Are cats a problem to wildlife?

With about nine million cats in the U.K and with some garden birds in decline, should we worry about the impact cats have on our birds. Now millions of years of evolution have led cats to be fairly tuned ambush predators, excellent at catching tiny animals. Years of domestication have done nothing to undo it. But how much effect these hunting skills have might not be as clear as we think. A recent mammal society survey estimated that cats bring in around 55 million dead birds every year. But how significant is that? It sounds like a huge amount, which certainly upsets a lot of people. But to find out if this is an issue this is what the r.s.p.b said. Research into the reason why some urban birds are declining has so far not revealed a link between cat predation and what the populations are doing. British birds have evolved over thousands of years to deal with a wide range of predators ,mammalian predators which include, stoats weasels, foxes, badgers and otters. Birds will also lay lots of eggs to combat these predators, but sadly most will not survive. Evidence is also there to say that cats will take weaker or sick birds that are unlikely to survive their first year. So they don`t think cats have a major impact on bird population. Some scientists though doubt the accuracy of the research being used. The stats say that cats bring in 30% of what they kill, so with 55 million birds being brought home there is roughly 128 million dead birds that we don`t see. Could we be underestimating the number of birds that cats kill. We have rely upon figures derived from other studies, unfortunately those other studies come from non urban habitats and even from other countries, so the reason for using 30% is its the only accurate figure we have to go on. What we need is a new technique that enables us to see what the cats are doing in our gardens. Cat com is being fitted to some cats so we can actually see what our cats get up to. This should give us some more accurate data to go on, showing us the impact cats have in urban areas.