Cats 1,100 times as deadly to wildlife as lead poisoning?

Gun Watch ^ | 27 May, 2017 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

 Image from spiegel.com

The number of animals that die from lead poisoning because of lead projectiles or lead sinkers on fishing tackle, is highly disputed. The high end estimates are about 10-20 million a year in the United States. Let us put that into perspective.

Cats kill birds and small animals. Lead poisoning kills some birds and animals. Animals are killed in collisions with vehicles on our roads.  All animals die. How significant are these numbers?  In Internet wanderings I came across some numbers that show that estimates of the deaths by these various means are pretty wild.

The articles claimed a median of 15 million birds and animals killed by lead poisoning, vs. a median of 16.95 billion killed by domestic and feral cats. That is 1,130 birds and animals killed by domestic and feral housecats for each bird or animals killed by lead poisoning.  In addition, it has been claimed that 365 million birds and animals are killed in collisions with vehicles on our roads. That would be about 24 times as many killed by lead poisoning.

From abcbirds.com:

(Washington, D.C., January 29, 2013) A new peer-reviewed study published today and authored by scientists from two of the world's leading science and wildlife organizations – the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) – has found that bird and mammal mortality caused by outdoor cats is much higher than has been widely reported, with annual bird mortality now estimated to be 1.3 to 4.0 billion and mammal mortality likely 6.3 to 22.3 billion individuals.

USATODAY source 

 From abcbirds.com:

An estimated 10 million to 20 million birds and other animals die each year from lead poisoning in the United States. This occurs when animals scavenge on carcasses shot and contaminated with lead bullet fragments, or pick up and eat spent lead-shot pellets or lost fishing weights, mistaking them for food or grit. Some animals die a painful death from lead poisoning while others suffer for years from its debilitating effects.

This article claims that 1 million animals are killed every day in vehicle/animal highway collisions in the United States.

That is 365 million animals killed on the road vs. 15 million killed by lead poisoning.

But consider that there are about 10-20 billion birds alive in the U.S. at any one moment.   There are probably about 1-5 times as many mammals as birds, so a rough estimate would be 40 billion mammals, about double that for reptiles, and about the same for amphibians as reptiles. Say 80 billion reptiles and 80 billion amphibians.

This gives us a very rough estimate of animals in the United States, not counting fish, insects, arthropods, or protozoans, of about 215 billion animals living at one time.  Very, very, few of those animals will live longer than five years. Most will only live about a year (small mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians have very short life expectancies).

For the sake of argument, let us assume an absurdly long life expectancy of five years. That would mean about 43 billion animals die every year. Almost none of them die of old age in nature. Most are killed and eaten. A great many die in accidents.

Of the 43 billion that die every year, the top end estimate for lead poisoning is 20 million.  Using that number, .047 percent of animals that die in the U.S. each year die of lead poisoning, while 39% are killed by domesticated and feral cats, and .84 percent die in vehicle collisions.

I suspect the numbers are absurd.  They only serve to make the point that the numbers of animals that die of lead poisoning are a virtually irrelevant percentage of the number of animals that die every year, whether man has anything to do with it or not. 

I do not believe that cats kill almost four of ten birds and animals that die in the U.S. every year.  I doubt if the actual figure is even a tenth of that.

The reality is that life and death are intertwined. You cannot have birds without killing other birds, fish, insects, or ungerminated innocent seeds.

The best we can hope to do is to be good stewards of the land, increasing fertility and attempting to keep animal populations from getting completely out of control.

In the United States, because of irrigation and fertilizers, there is much more productive land than ever before. Biomass has greatly increased. Some animals did not fare well, others benefited enormously. The whitetail deer and coyote populations have soared. Bison and wolf populations plummeted.  Rock Doves (domestic pigeons) are numerous. The passenger pigeon became extinct.

The small percentages that die because of the intervention of man are more than made up for by the large increase in animal population that occurs because of the incredible increase in the fertility of the land. Man's intervention has made the United States far more fertile than it would be without man.

And that is a good thing.


©2017 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch

[beaversmom]

“Some feline experts now estimate 70 million feral cats live in the United States, the consequence of little effort to control the population and of the cat’s ability to reproduce quickly.”
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/09/0907_040907_feralcats.html

[Rome2000]

The cats need to check their cat privilege.

They be racist against mice, birds, rats, baby possum, and Iguana.

[bigbob]

Always knew cats were vary efficient predators!

