Thursday, October 4, 2018

The Rats Are Winning.

Grotty weather again today, so nothing doing in the birding or ringing stakes.

Instead, here’s an interesting study on cats versus rats. Cat lovers and bird lovers rarely agree, but in this case it seems that pussy cats are not the ultimate rat catchers but prefer instead to eat a bird or a mouse. 

Pussy Cat

Journal Reference: Michael H. Parsons, Peter B. Banks, Michael A. Deutsch, Jason Munshi-South. Temporal and Space-Use Changes by Rats in Response to Predation by Feral Cats in an Urban Ecosystem - Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 2018. 

"Like any prey, rats overestimate the risks of predation. In the presence of cats, they adjust their behaviour to make themselves less apparent and spend more time in burrows," says the study's lead researcher Dr. Michael H. Parsons, a visiting scholar at Fordham University. "This raises questions about whether releasing cats in the city to control rats is worth the risks cats pose to wildlife." 

People have long associated cats as the natural enemy of rats. However Australian and US researchers say cats prefer smaller, defenceless prey such as birds and smaller native wildlife -- which makes cats a threat to urban ecosystems. 

"New Yorkers often boast their rats 'aren't afraid of anything' and are the 'size of a cat'," says Parsons. "Yet cats are commonly released to control this relatively large, defensive and potentially dangerous prey." 

Brown Rats

"Until now, no one has provided good data on the number of city rats killed by cats," adds co-author Michael A. Deutsch, from Arrow Exterminating Company.  "But the data have been very clear as to the effect of cats on native wildlife." 

When feral cats invaded a New York City waste recycling centre, the researchers took the opportunity to correct the record. Their team was already studying a colony of more than 100 rats living inside the centre, by microchipping and releasing the animals to study their life history. When the cats entered the research area, they set up motion-capture video cameras to quantify the effect of the cats on the rats -- the first time this has been studied in a natural setting. 

"We wanted to know whether the number of cats present would influence the number of rats observed, and vice versa," says Parsons. "We were also interested whether the presence of cats had any effect on eight common rat behaviours or their direction of movement." 

The researchers examined 306 videos taken over 79 days. Although up to three cats were active beside the rat colony each day, only 20 stalking events, three kill attempts and two successful kills were recorded in this time. Both kills took place when cats found rats in hiding; the third attempt was an open-floor chase where the cat lost interest. 

The videos also revealed that in the presence of cats, the rats spent less time in the open and more time moving to shelter. "The presence of cats resulted in fewer rat sightings on the same or following day, while the presence of humans did not affect rat sightings," says Parsons. In contrast, the number of rats seen on a given day did not predict the number of cats seen on the following day. 

"We already knew the average weight of the rats was 330 g, much more than a typical 15 gm bird or 30 gm mouse," says Parsons. "As such, we expected a low predation rate on the rats -- and our study confirmed this." 

"We are not saying that cats will not predate city rats, only that conditions must be right for it to happen," adds Deutsch. "The cat must be hungry, have no alternative less-risky food source, and usually needs the element of surprise." 

The findings could explain why people continue to release cats as "natural" rat control tools. "People see fewer rats and assume it's because the cats have killed them -- whereas it's actually due to the rats changing their behaviour," says Parsons.

"The results of our study suggest the benefits of releasing cats are far outweighed by the risks to wildlife," he adds. The research team plans to continue collecting data as part of their long-term study and will update their findings as new information becomes available. 

Pussy Cat

"Much more research is needed to better understand the city rat problem, we hope our successes will compel others to perform similar studies in other venues," says Parsons. But for now, in the battle of New York City cats and rats it appears the rats are winning. 

Linking today to Anni's Blog and Viewing Nature With Eileen.

17 comments:

Rhodesia said...

We have a lot of feral cats around here, there are so many barns about they just seem to thrive in them. Sadly feeding 'our' birds is an attraction, and as I type this I have just come in from outside having seen a lot of feathers on the lawn!! It looks like it is from a dove and I am hoping, that with a lot of fluff and only one long wing feather left for me to see it made its escape.
I am sure there are rats around here but I have yet to see one though we certainly have plenty of mice.
Keep well, cheers Diane

eileeninmd said...

Hello, I wish cat owners would keep their cats indoors. I read somewhere that cats are the number 1 reason for bird deaths. The rats are creepy even the cats do not want them. Happy Thursday, enjoy your day!

Margaret Birding For Pleasure said...

Cats and birds do not mix well. Have a wonderful weekend.

David M. Gascoigne, said...

Cats, but even more cat owners, are a huge problem. Why there are no licensing requirements for cats, as there are for dogs, is beyond me.

Lowcarb team member said...

Cats and birds just do not go together do they!

Sorry about the grotty weather 'up North' and I don't think the weekend is going to be any better.

Take care, my good wishes

All the best Jan

eileeninmd said...

Hello, the cats are cute. They would look cuter inside. Thank you for linking up and sharing your post. Happy Saturday, enjoy your weekend!

italiafinlandia said...

Ahi! I like both: cats and birds. How sad the first are predators of the second...
It was interesting to read your post.
Wishing you the least grotty weather possible!

~Lavender Dreamer~ said...

How interesting. I guess none of us like to think of rats as part of our 'critters' but they can be a real problem in cities. We live near a restaurant and think about that too!

A Colorful World said...

Definitely cats should be home-bound! (Or perhaps contained inside a barn structure at times to control mice.) I worry about the birds and other small creatures that are their natural prey when they are allowed to roam. It isn't healthy for the cats either. And I can understand why they wouldn't have any real affect on a rat population. Excellent post!

Anni said...

I am a cat lover AND a bird lover! I guess that makes me a very confused, mixed up ol' gal. lol (our pet cat is ALWAYS indoors!) Now rats...dislike them a lot, but they're part of the whole scheme, right? Very interesting narration...

Your linked up post, today at I'd Rather B Birdin', is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Angie said...

Phil - for once, I am glad your weather was poor - since it translated into this very interesting post. Last year, I did a little reading about bird deaths because someone challenged me about wind farms, concerned that the blades would kill birds. In my reading, I found out that man-made structures, such as windows, followed by cats, are the greatest killer of birds. Millions every year. Sad to say the least.

Sallie (FullTime-Life) said...

Creepy, but important, read. Rats have become an urban problem here in Eugene apparently because it is now legal to have chickens within the city limits and the rats like chicken food as well as the tons of fallen fruit that people don’t eat.... I absolutely hate that people let pet cats roam free. So wrong.

Photo Cache said...

We used to have 2 birdfeeders in the back yard. Then the cats moved in. The birds moved out :)

Worth a Thousand Words

Carol @Comfort Spring Station said...

I hadn't thought about rats vs birds. Interesting facts

Fun60 said...

That made for an interesting read on cats and rats. I have to say rats are my pet hate. Living in a city you are never that far from a rat. Yuk.

Jean | DelightfulRepast.com said...

Phil, our neighbor has in indoor-outdoor cat who visits us a lot. One day he came in and, before long, began doing that gagging thing as if he was about to cough up a hairball. But, no, it was a big pile of stinky stuff that appeared to have a piece of rope in it about 6 inches long. I scooped all into a box to take to the neighbor to help her or her vet figure out was wrong with the cat. Looking closer, I realized "That's not a piece of rope--that's a rat tail! Fortunately, he never seems to bother birds, but whenever a rat is on offer, he's all over it!

Hemmerling said...

The rats are very dangerous and act like the predators.

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