CATS: ruthless enemies of our garden birds

MOST cat lovers like garden birds and are horrified when Tiddles reverts to type and snuffs out the lives of a nest of young robins or blue-tits.

With so many cats around, such bloody massacres are now common but the facts on cat predation still shock.

Worldwide, the rise of the cat has been linked to the decimation of many rare species of birds and mammals.

In Britain our cat population has now topped 7.2 million pets which are estimated to kill over 75 million birds each year.

No wonder birdsong is almost extinct in some areas.

But even this pales in comparison with the USA where cats are believed to kill 1.4 BILLION birds annually.

I like cats. I also like birds.

However, the difficulty of enjoying both was brought home to me again the other day when my wife spotted a normally placid cat in our garden gleefully torturing a thrush.

After she hammered on the window to distract the cat, the badly injured thrush managed to struggle free and hide in undergrowth.

But a scattering of torn feathers the next morning betrayed its fate.

Cats are born killers.

Even more than dogs, they seem to have retained many of their natural instincts, which is part of their attraction.

Cats fitted with bells are, of course, less likely to surprise a bird.

However, some cunning pets learn to muffle these as they close in on their victim.

A new electronic collar recently on the market is said to be far more successful at saving garden birds.

This lightweight device emits a sharp sonic warning signal at the cat's approach and has won praise from the British Trust for Ornithology. Domestic cats are not the only feline threat to birds.

Feral cats are now part of the landscape in this country and assorted colonies or loners survive on their wits in most towns and cities.

Cats that go wild in rural areas probably have the toughest lives.

Without human handouts to fall back on, their in-built hunting skills come to the fore.

Voles, mice, rats, and rabbits are among a range of creatures which regularly feel the cutting edge of cats' needle-sharp teeth and claws.

At one time, a friend of mine had a huge male cat which specialised in hunting rabbits near her home.

So powerful was this pet that it was capable of dragging an adult rabbit into the house through its cat flap.

My friend would often be appalled to find a terrified live rabbit awaiting her when she came downstairs at dawn.

Usually, she managed to fend off her cat long enough to save these quivering bunnies.

She returned them to their field - much to her pet's dismay.

But cats being cats, this one discovered an effective way to stop all that irritating bunny hugging.

Unfortunately, biting the rabbit's head off did not go down well.

In the end, the cat went completely feral and never came home.

This was probably a relief to both of them.

It can't be easy to watch your hard-earned meal being thrown into a rubbish bin.

Nor is it pleasant to have your pristine living-room turned into an execution chamber.