yego.me
💡 Stop wasting time. Read Youtube instead of watch. Download Chrome Extension

POV "Kittycam" Reveals These Stray Cats Prey on More Than Birds | National Geographic


2m read
·Nov 11, 2024

[Music] When people see a feral cat on the side of the road, they're thinking this is akin to my cat being out there in the wild with no food, exposed to the elements, and they have a lot of compassion to want to help them. But people don't always see that they are also an invasive species and that they can negatively impact a lot of native wildlife.

We wanted to know, what do these cats do all day? And specifically, we wanted to know if they were hunting wildlife. We use video because we feel images don't lie. If the cats don't hunt, they don't hunt. If they hunt, then it's there. We chose to work on Jekyll Island because it is a very unique place. It's one of the barrier islands off the coast of Georgia; it's a large stopover place for birds.

So we thought that if cats were hunting, that they would be hunting birds. But it's been a bit of a surprise that the cats that we have captured on camera have not been hunting birds. The primary thing that they hunt are insects, small mammals, glass lizards, some snakes, and a lot of the common large-bodied frogs.

People react to the videos in very different ways. Immediately after we ended the first phase, I got a lot of hate email from people who thought that I was purposely selecting videos to vilify cats, and that's not the case. The purpose of this project is to be as objective as possible.

One of those at the, yeah, cats are both extremely affectionate but also highly independent. They're very intelligent, and they don't take anything from anybody. You know, and we respect that in a weird way. However, cats being out in the environment, you have to think about what's the cost versus the benefit.

So there's some benefit in that people are caring for these cats, and they're out there, and they're being compassionate towards animals in general. But overall, what's the cost of these cats being out in the environment? And that's the part that we are all interested in and that we're concerned about.

More Articles

View All
10 Monthly Routines To Skyrocket Your Productivity
You know, locks are the routines we build. They’re not just about getting more things done. They’re designed to enhance our overall well-being and efficiency, helping us to become the best version of ourselves. So whether you’re a seasoned go-getter or ju…
Expanding a Cabin in the Arctic | Life Below Zero
Nothing’s going to stop me. Snow, wind, 40 below, things like that don’t stop me. [Music] Couldn’t be any better time to finish this up. Dogs are all resting. Well, now it’s time to keep after it. I don’t want to leave this undone and wait because this is…
Pro Boxer Inspires Girls to Fight for Their Futures | National Geographic
[Music] Klam area in Niri, Kenya, there are so many people living around and there’s so much violence going around here in this area. Most of the girls, all the women have here in this community the fear of being robbed or being attacked. Women fear to ev…
Surviving a Hippo Attack | Something Bit Me! | National Geographic
Deep beneath the surface of the Zambezi River in Zimbabwe, Africa, Kristen Yaldor is trapped in the jaws of a hippopotamus. As she struggles to free herself, the animal refuses to let go, ragdolling her back and forth. Hippos wouldn’t necessarily just dra…
Peer Into a Fallen Battleship at Pearl Harbor | National Geographic
Here we are at the number one guns of the USS Arizona. Oftentimes diving on the USS Arizona, we come across artifacts like this shoe or boot sole. It’s artifacts like this that remind us of the human connection of the ship and those who lost their lives h…
Michael Burry's Controversial Bet for 2024.
Well, Michael Barry is back. He has just released his latest 13F filing, and in it, it shows that he has been on quite the buying spree in Q4 of 2023. He opened 18 new positions, added to two, reduced in five, and sold four. So, in this video, we’re going…