WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT:Pythons yield hides for specialty items

East Bay Regional Park District, CA: A two-year study
was conducted in two parks with grassland habitat. One park
had no cats, but more than 25 cats were being fed daily in the
other park. There were almost twice as many birds seen in the
park with no cats as in the park with cats. California Thrasher
and California Quail, both ground-nesting birds, were seen
during surveys in
the no-cat area,
whereas they
were never seen in
the cat area. In
addition, more
than 85% of the
native deer mice
and harvest mice
trapped were in the no-cat area, whereas 79% of the house
mice, an exotic pest species, were trapped in the cat area. The
researchers concluded, “Cats at artificially high densities,
sustained by supplemental feeding, reduce abundance of native
rodent and bird populations, change the rodent species
composition, and may facilitate the expansion of the house
mouse into new areas.” (Hawkins, C.C., W.E. Grant, and M.T.
Longnecker. 1999. Effect of subsidized house cats on California
birds and rodents. Transactions of the Western Section of The Wildlife

How many birds and other wildlife do domestic cats
kill each year in the U.S.?
Exact numbers are unknown, but scientists estimate that nationwide,
cats kill hundreds of millions of birds, and more than a billion
small mammals, such as rabbits, squirrels, and chipmunks, each
year. Cats kill common species such as Cardinal, Blue Jay, and House
Wren, as well as rare and endangered species such as Piping Plover,
Florida Scrub-Jay, and California Least Tern.
There are more than 77 million pet cats in the United States. A
1997 nationwide poll showed that only 35% are kept exclusively
indoors, leaving the majority of owned cats free to kill birds and
other wildlife at least some of the time. In addition, millions of stray
and feral cats roam our cities, suburbs, farmlands and natural areas.
Abandoned by their owners or lost (stray), or descendants of strays
and living in the wild (feral), these cats are victims of human
irresponsibility due to abandonment and failure to spay or neuter
pets. No one knows how many homeless cats there are in the U.S.,
but estimates range from 60 to 100 million. These cats lead short,
miserable lives.
Loss of wildlife habitat
and fragmentation due
to human development
are the leading causes
of declining bird
populations. However,
scientists now list
invasive species,
including cats, as the
second most serious threat to bird populations worldwide. Habitat
fragmentation provides cats and other predators easier access to
wildlife forced to live on smaller tracts of land. Rather than havens
for wildlife, these areas can be death traps.

San Diego, CA: In a study of the relationships between
coyote, mid-sized predators such as cats, and scrub-dwelling
birds, cat owners living along the rims of canyons collected
the prey their cats brought home. These canyons are isolated
pockets of habitat with species that may not occur elsewhere.
On average, each outdoor cat that hunted returned 24 rodents,
15 birds, and 17 lizards to the residence per year. Birds were
26.7% of the prey killed by cats. The researchers estimated
that cats surrounding mid-sized canyons return 840 rodents,
525 birds, and 595 lizards to residences each year. This level of
predation appears to be unsustainable. The study also found
that in small canyons where the coyote was absent, there was
an increase in mid-sized predators such as cats, and a drastic
decline in diversity or elimination of scrub-breeding birds.
But in the larger canyons where coyotes were still present, the
scrub-breeding birds were also present. (Crooks, K.R. and
M.E. Soule. 1999. Mesopredator release and avifaunal
extinctions in a fragmented system. Nature 400:563-566).

Cat Predation Studies
Extensive studies of the feeding habits of free-roaming
domestic cats have been conducted over the last 55 years in
Europe, North America, Australia, Africa, and on many islands.
These studies show that the number and types of animals
killed by cats varies greatly, depending on the individual cats,
the time of year, and availability of prey. Roughly 60% to 70%
of the wildlife cats kill are small mammals; 20% to 30% are
birds; and up to 10 are amphibians, reptiles, and insects.
However, birds can be up to 100% of a cat’s prey on some
islands.
Some free-roaming domestic cats kill more than 100 animals
each year. One well-fed cat that roamed a wildlife experiment
station was recorded to have killed more than 1,600 animals
(mostly small mammals) over 18 months. Rural cats take
more prey than suburban or urban cats. Birds that nest or feed
on the ground, such as California Quail, are the most
susceptible to cat predation, as are nestlings and fledglings of
many other bird species.
The following

