4 ms·

That's interesting, I've heard similar things about Rome (where I've never been either). My big worry about maintaining a large population of roaming cats is t

by geebee 8y ago

That's interesting, I've heard similar things about Rome (where I've never been either). My big worry about maintaining a large population of roaming cats is the impact on the bird population. I'm interested in hearing directly from someone who grew up in Istanbul - do you recall hearing or seeing birds often growing up?

toyg 8y ago
Didn’t grow up there but visited. Istanbul is on the sea, so there are plenty of seagulls - aka “sea rats”, since they feast on trash. The few open / green spaces I’ve seen had plenty of birds, mostly pigeon-like if i remember correctly. Been to Rome a few times too and that’s also pretty full of pigeons, afaik. The feline colonies in Rome are the stuff of legend, several Italian writers used them in stories. I bet they’ve been around since Roman times...
- geebee 8y ago
  That makes a certain amount of sense. I'm not too surprised seagulls would be ok in the presence of cats. They're large, fairly powerful birds. Crows also seem more common in SF than they were in previous decades, and again, I'd expect crows to be more resilient facing a predator like cats. They're large, highly intelligent, pretty tough, and fight in groups. Here's the thing - to a large extent, the birds you mentioned are urban birds, by and large. Seagulls are very coastal, but as you said, they eat trash, so the population will be very large in coastal urban areas. Crows also tend to flourish in urban areas. Pidgeons are notoriously urban creature, and while I've seen cats prey on them, they don't seem as vulnerable as smaller song bird species. I'm interested in whether these smaller songbird species are present in Rome or Istanbul or other places that are cat-heavy, though there are of course factors other than cats (some regions wouldn't have these species regardless of the presence of cats).
gnulinux 8y ago
I heard this too ("Adam ruins everything"). But there is a hugeg bird population in Istanbul (more than US cities I lived in). Mostly seagulls (thousands of them), pigeons, sparrow and crows which are all around the city. It's possible these are "city birds" resistant to cat attacks somehow and cats damaged other bird populations, though. I'm not educated enough to give a better answer.

by geebee 8y ago

toyg 8y ago

Didn’t grow up there but visited. Istanbul is on the sea, so there are plenty of seagulls - aka “sea rats”, since they feast on trash. The few open / green spaces I’ve seen had plenty of birds, mostly pigeon-like if i remember correctly. Been to Rome a few times too and that’s also pretty full of pigeons, afaik. The feline colonies in Rome are the stuff of legend, several Italian writers used them in stories. I bet they’ve been around since Roman times...

geebee 8y ago
That makes a certain amount of sense. I'm not too surprised seagulls would be ok in the presence of cats. They're large, fairly powerful birds. Crows also seem more common in SF than they were in previous decades, and again, I'd expect crows to be more resilient facing a predator like cats. They're large, highly intelligent, pretty tough, and fight in groups. Here's the thing - to a large extent, the birds you mentioned are urban birds, by and large. Seagulls are very coastal, but as you said, they eat trash, so the population will be very large in coastal urban areas. Crows also tend to flourish in urban areas. Pidgeons are notoriously urban creature, and while I've seen cats prey on them, they don't seem as vulnerable as smaller song bird species. I'm interested in whether these smaller songbird species are present in Rome or Istanbul or other places that are cat-heavy, though there are of course factors other than cats (some regions wouldn't have these species regardless of the presence of cats).

gnulinux 8y ago

I heard this too ("Adam ruins everything"). But there is a hugeg bird population in Istanbul (more than US cities I lived in). Mostly seagulls (thousands of them), pigeons, sparrow and crows which are all around the city. It's possible these are "city birds" resistant to cat attacks somehow and cats damaged other bird populations, though. I'm not educated enough to give a better answer.