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Even though we find these animals very cute, we must not forget that by nature cats and foxes are predators, and as such they hunt other species, especially birds and other small animals. Unfortunately, this is not good for biodiversity.
According to the results of a new study published in the journal Diversity and Distributions, cats and foxes are inflicting a staggering loss on Australia’s native wildlife. According to the researchers, these two species kill more than 2.6 billion birds, reptiles and numerous small mammals per year in the country. You should know that domestic cats alone kill around 500 million animals a year in Australia. For their part, foxes kill 300 million a year, and the rest is attributed to feral cats.
In other words, these two predators are directly involved in the process of extinction of many species in Australia. ” This huge death toll is one of the main reasons Australia’s biodiversity is suffering a major decline “, said the authors of the study to The Conversation. However, the situation could get even worse, insofar as the populations of these species continue to grow. According to the researchers, there are currently more than 1.7 million foxes and 6.6 million wild and domestic cats living in Australia.
Faced with this disaster, scientists believe that the Australian government must adopt a better policy for the management of cats and foxes, but also a better policy for the protection of native animals.
