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Cats kill 2.4 billion birds annually

In conservation biology, Science Spotlight, zoology / / 2 comments

Gray-catbird-Gerhard-Hofmann

Domestic cats in the United States kill some 2.4 billion birds and 12.3 billion mammals each year, most of them native mammals like shrews, chipmunks and voles according to the New York Times in a recent article about a new report in the journal Nature co-authored by Peter Marra, an ornithologist at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute. To learn more click here.

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  • Michele Glenn

    Impossible. According to the 2012 census figures, there are 313,914,000 people in the U.S. And this study says cats kill 2.4 BILLION birds each year??? The numbers are outrageously skewed; this just isn’t possible. My picture windows kill more birds than all of my cats have during my entire life.

  • daN

    Argue numbers all you want. This article is spot-on. I just moved into a new house and local cats have killed several marine birds here. Just behind my house was the ripped-up remains of an Ibis, a seagull, and a lesser egret… in just TWO DAYS! I lived in a small town where the adage was; “Shoot the bird-killers. If it is a pet, a simple bowl of milk will get you a new one overnite.” I continue that belief.