MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • August 22, 2021
Cats are the number one anthropogenic cause of bird mortality, accounting for a conservative estimate of over 2.4 billion bird deaths per year in the U.S. While feral cats are the worst for wildlife, they are just part of the problem. A report published in Nature Communications, which quantified the human activities that are directly leading to mortality in birds, estimated that owned cats, allowed to free-range, accounted for 684 million bird deaths each year. This number towers over other anthropogenic causes. Any outdoor cat will follow its instincts to kill birds and other wildlife. Since we introduced them on the continent, we should have some responsibility to the animals that were here first. ~ Maine Audubon Staff Naturalist Doug Hitchcox