Letting cats go outdoors is risky: Study
Going outdoors a threat to cats
A study in the US found that letting cats go outdoors put them at higher risks of contracting and spreading diseases. The report further states thata cats's natural tendency to kill willdlife also decreases the number of local animals which can destroy the biodiversity.
According to a recent study by experts at the University of Maryland, humans are moslty reponsible in reducing these dangers by keeping their cats indoors. The data from the DC Cat Count was used in this study's analysis. DC Cat Count survey the entire Washington DC by deploying 60 motion-activated
wildlife cameras, dispersed across 1500 sample location for this study on cats.
The cameras recorded the prey that cats consumed and showed how they interacted with local animals, which assisted researchers in understanding the cats andother wildlife present around them.
Daniel Herrera, the lead author of the study and PhD student in UMD's Department of Environmental Science and Technology (ENST) told,"We discovered that the average domestic cat in DC has a 61 per cent probability of being found in the same space as racoons, America'smost prolific rabies vector, 61 per cent spatial overlap with red foxes, and 56 per cent overlap with Virginia opossums, both of which canalso spread rabies."
As per the survey, Many tiny natural creatures, such as groundhogs, cottontail rabbits, grey squirrels, and white-footed mice, cohabitwith and are hunted by cats with access to the outdoors.
By hunting these animals, cats can reduce biodiversity and harm ecological health.Many people mistakenly believe that cats hunt non-native populations of rodents, but Herrera explained that in reality, cats prefer to huntsmall native species. There is little evidence that cats are controlling the non-native rodent population; rather, the real worry is that theyare eradicating native populations that are beneficial to the ecosystem in Washington, D.C. Rats are kept out of sight by cats out of fear, butthere isn't really any proof that they are doing so.