Faunal Force

Feral Cats

There's a good new comprehensive article on feral cats now available.

I've seen their effects on birds and small mammals. I bought a rural place that was once a dumping ground for unwanted cats. I work in my garden, disgusted by signs of their presence. I've stopped feeding the birds in the back yard because the feeder became a killing-place. I may remove the bird bath; it too has become a hunting blind for the "cat-children" of "neighbors."

I have information on my web site but it probably needs new numbers from studies to become more convincing: there is no place for free-ranging house cats in urban and border areas. House cats need to be kept in houses where people love their cats. Cats are very effective killers of all small reptiles, birds, and mammals. Most are food and energy subsidized by people and cannot be equally compared to "wild" populations. Urban ecologists, if ever they are to include being "managers," need to tackle this problem

Habitat's Looming Cloud

I rarely use "wildlife habitat" and replace it with "faunal space." "Habitat destruction" is the wildlife manager's mantra for cause of losses of animals or reduced populations. Much of that loss in the past has been to spot developments, the changing fallow field, the change in fence rows and cultivation practices. Some species have been affected by conversions of one forest type to another.

There's looming on the near-time horizon another undesirable change in faunal space, nation wide and world wide. As readily available and economically accessible oil supplies dwindle, more and more attention will be given to alternative energy sources and much more to alternative oil sources for it is the stuff of plastics, solvents, and fertilizers. There is much attention now, but that will pale to energy-starved conditions coming soon (say pre-2030). We're already turning to biomass (grasses, pulpwood, and wood debris) for energy wood and as a replacement for crude oil. Chemists have learned how to convert plant biomass directly into a chemical building block that can not only be used to produce fuel, but also plastics, polyester and industrial chemicals cheaply and efficiently.

That plant biomass ... whatever its uses ... is the form and function of wildlife. It needs water and nutrients. Every removal of a plant removes nutrients. Unless there is planned replacement (unheard of in most forest, rangeland, and wildlife conditions) that is mineral mining. In the US we have been doing this for years. The supplies have seemed unlimited. Elsewhere the losses have already occurred and history books are there for the lessons, yet unlearned.

The faunal system manager now has to step up to seek alternatives, slow the pace of conversion to biomass from wild sources, understand the soil and its hunger for decaying biomass, prepare for stable biomass farms on select areas, restore abused lands for a new role, require mineral replacement of that which is extracted as biomass, and slow oil and its chemical-cousin usage. The challenges for the wild faunal system managers of the future are truly exciting and worthy of the best efforts.