Research results that the stray cat is not a threat to the rats in urban areas so much

by Sebastian Molina fotografía

Cats are a natural enemy for rats as it is drawn by cartoon animation " Tom and Jerry " ... .... According to research, stray cats found in urban areas do not seem to be too much a mouse threat is.

Frontiers | Temporal and Space-Use Changes by Rats in Response to Predation by Feral Cats in an Urban Ecosystem | Ecology and Evolution
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2018.00146/full

This was revealed by Michael Parsons ' research by Fordham University.

Stray cats are in the position of "predators", and there is a possibility that not only rats but also birds and small animals are predisposed to destroy the balance of the city's ecosystem. However, even if there is the risk, it has been considered "uncontrolled" so far as it has been considered that there is the merit of "preying a victim, rat."

Parsons and colleagues conducted surveys in New York over 79 days using tracking microchips and cameras to see if the stray cats are actually effective against rats. During the survey period, 306 images were recorded, and it turned out that there were 5 stray cats in the surveyed area. Sometimes a stray cat sometimes thrust his head into a mouse's nest, but in the 79-day survey, it was 20 times that a cat appeared to follow the mouse. We tried to prey 3 times, and predation success was 2 times.

Parsons and others confirmed that there are still many rats in the nest. Even if there is a threat of a cat, it says that a mouse can presume the number of individuals by just changing the movement route.

by Mert Guller

By the way, the prey which the cat is good at is "unprotected prey", and if it is big, it is thought that the rat of urban area which weight as much as 300 g does not opponate. If you think about disinfection of giant rats mainly, it seems better to think about means other than cats.