[virgil]

Squirrels, rabbits and some birds can be pretty destructive too. They can always find ways to get into your house. The rabbits eat the blooms off of my crocus’s and tulips every spring since my old barn cat died. There’s a lot more squirrels than stray cats around here. I appreciate that cats help keep their numbers down or at least keep them away.

[Oshkalaboomboom]

Cats are considered the most dangerous invasive species next to humans by the Earth First types. It isn’t helped by cat owners who post on social media about how “cute” it is when their pet brings home a bird, snake or other natural predator. Cat owners also think it’s perfectly okay to let their pets wander wherever they feel like, perhaps into somebody else’s yard that has a bird feeder, and kill whatever they can. Could you imagine the uproar if people let their dogs out at night to hunt cats?

[niteowl77]

Apparently some other animal “skinned the cat” during the night hours.

Being a "country cat" can be a short gig. Around here, there are any number of critters who will take them out: dogs (both feral and moonlighting "pets"), raccoons, eagles, etc. Kittens also run the unpleasant chance of having a tomcat kill them. Between the animal dangers and the general hazards on any farm (squished by tire, poisoned by chemicals, dismemberment via serpentine belt, fan blade or auger), they don't usually die of old age.

Mr. niteowl77

[dforest]

Yeah, I can. But cats can usually get away from dogs. They are faster and they can climb.

[Big Red Badger]

Iguana?

Really?

[Does so]

Seen recently: “All of Nature is a restaurant”.

That said, where are all the songbirds?

(Said by a shooter who has assiduously protected his hearing).

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

“However, just in case, I keep my pussy indoors.”

You better! Or Trump might grab it!

[Does so]

The article is about LEAD poisoning—especially in birds.

LEAD bullets/shot are most often found in necropsies of the highly-endangered (and the otherwise long-lived) California Condor.

FERAL cats account for most other bird kills.

It was also a FERAL cat that attacked my supervisor's wife, after she left food for a FERAL cat family.

[9YearLurker]

Part of the circle of life, the more needed in the burbs, where even the cutest little rodents multiply quicker than the diminished stock of natural predators can’t keep up. Birds are a different situation primarily because of a loss of habitat and the use of pesticides and herbicides. For that more proactive policies are in order.

[PAR35]

Birds aren’t easy for cats to kill. I’ve seen more birds attacking cats than the other way round.

Small rabbits and rodents are another matter. Fun and fairly easy for the cat.

Of course, around here, the bobcats go after the larger prey like large rabbits, adult squirrels, and yippy dogs. Do we include those animals in the outdoor total?

[Vendome]

10-20 million birds are not killed by lead poisoning each year.

annual bird mortality now estimated to be 1.3 to 4.0 billion is a cannard and stupid hypothesis.

There are some 50 million feral kitty katz. Most live near three things: food, water and shelter.

They live near walmarts and fast food places, near grocery stores, apartments and placez with open garbages.

They are also being fed by well meaning people.

All of this removes pressure on the ecology and the need fkr kitties to kill for food.

I notice and prolly missed it but, the article doesn’t mention how many ground animals are killed each year by these professional assassins.

[PAR35]

Same thing in the Plano-Richardson corridor. As the Asian restaurants have expanded, Bobs have moved into the area are are beginning to self-domesticate.

[bgill]

Thank those cats who keep the vermin down or you’d have mice dining on your kitchen table and leaving poo in the baby’s crib. Squirrels are nothing but mice with bushy tails that get into your attic and chew up your electrical wires and A/C.

Can’t believe those here who are so sad about the cute little birds getting eaten but no one is sad about the cows and pigs that go into store bought cat food or those steak and hot dogs their owners will be feasting on this weekend.

There was an old lady who swallowed a cow,
I don’t know how she swallowed a cow;
She swallowed the cow to catch the dog,
She swallowed the dog to catch the cat,
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird,
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider,
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly;
I don’t know why she swallowed a fly

[Vendome]

They’ve over simplified their guessing game.

50 million katz x 360 days of one kill each = 18,000,000,000.

That’s 18 billion kills.

That isn’t happening. A kat in the wild isn’t going to get a kill everyday and there is way to much free stuff laging around and being handed to them for that number to be even close

[PAR35]

I did that in our neighborhood- caught the tom, had him fixed, and keep his shots up. His hunting seems to have kept most of the bobcats out of our immediate area.

[Vendome]

That seems just...

[Vendome]

A cat can hunt for sport but, needs to get a license and tags for their kills.

They should also stick the season limits...