Everything about Feral Cat totally explained
A
feral cat is a free roaming, unowned and untamed
domestic cat. In contrast, a
stray cat (or
alley cat), while unowned, still exhibits temperament similar to that of a
pet. In popular usage, these terms are sometimes used interchangeably. Feral cats may be born in the wild and never socialized, or may be escaped pets that have reverted to a
wild state. They shouldn't be confused with
wildcats, which are not domestic animals.
In
Australia the term feral cat refers to cats living and breeding entirely in the wild. Significant populations of wildlife in Australia, including
marsupials,
reptiles, and
birds, poorly
adapted to this efficient predator, have allowed the establishment of stable populations across most of the country. This is certainly not to imply that this is the only nation that's experiencing this situation nor that the Australian response is particularly noteworthy
Adult feral cats, that were never socialized with humans, can rarely be socialized. Feral kittens can sometimes be socialized to live with humans. The ideal time for capture is between six and eight weeks old. Taming at this age may only take a couple of days. Older kittens can be tamed - but it takes longer. Also, an older kitten may only bond with the person working with them, which can make adoption difficult, but not impossible.
Feral cats may live alone but are usually found in large groups called
feral colonies. The
average life span of a feral cat that survives beyond
kittenhood is usually cited as being less than two years, while a domestic housecat lives an average of 12 to 16 years. However, feral cats aged 19 (Cat Action Trust) and 26 (Cats Protection) have been reported where food and shelter are available.
Cities and
North America are not native environments for cats. The domestic cat comes from
temperate or hot, 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. In addition, they're vulnerable to predators such as
dogs and
coyotes.
Feral cats have found a place in the popular imagination, perhaps due to the cat's reputation for being independent minded. For instance the famous television cartoon character
Top Cat, a wily "alley cat" would always manage to get the better of the good-natured policeman, Officer Dibble.
T. S. Eliot's
Jellicle Cats, who are now known throughout the world through
Andrew Lloyd-Webber's hit musical
Cats, were themselves inspired by a colony of black and white feral cats in
London, England.
Effects on wildlife
Feral cats are often apex predators in local ecosystems, and their predation on small mammals and birds, particularly endangered ground-nesting birds, is of increasing concern. 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. This is one of the major justifications for the keeping of
farm cats. However, conservationists argue that feral cats contribute greatly to the killing of songbirds and other
endangered birds, with estimates that bird loss is at 100 million a year due to predation. Additionally, it's argued that in the United states, the resurgence of other small predators such as the
gray fox (
Urocyon cinereoargenteus),
fisher or pekan (
Martes pennanti),
coyote (
Canis latrans), and
bobcat (
Lynx rufus) is a contributing factor in conserved bird deaths.
Feral cats in Australia
prey on a variety of wildlife. In arid and semi-arid environments
introduced European rabbits and
house mice are the dominant part of the diet; in forests and urbanised areas native
marsupial prey forms the larger part of the diet (based on 22 studies summarised in Dickman 1996). In arid environments where rabbits don't occur native rodents are taken. Birds form a smaller part of the diet, mostly in forests and urbanised areas, reptiles also form just a small part of the diet. It has been suggested that feral cats have been present in
Australia since before
European settlement, and may have arrived with
Dutch shipwrecks in the
17th century, or even prior to that; arriving from present-day
Indonesia with
Macassan fisherman and
trepangers who frequented Australia's shores. However historical records don't suggest this, instead dating the arrival of feral cats at around 1824. Intentional releases were made in the late
19th century to control mice, rabbits and rats. Cats had colonised their present range in Australia by 1890. Evidence for early predation by cats having caused major and widespread declines in native fauna is circumstantial and anecdotal and its credibility and significance is debated (Abbot 2002, Dickman 1996).
Numerous Australian environmentalists and conservationists claim that 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 (Robley
et al 2004). Scientific evidence has been hard to come by to support this view and some researchers disagree with it (Abbot 2002). Sound evidence that feral cats exert a significant effect on native wildlife throughout the mainland is lacking (Dickman 1996; Jones 1989; Wilson et al. 1992). Difficulties in separating the effects of cats from that of
foxes (also introduced) and environmental effects have hindered research into this. Cats have co-existed with all mammal species in Tasmania for nearly 200 years. in the
Gippsland area of
Victoria, subsequent DNA test showed the feline to be
Felis silvestris catus. Subsequent news stories of large Feral Cats being sighted is almost monthly in Australia and the evidence is very good to suggest a breeding population of these enormous Felines in the south-eastern states of Victoria and
New South Wales.
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 (Moors & Atkinson 1984) - 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, the
Guadalupe Storm-petrel from
Pacific Mexico, the
Stephens Island Wren; in a statistical study they were significantly complicit in the extinction of 40% of the species studied. Moors and Atkinson wrote, in 1984, "No other alien predator has had such a universally damaging effect."
