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

Re: cats' ecological effect

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Thanks, mudpiegirl! Good to hear your perspective.