Environment

Cats vs rats

The first study to look at how talented feral cats are at killing wild rats found that the felines just aren’t very good at that task.

Writing in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, lead researcher Michael H. Parsons of Fordham University said the findings add to the growing evidence that any benefit of using cats to control city rats is outweighed by the threat they pose to birds and other urban wildlife.

Earlier studies found that cats prefer smaller, defenseless prey such as birds and smaller native wildlife, which makes cats a threat to urban ecosystems.