The Maine Coon is one of the purebred cats more suited in living in the wild as they were formerly barn cats. There are an estimated 80 million or so Feral Cats in America. This tells us that quite a few domestic cats have in fact learned to live in the wild. Also in some countries like America. There are predators who prey upon domestic cats. The word ‘feral’ is used to define a cat that lives outside and it essentially does not belong to anyone.
Feral cats are the result of a domestic cat being abandoned or lost and left to take care for itself. The offspring of the domestic (now considered feral) cat are usually never handled by people and become terrified. Many times, when approached by people, they will hiss out of fright.“Given the chance, they will run away and hide. This is misunderstood as being vicious, but that is not true. Almost all feral cats that are trapped will cower to the back of the trap and shake from fright. Some even urinate due to uncontrolled fright.
If the trap were to be opened they would not attack, but run away. Ten to fifteen percent of the cats trapped are tamed, abandoned cats. Some are even declawed. Others are elderly, guilty of nothing more than having lived with one person all their life until that person passed, and surviving family members decided to throw the animal out”. All of this information comes from the website “What is a feral cat”. And what this information is trying to tell us is that there is an estimate of 80 million cats living in the wild right now, also that there are predators that prey on feral cats in countries such as America.
127 our experts are availableright now
It also states that the kits of the cats are never handled by humans, if a human comes near them they will get frightened and eventually urinate themselves or even hiss the human for them to get away. This also mentions that if the trap their in was to be opened they would not attack the person they would just run away. And that ten to fifteen percent that cats that are trapped were abandoned, tamed, declawed, and that others are really old, that they eventually stayed with their owner until he passed away and the family decided to throw them to the wild for them to survive on their own.
So you can basically say that feral are not domesticated at all and they do not need as for anything. They take care of themselves by scavenging food on the wild and protecting themselves. Another type of cat is a stray cat. The meaning of the word stray is something that was domesticated such as in this case an animal. So we can that a stray cat was a cat that was once domesticated and escaped or may have gotten lost and became a wild cat. Cats can’t survive in the wild because they need us to protect them from danger, take care of their health and feral cats often come to us to feed them. Cats need us to take care of them for their health and to be safe from danger.
Feral Cats often scratch their ears bloody drive crazy of ear mites and accompanying infections. Other cats die of blood loss or anemia from worms and fleas. Stray cats can also carry rabies and tapeworms. You maybe asking what is tapeworms. Tapeworms are flat, segmented worms that live in some animals intestines. Anemia is a deficiency in red blood cells, which are needed to carry oxygen throughout the body and keep organs functioning properly. Red blood cells have an average life span of about 65 days, so the body needs to continually keep producing more. This is a clear example of why cats need us humans. They need us to take care of their health, to keep them always in fine feather away from any infection.
Feral Cats do not die of “old age ”Feral cats are often poisoned, shot, tortured by cruel people, attacked by other animals, hit by cars, die of starvation, or highly contagious diseases such as rabies and feline infections. This is some of the many ways of how cats are killed in the wild , this is another reason of why cats also need us to take care of them.
They also need us to give them safety and protection from people that may torture them, from getting hit by cars and many other reasons that are mentioned in the paragraph above. Feral Cats often come to us to give them food for them to survive. Millions of feral cats are fed by kind people. “Others find food for themselves. The average lifespan for a feral cat is estimated to be 10 years. Incidence of feline leukemia and FIV is no higher in feral cats than in owned cats. At Forgotten Cats, we see many outdoor cats.
While a few of them lead hard lives, most of them are pleasantly plump and healthy! Most feral cats we see are full of life and eager to return to their homes when we release them”. What this paragraph says is that the amount of time a feral cat can live is of 10 years and that while many of them have a hard time surviving some do not have a hard time and that most of the cats we see in the streets are impatient to return to their homes. This information also comes from the website “What is a Feral Cat”. This is another reason of why cats can’t survive in the wild. They get tired of living in the wild and often pass the time hungry so they look for humans to see if they can help by giving them food and water to keep them alive.
Another topic I would love to discuss with you is why feral cats are a threat to wildlife. The American Bird conservancy estimates that feral cats kill millions of birds and small mammals every year, and that they also hunt species that are in danger of becoming extinct. These small animals die from wounds and being crushed by the cats jaw. The cats also play with there prey for a good amount of time meanwhile there dying and in great pain ad suffering. Cats play with their prey because when they were kits they played with the food their mother brought them.
The birds that they also kill may be passing in great difficulties such as adjusting to their new environment. Also cats are not born to fit to the predator and prey type of ecosystem. ‘Our findings suggest that free-ranging cats cause substantially greater wildlife mortality than previously thought and are likely the single greatest source of anthropogenic mortality for U.S. birds and mammals,’ Peter Marra. What this scientist of the Smithsonian’s Conservation Biology Institute emphasises is that cats are one of the major causes of deaths of birds and mammals in the U.S. and also in her research she suggest that there should be a policy intervention to reduce the amount of deaths of birds and mammals.
“We estimate that free-ranging domestic cats kill 1.3–4.0 billion birds and 6.3–22.3 billion mammals annually.” This is an average of how many birds feral cats kill exactly. So we can conclude on based information that feral cats are a danger to the wildlife and any other animal that lives in the wild and that the best solution maybe taming them or even take them from the street and take them somewhere where you know they will find a home.
Some may argue that cats can survive in the wild by many reasons one of this reasons is that they can hunt their own prey in the wild. A group of scientists named Barratt estimated that 9.7 individual prey were taken anually per cat, with a total of almost 400,000 being taken in Canberra each year. The statistics that hey did is that 41% of cats were reported to take mammals such as rats, mice, and rabbits, while 19% took birds such as sparrows, starlings and mynas.
Another of their statistics says that from 421 respondents the survey showed that about 62% of cats took birds, 59% took mammals and 34% took reptiles. I realize that this statistics clearly shows that cats can survive in the wild by themselves and by hunting different animals to survive, but what would happen if the food or the animals migrate to another place or they eventually run out of prey to eat also what if the cats do not have hunting skills and does not know what to do in the wild. They may become the prey of another animal, die of starvation because there are not anymore prey for them to eat and to feed themselves.
Another reason people say they can survive in the wild is that they have claws to defend themselves from any other animal that might attack them. Admittedly this is a good reason of why they can survive in the wild, if an animal comes and attack them they may slash them easily with their claws but what would happen if they were declawed. Declawed is when the claws of a cat are cut. They will no longer be able to defend themselves from their attackers and will eventually will become an easy prey in the wild. Sure you may say that they can run away from the animal and save themselves what if the animal that is attacking them is faster than them , they would be no match for their predator and eventually be killed and eaten.
It is important for people to know that cats can’t survive in the wild because they can get hurt by cruel people, get hit by cars etc. They can also catch diseases such as rabies and many others, they also need us to take care of their health and to protect them. Yeah they may survive by hunting their own prey and by defending themselves with their claws but what would happen if their prey migrates and if they are declawed, they will die of starvation and won’t be able to defend themselves. So my solution would be that if you see a feral cat or stray cat in the streets to grab them and take them to a veterinary first to check their health and then send them for adoption or if you want take him or her yourself that way the cat will be save from danger,diseases and will not pass starvation because he would be with you giving him food everytime he asks for it.
