kieranblakewriter

Is Australia’s wildlife naive?

Is this why so many of them are falling victim to cats, both feral and domestic?

A recent post on an Australian house minding website would suggest this is true.

The post from a home owner in NSW describes the house as overlooking a nature reserve which includes “…naive wildlife…”. Residing in the house are two mature cats. Was this just a simple typo, or are Australia’s animals ‘naive’ as well as ‘native’. Maybe the ‘naive’ animals are the only ones left in the reserve because the cats have killed all of the ‘native’ animals.

Perhaps this is why cats are, still, the single most destructive introduced species in Australia. Have our native animals not learned to flee at the sight of a furry little feline? Do we need to train our native wildlife to identify, and escape from, cats. Well, clearly this is impossible, and clearly we can’t train cats not to kill wildlife, because cats are acting upon the natural instincts of any feline species – they are great hunters.

Therefore, if we can’t train the cats, we need to train the humans. We need to convince, or force, cat owners to keep the cats indoors, or in a cat run / fenced off area, all the time. Yes, all the time, because if cats are allowed to roam free, they will kill. Owners of cute, furry, loving, kind, sweet, deadly cats must take responsibility for the actions of their pets. If owners can’t prevent their cats from killing wildlife, they should not be allowed to own a cat.

If we think that we can keep, and breed, cats as well as protecting our native wildlife, then it is humans who are naive.