On May 25, 2011, J. Scott Robinson, Director of the Office of Sponsored Projects for the Smithsonian Institute, sent a three-page proposal (PDF) to Randy Dettmers, a biologist in the Division of Migratory Birds for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, outlining the scope and budget for a project called “Effects of subsidized predators on [...]
Browsing the archives for the Research Protocol category
4 Feb 13
1 Feb 13
By now—just about 72 hours after the story broke—it’s probably more difficult to find people who haven’t heard about the Smithsonian study claiming “that free-ranging domestic cats kill 1.4–3.7 billion birds and 6.9–20.7 billion mammals annually” [1] than it is to find people who’ve heard the news somewhere—the New York Times, the BBC, NPR’s All [...]
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Posted in In the News, Policy Issues, Research Protocol, Threats to Wildlife
Tagged Direct human-caused mortality of birds: improving quantification of magnitude and assessment of population impact, Nature Communications, Peter Marra, predation, Scott Loss, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, The impact of free-ranging domestic cats on wildlife of the United States, Tom Will, Trap-Neuter-Return, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
Tagged Direct human-caused mortality of birds: improving quantification of magnitude and assessment of population impact, Nature Communications, Peter Marra, predation, Scott Loss, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, The impact of free-ranging domestic cats on wildlife of the United States, Tom Will, Trap-Neuter-Return, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
20 Dec 12
A recent study finds important differences between cat caretakers and bird conservationists when it comes to their attitudes and beliefs about the impacts of free-roaming cats and how to best manage them. In the end, however, the methods employed lead to far more questions than answers.
“Because western society’s orientations toward wildlife is becoming more [...]
13 Mar 12
Imagine yourself responding to a survey, and one of the questions posed is this:
How much do you enjoy seeing feral cats in the environment?
Optional responses include: very much, somewhat, no opinion, very little, and none at all.
If your experience is anything like mine, the question isn’t nearly as straightforward as it first appears. If [...]
18 Jul 11
Northern mockingbird. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and Ken Thomas.
“I thought the cats probably really hammered them when they were fledglings,” said former University of Florida doctoral student Christine Stracey in a press release about her study of Northern mockingbirds, “but when they were in the nests, I didn’t really expect the cats to [...]
17 May 11
Among the findings of a recent study:
Five of 18 cats trapped “between the spring and fall of 2008 and 2009” in central Illinois’ 1,500-acre Robert Allerton Park tested positive for Toxoplasma gondii antibodies. Five of the seropositive cats were trapped at the same site; there, one white-footed mouse (of 21 trapped) also tested positive, and [...]
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Posted in In the News, Research Protocol, Toxoplasma
Tagged congenital transmission, David Jessup, Melissa Miller, Michael Hutchins, Nohra Mateus-Pinilla, oocysts, Robert Allerton Park, Shannon Fredebaugh, T. gonddi, The Wildlife Society, Toxoplasma gondii, Toxoplasmosis, University of Illinois Prairie Research Institute
Tagged congenital transmission, David Jessup, Melissa Miller, Michael Hutchins, Nohra Mateus-Pinilla, oocysts, Robert Allerton Park, Shannon Fredebaugh, T. gonddi, The Wildlife Society, Toxoplasma gondii, Toxoplasmosis, University of Illinois Prairie Research Institute
3 Dec 10
As I dig deeper into “Feral Cats and Their Management,” I continue to undercover discrepancies between the story Hildreth, Vantassel, and Hygnstrom are telling and what’s actually in the literature.
As I pointed out in my first post on the topic, Olof Liberg did not differentiate between native and non-native prey, as Hildreth, Vantassel, and Hygnstrom [...]
2 Dec 10
In my haste to get my previous post online, I neglected to address a critical point (later brought to my attention by a particularly helpful reader). So, a brief follow-up…
In “Feral Cats and Their Management,” the authors point out—correctly, in this case—that “most feral cats (62 percent to 80 percent) tested positive for toxoplasmosis.” [1] [...]
1 Dec 10
“Have you seen this already? This is awful.”
That’s what somebody posted on the Vox Felina Facebook page late last night—along with a link to an MSNBC news story. The headline was an attention-getter, no doubt about it: “Report: Kill feral cats to control their colonies.”
But beyond that, MSNBC had practically no details. A little digging [...]
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Posted in In the News, Research Protocol, Threats to Wildlife
Tagged American Bird Conservancy, Christopher Lepczyk, Cole Carlson Hawkins, Coleman & Temple, Crooks and Soule, Feral Cats and Their Management, Linda Winter, Merritt Clifton, Mike Fitzgerald, Pamela Jo Hatley, Paul Leyhausen, Stephen Vantassel, The Wildlife Society, Toxoplasma gondii, Toxoplasmosis
Tagged American Bird Conservancy, Christopher Lepczyk, Cole Carlson Hawkins, Coleman & Temple, Crooks and Soule, Feral Cats and Their Management, Linda Winter, Merritt Clifton, Mike Fitzgerald, Pamela Jo Hatley, Paul Leyhausen, Stephen Vantassel, The Wildlife Society, Toxoplasma gondii, Toxoplasmosis
8 Nov 10
Perhaps it’s an act of desperation, this “kitchen sink” approach favored by some free-roaming cat/TNR opponents. Throw everything—including the kitchen sink—into the anti-cat argument, and perhaps something will stick. Their impact on wildlife and the environment, for instance, or their threat to public safety—it seems there’s something for everybody. (Surely it’s only a matter of [...]