Feral cats continue to have a devastating impact on island ecosystems. Indeed, a ranger within a Hawaiian Island Wildlife Sanctuary witnessed a single feral cat kill 33 ground-nesting sea birds in a single incident. As well, he notes that cats killed 45 chicks out of 75 in one bird colony.
Given the damage they cause, 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), and Australia's
Macquarie Island. Larger projects have also been undertaken, including their complete removal from
Ascension Island. The cats, introduced in the 19th century, caused a collapse in populations of 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 hadn't nested on the island for a hundred years have returned.
(External Link
).
Feral cats, along with rabbits, some sea birds and sheep, form the entire large animal population of the remote
Kerguelen Islands in the southern
Indian Ocean.
Unintended consequences
In other instances the removal of cats has had
unintended consequences, such as on
Macquarie Island where the removal of cats caused an explosion in the number of rabbits and rats which have also harmed native seabirds. The removal of the rats and rabbits is scheduled for 2007 and is expected to take up to seven years.
Population control
In the United States, there's debate about how to deal with feral cat populations - many municipalities make it legal to kill them and classify them as vermin or pests. Some advocate culling feral cat populations by
hunting, arguing that it's the most cost-effective method of
population control. However, a proposal in the
U.S. state of
Wisconsin to legalize the hunting of feral cats in an attempt to reduce their population (April 2005) was blocked by the state's lawmakers.
South Dakota and
Minnesota allow wild cats to be shot. The U.S. spends over $50 million a year to shelter some of these cats.
Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) programs are facilitated by many volunteers and organizations in the United States. These organizations trap feral cats,
sterilize them through
neutering before releasing them. Variations of the program may include
inoculation against
rabies and other viruses and sometimes long-lasting
flea treatments. Frequently, attending
veterinarians cut the tip off one
ear during spay/neuter surgery to mark the individual as being previously caught. Volunteers often continue to feed and give care to these cats throughout their lives. Many animal care experts believe that it's prohibitively difficult if not often impossible to domesticate and adopt a feral cat unless it's trapped and socialized before six weeks of age. However there's some evidence that many people have adopted and domesticated adult feral cats successfully. Also, some feral cat organizations offer techniques to do this.
In Australia, control programs are difficult to devise due to the
nocturnal and
solitary nature of the 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're 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".
Activism
Feral cat colonies often arise from stray or abandoned unsterilized cats. The cats breed rapidly and have multiple-kit litters.
The conditions lived in by feral cats vary immensely. Some live short, dangerous, unhealthy, desperate lives, in deplorable conditions. Others are welcomed as working cats around factories and farms, some living over 10 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,some 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.
Some animal rights organizations believe that feral cats are wild animals and shouldn't be judged by pet animal standards. These organizations often favor the "trap, neuter and release" approach, as opposed to euthanasia.
Zoonotic risk
There is increasing concern about the role feral cat colonies play as a vector of disease, particularly
toxoplasmosis,
giardiasis,
camplylobacter, and other diseases and parasites that can infect both domestic cats and humans. Cats are the primary reservoir of
toxoplasmosis. Indeed, there has recently been a major crash in
sea otter populations on the California coast -- these otters are often found to have
toxoplasmosis infections, and although researchers say that "there is no direct evidence that cats or their feces have a part in spreading the single-celled parasite that causes the disease in shellfish- eating otters", they speculate that infected fecal waste from feral cats could enter local watersheds due to
surface runoff or domestic cat feces through the sewage system.
Feral cats in some other countries
Rome
Rome,
Italy is perhaps the city with the largest feral cat population in the world; its population has been estimated to be between 250,000 and 350,000, organized in about 2,000 colonies, some of them living in famous ancient places such as the
Colosseum.
(External Link) Some historians believe the Romans' affection for cats dates from the Roman Empire's conquest of Egypt, where royalty kept cats. Others believe that Rome was spared from devastating outbreaks of the bubonic plague by the city's feral cat population, which kept Rome's rat population low thus reducing key plague carrying vector. Whatever the case, Rome's affection for stray felines remains strong.
Canada's Parliament
For many years (tradition associates them with a British garrison of the 1850s), a feral cat colony has existed on Canada's
Parliament Hill in
Ottawa. In recent years, living structures have been built for them, and they're fed by a volunteer who is given a stipend by the House of Commons. Veterinary services are donated by doctors in the city, and most of the cats are sterilized. At any given time, about fifteen cats live in the colony.
The present Canadian Prime Minister,
Stephen Harper, is a cat fan and takes feral kittens into his home to socialize them before they're put up for adoption in Ottawa's shelters. Visitors to his official residence can expect to be asked if they've room in their homes for a cat.
Crete
On the island of
Crete, in
Greece, there are also many feral cats. In fact, there's a charity to help them,
Cretan Cat Care (CCC).
Philippines
They are also known as "Pusang Kalye" (or Street Cat), but don't share the same treatment as the
Askal or Stray Dog.
Footnotes
Further Information
Get more info on 'Feral Cat'.
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