The first study to determine the amount of animal species that cats consume worldwide shows that the "lovely felines" are having a significant impact on wildlife, the Guardian reports.
Cats may be people's beloved pets, but they are also highly effective killers, according to a study that shows they eat more than 2,000 species worldwide - including hundreds that are important for conservation.
Since their domestication 9,000 years ago, domestic cats have spread to all continents except Antarctica. In the paper published in Nature Communications, the researchers described them as "one of the most problematic invasive species in the world".
"Our study sheds light on the predatory habits of one of the world's most successful and widespread invasive predators," the researchers, led by Christopher Lepczyk of Auburn University in the US, wrote in the paper.
The predator's menu includes birds, mammals, insects and reptiles. 17% of them are the subject of conservation attention, according to the study, which is the first to quantitatively assess the diet of cats worldwide.
In total, cats eat 981 species of birds, 463 reptiles and 431 mammals - about 90% of the species consumed. They have also been found to feed on 119 species of insects and 57 species of amphibians.
Cats are particularly damaging on islands, where they eat three times as many protected species as on the mainland. For example, they are known to have eaten species that are now extinct in the wild, including the New Zealand rock-cuckoo of Stevens Island and the New Zealand quail.
In Australia alone, cats are estimated to kill more than 300 million animals a year, and conservation groups are calling for cats to be kept indoors. Cat bans have been introduced in some places. In the southwestern German city of Waldorf, people are ordered to keep their cats indoors for three months in the spring to protect the threatened population of nesting crested larks.
A spokesman for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) said: "Putting bells on their collars or keeping cats inside at night are simple ways to reduce the number of wild birds and other wildlife they catch. Ultrasonic devices can also be a harmless but effective way of reducing the time cats spend in gardens.
"Apart from gardens, the predatory instinct of cats can cause particular problems for vulnerable and limited populations of birds, in particular birds that nest low above the ground or on the ground," the spokesperson said./BGNES
