Cats kill over million birds daily: research
FERAL cats kill 316 million birds and pet cats kill 61 million birds in Australia every year, research by Australian environmental scientists has found.
This equates to cats killing more than a million Australian birds every day. More than 99% of these casualties are native birds.
The estimates are based on results from nearly 100 studies across the country, each sampling cat density, and another set of nearly 100 studies across the country that assessed cat diet.
Lead researcher Professor John Woinarski said that previous research has looked at the impact of cats on Australia's mammals, and this is the first nation-wide assessment of the impact of cats on Australia's birds.
"Everyone knows that cats kill birds, but this study shows that, at a national level, the amount of predation is staggering, and is likely to be driving the ongoing decline of many species,” said Prof Woinarski, from Charles Darwin University.
The work has been published in the science journal Biological Conservation.
