Cats and gardens and caterpillars: carrying capacity,

[Ragged Robin]

Starting a new topic to avoid taking the threads about feeding stray cats and damage to gardens, and about processional caterpillars further off thread!

I am not a member nor a staunch support of KAR- in fact I disagree with them on some issues. However I do believe in giving credit where it is due and at the moament they have on their WEbsite an excellent article "Let them live" referring to the "carrying capacity of animals" No that does not mean how many overweight tourist a donkey can carry, but how many animals of a particular species a n area can support. The theory is that if the number of animals is artificially increased ely a decrease in the number of animals will mean more food etc available and more animals move in. The article in context relates particularly to dogs and the neutering programme, but it does apply to other species and arguments put forward on the two threads I have mentioned.

Inparticularly if provision is made for cats by people who feed multiple ones in domestic gardens, the number of cats in the area will increase to match the increased availability of dinnner! Although the article does not say so, I believe it follows that an increase in cats leads to a decrease in birds, which brings about an increase on the insects which the birds prey on!

In fact it is basically balance of nature : if you upset the balance in one direction you willl cause problems in another.

The article also advocates avoiding problems for others by using or establishing feeding stations for strays. My congratulations to KAR on this article and I recommend that anyone looking to provide for strays of any kind without actuallly taking responsibility for the animal should read and think about this article before attracting more feral animals into residential areas.