. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988.

V. A sampling of the studies

British “What the cat brought in” survey (1987)

New Zealand Orongorongo Valley study (1979)

Southern Sweden study (1984)

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1936 Southern Wisconsin survey (Errington)

1941 Oklahoma

1949 Michigan report (“cat from hell”)

1950 Sacramento Valley

1954 Pennsylvania food habits study

Summary table from: George, William G. "Domestic Cats as Predators and Factors in Winter Shortages of Raptor Prey." Wilson Bulletin 86, no. 4 (1974): 384-96.

VI. A Case Study: Florida 2003

Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission policy

ABC Florida cat predation web page

Ocean Reef Club, Key Largo, Florida

Key Largo woodrat

Key Largo cotton mouse

See also: Humphrey, Stephen R., ed. Rare and Endangered Biota of Florida: Volume 1, Mammals. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1992.

VII. Fitzgerald’s Conclusions

Fitzgerald, B. M. "Diet of Domestic Cats and Their Impact on Prey Populations." In The Domestic Cat: The Biology of Its Behavior, eds. Dennis C. Turner and Patrick Bateson, pp. 123-47. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988.

Cats on continents, cats on islands

Cat behavior and cat diet

VIII. Paul Errington and Aldo Leopold on predation effects

Errington, Paul L. Of Predation and Life. Ames, Iowa: Iowa State University Press, 1967.

Leopold, Aldo. Game Management. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1933 (1986). Reprint, 1986.