The Skeptics Guide #868 - Feb 26 2022 (Ad Free)
Added 2022-02-26 11:57:42 +0000 UTCNews Items: Hot Jupiters, Jumping To Conclusions, Nanoparticles to Stop Internal Bleeding, Internet 2035; Quickie with Bob: Plasma Physics; Who's That Noisy; Your Questions and E-mails: Bird Deaths; Science or Fiction
Comments
I wondered how much of an impact cats actually have. (And being too curious with a little time on my hands, I checked.) There's a lot of information but the result has been a decline of 3 Billion (or 30%) over the last 50 years (Decline of the North American avifauna, Science, 2019; note that it's for the US + Canada), or 60M/year. If the cat-kill-rate is 2.4B (American Bird Conservancy, 2013's research), then that's about 23-24 kills/cat/year (at 94M+8M household cats in the US and Canada) or 1 every two weeks. Given a 60M/year drop in population, the bird birth rate is 2.34B + all other causes of death combined. I think the 30% drop in population is taken from John Trapp's 2002 low-end estimate of 10B in the Spring time (the fall population is double that). All things remaining steady and if the current population is 7B, then the next 50 years will result in a 42% drop to 4B. It's certainly more complex than these back-of-the-napkin calculations. Even with all the uncertainty, the decline is still very alarming. Cats: 60M - Birds: 0
Asymetra
2022-02-27 20:35:02 +0000 UTCIn addition to keeping your cats indoors, Trap Neuter Release the ones who are not pets. Yes, the cat will go totally crazy when the cage falls around him but will be totally unharmed by the procedure and will do just fine afterwards.
Ted Apelt
2022-02-26 22:42:54 +0000 UTC