Wisconsin: Researchers at the University of Wisconsin coupled
their four-year cat predation study with data from other studies,
and estimated that rural free-roaming cats kill at least 7.8 million
and perhaps as many as 217 million birds a year in Wisconsin.
Suburban and urban cats add to that toll. In some parts of the state,
free-roaming cat densities reach 114 cats per square mile,
outnumbering all similar-sized native predators. (Coleman, J.S.,
S.A. Temple, and S.R. Craven. 1997. Cats and Wildlife: A
Conservation Dilemma. 6 pp. www.wisc.edu/extension/
catfly3.htm). In an ongoing, but unpublished, study of cat prey
items including stomach contents, scat analysis, observations of
kills, and prey remains, birds were 19.6% of 1,976 prey captured
by 78 outdoor cats (Temple, S.A, Univ. of WI, personal
communication, 1/22/04).
Virginia: Researchers compared a free-roaming domestic pet cat
in a rural area with 4 urban cats. The rural cat captured a total of 27
native species (8 bird, 2 amphibian, 9 reptile, and 8 mammal,
including the star-nosed mole, a species of special state concern).
The 4 urban cats captured 21 native species (6 bird, 7 reptile, and 8
mammal). Between January and November 1990 each cat caught,
on average, 26 native individuals in the urban area, and 83 in the
rural area. The study did not count prey killed and completely
consumed, prey killed and left elsewhere, prey that escaped but
died later from infection or injury, or non-native prey. (Mitchell, J.
and R.A.Beck. 1992. Free-ranging domestic cat predation on native
vertebrates in rural and urban Virginia. Virginia Journal of Science
43:197-206).
Cats on Islands: Because some island bird populations evolved
in the absence of mammalian predators, they have no defense
mechanisms against them. When cats are introduced or abandoned
on an island, elimination of entire bird populations can result.
California

Impacts
Australia's native plants and animals adapted to life on an isolated continent over millions of years. Since European settlement they have had to compete with a range of introduced animals for habitat, food and shelter. Some have also had to face new predators. These new pressures have also caused a major impact on our country's soil and waterways and on its native plants and animals.

In Australia, feral animals typically have few natural predators or fatal diseases and some have high reproductive rates. As a result, their populations have not naturally diminished and they can multiply rapidly if conditions are favourable.

Feral animals impact on native species by predation, competition for food and shelter, destroying habitat, and by spreading diseases.

The Rabbit-eared Bandicoot or Bilby needs a constant supply of carbohydrate-rich seeds and roots. Feral animals such as rabbits graze or degrade vegetation that provides food and shelter for them and other native animals. If vegetation is destroyed or eaten by feral animals, the Bilby and other native species are placed under greater pressure. Feral cats and foxes hunt and kill native birds, mammals, reptiles and insects. It is known that this behaviour threatens the survival of many threatened species.

Feral animals can cause soil erosion. While managed domestic livestock can be removed from degraded areas until these areas are revegetated, it is much more difficult to keep feral animals out of these same areas.

Feral animals can carry the same common diseases as domestic animals. They are a constant source of reinfection for wildlife and livestock, which works against efforts to control costly diseases such as tuberculosis. Feral animals are also potential carriers of other animal diseases (such as rabies and foot and mouth disease) and parasites (such as the screw worm fly). So far, these do not occur in Australia. An outbreak among Australia's wildlife would have an immediate and widespread effect, and would be disastrous for our environment. In some cases it would also be very difficult to control these diseases and parasites if feral animals carried them.

They make a 15' burm look like, well. A cute little fuzzy kitten.

So I wasn't Sure if anyone did or not But I notified Mr. Zarmati on myspace.com with the following message


I wanted to Inform you If you havent been informed their is a posting on www.faunaclassifieds.com
http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/forums/showthread.
php?t=169637 I will leave my comment on this matter on fauna.
Thanks Travis-TropicalSerpent

So the Notification has been sent if he gets on frequent he will see it,

My comment on this Is that this is that their is a more Humane way to do this several in fact. Also this should not have been distibuted any anyway I am assuming it was on the net. I will leave this at that, Thanks Jeremy Travis

i understand that the burms are a problem in FL and something needs to be done but these people posting pics of them cutting off their heads you know as soon as the HSUS sees these pics they are going to throw a fit and say look how these people that claim to love snakes treat them. why would you cut its head for so far back. they could have put them in the freezer and they would have just slowed down and went to sleep or used co2. i realize that what they did was the fastest way to do it but why the hell would they post pics of it. something like this could really cause fighting in the reptile community and we really dont need that right now.

just point of interest,freezing a live snake is not a humane way to euthanize when you freeze an animal it creates ice crystals in the blood and causes them more pain, but inturn i do not agree with the way that burm was killed either such a nice snake should not have been killed there have to be other options.