When it comes to feral cat colonies versus bird conservation, there is not a lot of middle ground, reports a new study in PLoS ONE by researchers from North Carolina State University.

The study surveyed 577 people who either manage a feral cat colony or are a bird conservation professional. The big finding was that fewer than 10 percent of the cat colony managers believe that feral cats harmed bird populations or carried diseases.

The cat people were the optimists, however, the study showed. 80 percent of the cat people believed a compromise between the needs of feral cats and bird conservation could be reached, while only half the bird conservationists thought so.

We found the article on NewsWise. You can read it here.
It’s from a NC State U. press release, which you can find here.
Go to the article itself, in PLoS ONE, here. (Open access, so it’s free.)

Photo: Cats in a feral colony sun themselves on a wall. Photo courtesy of Alisa Davis, University of Hawaii at Manoa, via the North Carolina State University.