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Post by Psamathe on Sept 13, 2021 18:57:05 GMT
Not had my trailcam out for a bit but decided to see how the mice, voles & shrews are doing last night. Most nights I'd get a minimum of 50 clips of small rodents and last night trailcam put in a place in hedgerow I've had loads of shrews & voles just a month ago.
But all I got was two different local cats! Earlier in the afternoon I saw one hanging round the hedgerow. Without categoric proof, I'm assuming these domestic cats have demolished the local small rodent population. I suspect the reason was next door's cat is old but has been defending his territory. But over the last couple of weeks he's been very ill (probably age related issues), not been going outdoors and likely soon to be departing - so I'm wondering if his absence has opened the territory to other local cats who are into catching prey.
The suspicion has hardened my feelings against domestic cats in rural villages.
Ian
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Post by Tringa on Sept 14, 2021 13:12:56 GMT
I'm not a cat lover. I don't mean I actively dislike them, and we had a semi-feral cat that adopted us for about six years, but my choice of domestic animal will always be a dog.
Cats certainly take small mammals and birds but I'm not sure how much impact they have on populations.
Since our cat died some years ago the back garden has been visited by three(sometimes four) cats, as recorded on the trail camera. While I have seen the cats hunting I haven't seen any of them catch anything, though they could easily have caught something out of shot.
Our cat caught the odd bird that I know of but again she could have caught things I did not see.
However, the bird numbers did not seem to be affected during her lifetime, but I admit the odd one or two taken by each single cat could accumulate and have to a large detrimental effect on the overall population.
I think you are correct about your next door neighbour's cat. When we had our cat she made it very clear that any other cat was not welcome in the garden. I once saw her do the same to a fox, though almost always she and foxes left each other alone.
Cats have been part of the fabric for hundreds of years, if not longer, and they are here to stay but I do think every cat, not being bred for show purposes(though I'm not keen on that also), should be neutered.
Dave
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Post by ianr on Sept 15, 2021 5:32:24 GMT
One of the terriers we had some years back would catch sparrows  strange to watch as it jumped and took them before they could clear the fence. ian |
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Post by Tringa on Sept 15, 2021 7:33:25 GMT
Interesting Ian, our crossed(somewhere in his ancestry we think there was a small sighthound) terrier has a strong prey drive will chase anything with fur including trying to get at ones on TV, but shows no interest in birds.
Dave
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Post by rowanberry on Sept 16, 2021 19:15:27 GMT
I like cats- and I've done cat-sitting for friends on holiday, and there are individual cats I've even loved. But saying that...  there are six- SIX of the neighbours' cats that think our garden is their personal happy hunting ground. Every night they're out there, (I think they take it in turns so they don't have to fight each other) prowling and stalking (and peeing and... worse.  I get so thoroughly fed up with it- I've had to cut holly branches to put in strategic locations under feeders, under the hedge and around where the woodmice live to try and dissuade them. It's primarily the frogs they go after, and during this time of the year when the froglets leave the pond it's just cats cats cats constantly on the trailcam, all night, every night. I've stopped putting the camera out because I got so angry watching it. Our pond is now an eyesore rather than a garden feature because of all the fencing and defence barriers I've had to put around it, doing my best to protect the newts and frogs... I've even wired plastic garden edging up around the lip of the pond so the cats can't walk along it and go 'fishing'. I didn't have any choice, because it was either that or give up and fill it in. Before I put up the fencing I picked up TWENTY-THREE dead frogs in the garden one Spring morning. For an animal on the red list, that's pretty catastrophic for one very small urban pond. Cats.... grrrrr!!!  |
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strange to watch as it jumped and took them before they could clear the fence.
there are six- SIX of the neighbours' cats that think our garden is their personal happy hunting ground. Every night they're out there, (I think they take it in turns so they don't have to fight each other) prowling and stalking (and peeing and... worse. 
