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> "declined by 29 percent—or a total net loss of around three billion birds—since 1970." > "estimates that our pet felines kill some 2.6 billion birds annually
by rubylark 5y ago
> "declined by 29 percent—or a total net loss of around three billion birds—since 1970."
> "estimates that our pet felines kill some 2.6 billion birds annually in the U.S. alone"
So is the net loss of 3B birds since 1970 a lot or not a lot? If 2.6B birds each year are killed just by house cats, then wouldn't the decline of 3B over 50 years be not that big of a difference? It sounds like banning outdoor cats would single handedly solve the decline and result in a bird population boom.
- micromacrofoot 5y agoit means cats and other factors are outpacing replacement, for a total of 3 billion lost… that’s a lot. Total population was somewhere in the area of 10 billion in north america, now around 7 billion
- rubylark 5y agoSo I guess my next question is: what is the replacement rate? Because 2.6B dead a year from a single source when there is only about 10B alive at any one time, AND that 26% annual death not being the highest cause of bird mortality (e.g. >>26% of all birds die a year), then that means there are a lot of bird babies and a lot of bird corpses out there. The stats are a bit mind boggling for me.
- marcosdumay 5y agoMost birds get into reproductive age between 1 and 3 years, and for most species a couple usually has 1 or 2 viable offspring per year. Some birds grow slower than that, but cats are usually not a problem for them.