mf197421 wrote:

I?m sorry, but it isn?t really believable that a single species could
possibly have as monumental an effect on the environment as the one you
describe. A friend just came back from a visit to Israel where the
majority of cats are actually feral and she didn?t notice any extensive
destruction of the wildlife and the landscape (which, mind you, is
mostly man-created and therefore quite sensitive)

Okay, I can recommend that you actually make an attempt to educate
yourself and not display such gross ignorance of basic ecological
matters.

Basic ecological lesson; As Australia is an island, cats are not a part
of the natural environment in Australia, so the australian wildlife has
not adpated to cats. So when cats were introduced, they literally
decimated certain species and exterminated others.

Now, Israel is located in the pathway between Africa and the rest of the
world. so whether cats evolved in Africa and spread to the rest of the
world, or whatever, Israel has/had it fair share of cats. Cats have been
there fore X hundreds of thousands years. So the wildlife that is left
has adapted to/learnt to survive with cats, or they are extinct. Of
course, in reality, Israel has bugger all wildlife, especially when
compared to Australia.


Why do I think cats are to blame: I glad you asked that question. {:-).
Because, cats are everywhere in australia, even the deserts. In the
1950's they brought in what they thought was the last wandering
aborigines from the country. In the 1980's, they found a bunch that
didn't want to be found before. When asked what they had lived on, the
answer was "cats". They had a documentary recently on ABC/SBS (?) and
the old girls (60+) calmly demonstrated how they ran down cats, then
cooked and ate them. there are no foxes in the desert and a great many
other places.

The foxes gets the bad PR, but the cats are responsible. Go out spot
light hunting and you can be overrun with cats every night, but only see
a fox once a month.