Natural History Wanderings

NPR reports on cats versus birds

Are free-ranging cats pint-size murderers who need to be removed from the landscape because they critically decrease bird and small-mammal populations?

Or is the estimation of free-ranging cats’ impact on birds exaggerated, so that we’d do better to rein in the anti-cat hype and to focus on our own actions toward wildlife?

Are these the only two possible positions? Or is this dichotomy itself a kind of hype?

These questions aren’t new, but they’ve heated up again this month thanks to Peter P. Marra and Chris Santella’s book, Cat Wars: The Devastating Consequences of a Cuddly Killer.

Read full story at New Book, Cat Wars, Looks At What To Do With Free-Ranging Cats : 13.7: Cosmos And Culture : NPR