Goats gotten, South African National Park Service scopes in on feral cats CAPE TOWN, South Africa––Have feral cats succeeded feral Himalayan mountain goats, called tahrs, as the purported greatest threat to native South African wildlife at Table Mountain National Park? The few remaining Table Mountain tahrs, a cause celebré from 2001 to 2004, are descended […]
Secrets of Marion Island: what NatGeo didn’t tell you
Seabird recovery project haunted by ghosts of cats, in the form of voracious mice CAPE TOWN––National Geographic writer Leslie Nemo omitted two of the most ecologically significant facts about the Marion Island Special Nature Reserve from her December 14, 2018 online feature “Saving a remote island’s birds—by getting rid of its mice.” Lauding […]
Mystery marine toxo host kills sea mammals; cats wrongly blamed
Toxoplasma gondii finding in beluga whales points same way as sea otter and monk seal studies––& not toward cats MONTREAL––A new study widely publicized for allegedly linking domestic cats to losses of endangered beluga whales in the St. Lawrence River estuary actually shows almost the opposite, read in context––and contributes to a growing stack of […]
“Rabies roulette” in Tampa: the odds favor TNR
You are 32,250 times more likely to hit double zero than to meet a rabid cat in Hillsborough County TAMPA, Florida––With the 2016 final numbers yet to be reported by Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, the lowest annual total of rabid cats ever found in the U.S. came in 2015, the second lowest […]
What if an island has no cats?
Birds on remote islands are sometimes better off with cats than without them Part II of a two-part series. See also When the cats are away, the mice will play––and the rats & rabbits. Gough Island, also in the South Atlantic, never had any cats. “Today, the British-owned island, described as the home of the most […]
When the cats are away, the mice will play––and the rats & rabbits
Purging cats from South Atlantic islands often harms birds more than helps them (Part I of a two-part series. See also What if an island has no cats?) LONDON, U.K.––Fourteen years after declaring victory over feral cats on remote Ascension Island, on behalf of sooty terns, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds […]
Culling cats increases the feral population, Australian study finds
HOBART, Tasmania, Australia––Perhaps the strongest scientific support yet for one of the key presumptions behind neuter/return feral cat control has emerged from a 13-month study by Tasmanian Department of Primary Industries biologist Billie Lazenby and two colleagues. Expecting to validate the use of lethal culling, Lazenby and fellow researchers N.J. Mooney, and C.R. Dickman instead […]
CDC safety scandals & the legacy of former star scientist Charles Rupprecht
ATLANTA––The U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention during the third week of March 2015 quietly posted a highly critical report of itself by an outside panel of biosecurity and safety experts. The CDC at the same time issued a public statement accepting 20 specific recommendations for improvement. “Leadership commitment toward safety has been inconsistent […]
The poop on deer, cats & Toxoplasma gondi
by Merritt Clifton CLEVELAND, Ohio––Deer don’t eat cats, or cat poop, but that did not stop the American Bird Conservancy from alleging in a December 23, 2014 media release that feral cats are the “likely source” of the parasite Toxoplasma gondi, discovered in about 60% of the 444 deer and 65% of the 200 cats […]