Urban Wildlife Information to share

[urbpan]

I still have a ton of information to process from the Urban Wildlife Conference, but I will share it in dribs and drabs, so that it won't become overwhelming or boring (hopefully). One of the first people I met was Travis Longcore, who is the Science Director for The Urban Wildlands Group, "dedicated to the conservation of species, habitats, and ecological processes in urban and urbanizing areas."

Travis was an outgoing catalyst, always involved in a spirited conversation or another, and always trying to bring others into those conversations. He gave presentations on the ecological consequences of night lighting (which unfortunately I missed, but I could just go buy the book) and a "Critical assessment of claims regarding management of feral cats by trap–neuter–return." Both of these are difficult policy issues as well as complicated ecological problems, and I'm glad a guy as energetic as Travis is working on them.

The cat issue is controversial even (especially?) among the people who comment on this blog, but the scientific community--or at least those researchers studying the effects of cats on urbanized habitats--is more or less unanimous that free-roaming and feral cats comprise a major human-caused problem. I'll definitely come back to the issue later; there's a lot to say, and it needs to be said delicately.

Please take a look at some of these links. This is scratching the surface of the information I was exposed to, but it's some great stuff.

Comments

[audacian.livejournal.com]

The TNR debate is easily solved. Cats are cuter than birds. I can't snuggle robins!

(Can't really snuggle feral cats either, but they're fuzzy! Although Guinness was in a feral colony that had a TNR thing going on and shes a snuggleface. But she leaves me dead birds.)

cats' ecological effect

[mudpiegirl.myopenid.com (from livejournal.com)]

I found your journal via the dog-vomit slime entry--very nice.

I would like to add a personal observation about how domestic (non-feral) cats can change the ecology. I live in a semi-rural area outside Albuquerque NM with 2 acres. A year after limiting all of the cats to leash-and harness adventures and the dogs to their own 1/4 acre, we have wild bunnies in the front yard, pheasant, and a much higher lizard population. The bunnies have drawn an owl who hangs out at night.

One of my cats is a rescue from a feral cat situation (captured as a tiny kitten with her dumped mother and litter and still a LOT of work to tame!) so I am not insensitive to the needs or difficulties of feral cat issues. It is much easier for cat owners to keep their cats indoors (despite what they might think) than to deal with the feral cat problem but if all cat owners would do so, the damage to wildlife done by the desperate feral cat population would at least not be augmented by fat and happy house cats!

Re: cats' ecological effect

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Thanks, mudpiegirl! Good to hear your perspective.