There is an extremely common animal that poses a great
threat to the survival of mankind than the honey bee. An animal that is the
universal mascot of the internet. The internet's court jester, the CAT.
It may have provided you with countless LOL’s, and
you should be very thankful it has because if the cat were to become extinct it
would likely be the end of the human race. Cats are members of a family of
carnivores called Felidae, which includes tigers, cougars and cheetahs. And
like their distant cousins, cats have sharp retractable claws, amazingly quick
reflexes and sharp teeth that can effortlessly clamp into its prey's flesh. But
cats have a predatory asset that their larger, scarier family members don't. A
cat has a physics-defying, astonishingly flexible body. They are more agile
than big cats such as tigers. Statistically, cats are one of the best hunters
in the entire animal kingdom.
A study found that Tigers were only successful at catching their prey 5% of the time. Domestic cats are successful 32% of the time, which means they are listed as the 5th most successful hunting animal in the world. But over in Africa, there are an endemic species of cat known as the Black footed cat, which is even crazier, this species catches its prey 60% of the time and they make an average of 14 kills every night. Making the black-footed cat the 2nd most successful predator in the animal kingdom, the only animal more successful is the African wild dog at number one. All this means that cats are the world's most well-adapted and best predator for catching small rodents. Rats and mice, being so small, cute and defenceless have been forced to develop extraordinarily reaction times, rapid speeds and agility so they can evade predators. Yet the domestic cat still manages to track them and catch them with ease.
A study found that Tigers were only successful at catching their prey 5% of the time. Domestic cats are successful 32% of the time, which means they are listed as the 5th most successful hunting animal in the world. But over in Africa, there are an endemic species of cat known as the Black footed cat, which is even crazier, this species catches its prey 60% of the time and they make an average of 14 kills every night. Making the black-footed cat the 2nd most successful predator in the animal kingdom, the only animal more successful is the African wild dog at number one. All this means that cats are the world's most well-adapted and best predator for catching small rodents. Rats and mice, being so small, cute and defenceless have been forced to develop extraordinarily reaction times, rapid speeds and agility so they can evade predators. Yet the domestic cat still manages to track them and catch them with ease.
The cats don't even hunt rodents for food, it is
quite literally a game to them. Experts have actually said that a well-fed cat
catches more rodents than a hungry cat because they do it for entertainment. Wow,
cats are evil. And that is exactly why we need cats for our survival. By
hunting and killing rodents and rabbits cats are doing the world a vital
service. Yes, last time your little Meowly Cyrus bought you a gruesome present,
she was saving the world.
A study in 1997 found that in Britain alone, house
cats collectively kill over 200 million specimens of wildlife each year. Cats,
therefore, play a vital role in keeping the rodent and rabbit populations in
check, all over the world. The phrase "breeding likes rabbits" is no
misnomer, each season a rabbit can give birth to over a hundred babies and if
you think that's bad, rats are even worse. A female rat can mate up to 500
times with various males over a six-hour period. And a single pair of rats can
produce over 2,000 offspring per year. If left to their own devices, a pair of
rats can have over half a billion descendants within just three years. But
thankfully rats and other invasive rodents aren't left to their own devices. They
are constantly on the defensive and their population numbers are maintained at
a healthy balanced level by the hard work of cats. Cats are one of the few
animals on the planet and most certainly the best, that can actually hunt and
catch notoriously slippery rodents. Cats, therefore, are the best method mother
nature has for preventing rat populations from exploding exponentially and
taking over the world. Without cats, our world would be overrun by rats within
a year or two. Trillions upon trillions of rodents and other, small invasive
species would invade every home, every business and every square mile of the
planet.
