they have reaction times faster than snake strikes, can fall from 15 stories up and have a way to mitigate the impact to survive and can decimate bird populations in areas where they are wild because they have such successful hunting rates. they are pretty neat.
A lot of predators do. If a fox gets into a hen house, it kills everything it can. Pole cats (a type of weasel, not cat) does too. It's just the way they are wired.
I saw a juvenile raccoon that broke into a chicken coop. It killed every chicken in there. Then my older brother stabbed it in the eye with a barbeque fork. Which was horrifying to watch as a small child. It got away after that. I choose to believe it survived the ordeal. That it spent its remaining years on earth as a pirate raccoon.
It really wasn't the raccoon's fault it got into the chickens. It was supposed to hunt. We should have protected the chickens better. That was on us.
Also why humans probably don't need to protect them in the numbers we do. Domestic cats decimate other species for no reason and we basically help facilitate it
They also decimate populations of things we want decimated. The reason humans kept them around in the first place was to keep rats/mice and other pests away. So it's not really for no reason. Any area you see a cat prowling around regularly is an area that will have a very low rodent population.
Why people call that predation ? They don’t eat those
Is this going to be the day you learn that cats eat snakes? Because they do.
Feral cats and stray cats eat snakes as part of their diet, along with birds, mice, rats, frogs, and lizards. If it's small enough and they can catch it, they will eat it. They'll also eat baby animals of other species.
We're so used to seeing indoor cats eating dry food that we forget what they're actually like outside of our homes and apartments. We see our pets' hunting tendencies and we perceive that as playtime, or that it's some remnant behavior from their ancestors, but cats are brutal. Even the indoor ones. They're just spoiled and don't realize what they really are. And we see them as cute and lazy, so we assume that their predator instincts are subdued or weakened.
No! Cats eat snakes, and not just when they're starving.
I can't speak for snakes, but I can tell you that my cat eats each and every bird she kills, as well as mices. All I clean up after are a few feathers and kidneys.
This is rhetoric in support of high-rise syndrome, which is a classic example of survivorship bias.
Cats don't survive more from higher falls, it just looks that way in data because the cats that went splat didn't get taken to the vet in order to be considered for those statistics.
"surviving" and living for a long time is generally not a thing for this situation, idk why people always mention it. Remember seeing cat falling from 9th floor (we have massive buildings with 12 floors in Lithuania) and it survived, except it was bleeding from mount/nose and limping before going to a corner, got medical help super fast within ~20mins, afaik she survived for a week before dying.
Eh this has to be a myth. Cats dont even need more than a foot to turn. If you doubt me, try it out on your cat if you have one. Hold them like a baby with their backs towards the floor and drop them on a couch or bed. The height thing has always sounded bs to me especially after I saw a cat die from a pretty tall fall
Snakes aren't exactly known for their reaction times. This is a bit like saying "I have a healthier liver than your average writer." That's not a boast, it's a cry for help.
Also, you're not giving cats nearly enough credit. The indirect harm they cause to wildlife on a global scale with their symbiotic butt-to-brain parasites massively outstrips what they do from mere hunting. This is a bit like complimenting Michael Jackson's amusement park building skills over his musical reach.
well their hunting rates are also due to the concept of introducing an apex predator into an ecosystem that isn't adapted to harbouring an animal like that. Cats are responsible for the death of billions of small animals every year and have endangered many bird species due to owners leaving their pet outside because "she's an outdoor cat 🤪🤪"
Depends where you live. Here in the UK, cats have been around for millenia so - endemic or not - the ecosystem here is already adapted to them being here. Even the much respected Royal Society for the Protection of Birds doesn't suggest cats should be kept indoors. So cats here very much tend to be outdoor cats.
However, I can see how they'd be a problem in some countries for sure, they are amazing predators after all.
Yep, can't stand those people, cats are absolutely devastating to so many ecosystems where people let them run around care free. They're pets, not lions
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u/Neutronova Mar 05 '25
they have reaction times faster than snake strikes, can fall from 15 stories up and have a way to mitigate the impact to survive and can decimate bird populations in areas where they are wild because they have such successful hunting rates. they are pretty neat.