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Posted in Cats and Birds, Research Protocol, Threats to Wildlife
Tagged American Kestrels, Christopher Lepczyk, Darcee Guttilla, David Jessup, Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, James Mosher, Jayna L. DeVore, Kerrie Anne T. Loyd, Nico Dauphiné, Northern Harriers, Paul Stapp, Prairie Voles, Red-tailed Hawks, Robert J. Cooper, Travis Longcore, William G. George
Tagged American Kestrels, Christopher Lepczyk, Darcee Guttilla, David Jessup, Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, James Mosher, Jayna L. DeVore, Kerrie Anne T. Loyd, Nico Dauphiné, Northern Harriers, Paul Stapp, Prairie Voles, Red-tailed Hawks, Robert J. Cooper, Travis Longcore, William G. George
27 Oct 10
A Gray Catbird in Madison, Wisconsin, USA. Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons and John Benson.
According to its website, the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center is a “national and international leader in the biology and conservation of migratory birds.” When it comes to cats and their potential impact on birds, however, the SMBC apparently has a lot to [...]
8 Sep 10
Relative to other studies of the domestic cat’s predatory habits, Carol Fiore’s 2000 thesis work is cited only occasionally in the literature. [1, 2] Indeed, it might easily go unnoticed were it not for its inclusion in the American Bird Conservancy’s brochure Domestic Cat Predation on Birds and Other Wildlife, and the fact that Fiore [...]
3 Aug 10
Listening to NPR’s On the Media this weekend, I was struck by a story (first broadcast in 2006) about how certain “sticky” numbers—however dubious—find their way into the media landscape and beyond, as On the Media co-host Brooke Gladstone noted:
“Four years ago, we delved into the mysterious number, said to be 50,000, of child predators [...]
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Posted in Cats and Birds, In the News, Population Estimates, Research Protocol
Tagged American Bird Conservancy, Audubon Society, birds killed by cats, Churcher & Lawton, Coleman & Temple, Critical Assessment of Claims Regarding Management of Feral Cats by Trap-Neuter-Return, Ellen Perry Berkeley, English village study, Mike Fitzgerald, Nico Dauphiné, One Billion Birds, stray pet advocacy, Wisconsin Study
Tagged American Bird Conservancy, Audubon Society, birds killed by cats, Churcher & Lawton, Coleman & Temple, Critical Assessment of Claims Regarding Management of Feral Cats by Trap-Neuter-Return, Ellen Perry Berkeley, English village study, Mike Fitzgerald, Nico Dauphiné, One Billion Birds, stray pet advocacy, Wisconsin Study
14 Jul 10
“The reason that we have a peer review process is to assess the quality and likely validity of scientific data and their interpretation… One goal of the peer review process is to assess an author’s command of the existing literature and whether or not it is being cited selectively to support the author’s views, without [...]
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Posted in In the News, Research Protocol
Tagged Conservation Biology, Michael Hutchins, peer-review process, Travis Longcore
Tagged Conservation Biology, Michael Hutchins, peer-review process, Travis Longcore
21 Jun 10
In April, Conservation Biology published a comment authored by Christopher A. Lepczyk, Nico Dauphiné, David M. Bird, Sheila Conant, Robert J. Cooper, David C. Duffy, Pamela Jo Hatley, Peter P. Marra, Elizabeth Stone, and Stanley A. Temple. In it, the authors [...]
11 Jun 10
In April, Conservation Biology published a comment authored by Christopher A. Lepczyk, Nico Dauphiné, David M. Bird, Sheila Conant, Robert J. Cooper, David C. Duffy, Pamela Jo Hatley, Peter P. Marra, Elizabeth Stone, and Stanley A. Temple. In it, the authors “applaud the recent essay by Longcore et al. (2009) in raising the awareness about [...]
27 May 10
In April, Conservation Biology published a comment authored by Christopher A. Lepczyk, Nico Dauphiné, David M. Bird, Sheila Conant, Robert J. Cooper, David C. Duffy, Pamela Jo Hatley, Peter P. Marra, Elizabeth Stone, and Stanley A. Temple. In it, the authors “applaud the [...]
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Posted in Population Estimates, Research Protocol, The Cat Debate, Threats to Wildlife
Tagged Christopher A. Lepczyk, Cole Carlson Hawkins, Conservation Biology, Critical Assessment of Claims Regarding Management of Feral Cats by Trap-Neuter-Return, Kays and DeWan, Nico Dauphiné, Stanley A. Temple, Travis Longcore
Tagged Christopher A. Lepczyk, Cole Carlson Hawkins, Conservation Biology, Critical Assessment of Claims Regarding Management of Feral Cats by Trap-Neuter-Return, Kays and DeWan, Nico Dauphiné, Stanley A. Temple, Travis Longcore
24 May 10
In April, Conservation Biology published a comment authored by Christopher A. Lepczyk, Nico Dauphiné, David M. Bird, Sheila Conant, Robert J. Cooper, David C. Duffy, Pamela Jo Hatley, Peter P. Marra, Elizabeth Stone, and Stanley A. Temple. In it, the authors “applaud the recent essay by Longcore et [...]
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Posted in Cats and Birds, Research Protocol, The Cat Debate, Threats to Wildlife
Tagged American Bird Conservancy, Cats Indoors!, Christopher A. Lepczyk, Churcher & Lawton, Coleman & Temple, Conser, David A. Jessup, Laurie D. Goldstein, Linda Winter, Nico Dauphiné, One Billion Birds, Stanley A. Temple, Travis Longcore, Wisconsin Study
Tagged American Bird Conservancy, Cats Indoors!, Christopher A. Lepczyk, Churcher & Lawton, Coleman & Temple, Conser, David A. Jessup, Laurie D. Goldstein, Linda Winter, Nico Dauphiné, One Billion Birds, Stanley A. Temple, Travis Longcore, Wisconsin Study
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