But why would this be so terrible? Are rats really that dangerous? Yes. Rats pose two major threats to mankind and the entire ecosystem. The first is the disease. Although it's sometimes debated by historians, it is widely thought that rats were the main spreader of the bubonic plague. A disease which almost wiped out Europe. Whether or not rats were responsible for the black death, their bacteria spreading abilities should not be underestimated. Rats spend most of their time hanging out in sewers, around piles of rubbish, and of course dead animals. These are not things one would call hygienic. There can be several thousand pathogens on just a centimetre of a rat's fur, most of which can be spread to humans. And they don't have to bite you either, the disease can be transmitted to humans through scratches, skin contact and worst of all, their excrement and urine. Rats use urine to communicate, to mark territory and just because they need to go and they will urinate absolutely anywhere and everywhere. Come into contact with it and you're certain to fall ill. Rats carry some rather horrific diseases. Such as Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome or HPS, which can be contracted by just breathing the air around where a rat has been. HPS restricts your breathing and is often fatal, once the onset of symptoms has occurred death can happen in as little as a few hours; so, that's scary.
But that's just a fraction of the horrors rats
possess, they also carry Typhus, Salmonella, Meningitis and Leptospirosis, all
of which can be fatal to humans. Thankfully most people very rarely come into
contact with rats, due to our hygienic environments and most importantly, the
global prevalence of rat-killing cats. Without cats, there would be no stopping
the rapid multiplication of rats and the inevitable outbreaks of many horrific
diseases. But believe it or not, the disease isn't the worst thing that would
happen if rodents took over the world. Hunger would be the worst thing.
Cats have us all fooled, thinking they rely on
their owners for survival. Here's the brutal truth, your cat doesn't need you. Cats,
even the laziest of house cats, can find food for themselves quite easily if they
choose to, they only eat the food you provide for them because it's easier. In
fact, when your pet kitty brings you a dead mouse and leaves it on your
doorstep, it's actually trying to teach you how to hunt, because it thinks
you're a pathetic human that can't find its own food. But it's this very
behaviour that has thus far saved us all from mass-starvation.
You see cats hunt and kill a variety of rodents,
such as mice and rats. Rodents just love to eat food staples such as grain. The
very grain which we all eat every day. Farm cats play a vital role in the
modern ecosystem. By killing mice and rats that live in and around storage
barns where grain is kept, they stop all the grain from being consumed or
spoiled by the hungry rodents. But rats aren't picky, when they're hungry they
will chow down on just about anything, from trash to animal and human cadavers
and any crop or foodstuff that may be lying around.
In a post-catolyptic world where rats and mice are
free to multiply by the billions, each and every one of our food sources would
be decimated or disease-ridden before it even leaves the farm. A global famine
would be an absolute certainty. Unfortunately disease and food shortages
wouldn't be the end, the entire ecosystem would also collapse due to the domino
effect.
Macquarie Island is a super remote island owned by
Australia. Viewing the feral cat population on the island as somewhat of a
nuisance, because they were killing the local seabirds, a cat eradication
programme was started. And between 1985 and 2000 every single feral cat on the
island was killed. Within no time at all the local rat and rabbit populations
quadrupled, and they, in turn, caused massive devastation to the island's
vegetation, depleting all food sources for the countless other animal species
they shared the island with. And the scientists soon found out that rats love
to feed on the eggs of the very seabirds which they intended to save. The local
seabird population declined at an astonishing rate due to the plentiful rats and
lack of cats.
Macquarie Island, Australia cat eradication between 1985 & 2000 |
The ecosystem is a very delicate balancing act and
this experiment just goes to show that we shouldn't mess with it because the
tiniest of changes can have enormous, irreparable effects. Humans have still
not formulated an effective method of pest control for rats. The array of rat
poisons available just flat out don't work, at least not in the long run. Rats
are smarter than we give them credit for and as soon as one of the mischief,
yes that is what a group of rats is called, dies from eating rat poison the
rest of the mischief learns not to trust that food location in the future;
either that or they employ a super-taster rat called Remy to check all their
food before consumption. In recent years scientists have even found groups of
rats that have developed a natural immunity to rat poisons.
Until our artificial rodent deterrents are
developed further, cats remain our only truly effective weapon against them, so
as long as we have moggie we should be okay, that is of course until rats learn
how to weaponise lasers.
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