Bermuda Audubon Society
Environmental News
Feral Cats - The Facts about Those Cats
A
survey in
“Say it ain’t so! That adorable little ball of fluff snoozing on the sofa is a killer – one of the major predators of wildlife?” “Not my cat” is the usual retort. “She gets all the food she can eat at home.”
Cats cannot be blamed for killing wildlife. It is the responsibility of cat owners to
ensure their cats are safely indoors.
The Humane Society of the
Perhaps because of its controversial nature, animal control has been neglected. At the moment we have a ludicrous situation whereby some people are actively feeding feral cats, chickens and ducks while others, such as farmers who find their crops eaten by chickens, or boat owners who find their boats fouled by feral ducks, are demanding that Government implement control programmes. The leaders of this country need to be persuaded that feral domestic animals are harmful to native biodiversity and do not belong in the wild, so that legislation for their humane control and eventual eradication in the free-roaming context, can be implemented in much the same way as we have already done for dogs. It would seem logical and simple to pass a regulation forbidding people from feeding domestic or feral chickens, ducks and cats in the wild.
Environment
Charter for
The
Bermuda Audubon Society is fully supportive of the Environment Charter for UK
Overseas Territories and congratulates the Bermuda Government for recently
becoming a signatory to the Charter.
Guiding principles for the
UK government, for the government of Bermuda and for the people of Bermuda.
1.)
To recognise that all people need a healthy
environment for their well-being and livelihoods and that all can help to
conserve and sustain it.
2.)
To use out natural resources wisely, being fair to present and future
generations.
3.)
To identify environmental opportunities, costs and risks in all
policies and strategies.
4.)
To seek expert advice and consult openly with interested parties on
decisions affecting the environment.
5.)
To aim for solutions which benefit both the environment and development.
6.)
To contribute towards the protection and improvement of the global
environment
7.)
To safeguard and restore native species, habitats and landscape
features, and control or eradicate invasive species.
8.)
To encourage activities and technologies that benefit
the environment.
9.)
To control pollution, with the polluter paying for the prevention or
remedies
10.)
To study and celebrate our environmental heritage as a treasure to
share with our children.
The government of the
1.)
help build capacity to support and implement integrated
environmental management which is consistent with
2.)
assist
3.)
facilitate the extension of the
4.)
keep Bermuda informed regarding new developments in
relevant Multilateral Environmental Agreements and invite Bermuda to
participate where appropriate in the
5.)
help
6.)
promote better co-operation and the sharing of experiences
and expertise between Bermuda, other
7.)
use
8.)
use the existing Environmental Fund for
9.)
Help
10.)
Recognise the diversity of the challenges facing the
11.)
Abide by the principles set out in the
The government of
1.)
bring together government departments, representatives of
local industry and commerce, environmental champions and other community
representatives in a forum to formulate a detailed strategy for action.
2.)
ensure the protection and restoration of key habitats,
species and landscape features through
legislation and appropriate management structures and mechanisms, including a
protected areas policy, and attempt the control and eradication of invasive
species.
3.)
ensure that the environmental considerations are
integrated within social and economic planning processes; promote sustainable
patterns of production and consumption within the territory.
4.)
undertake environmental impact assessments before approving
major projects and while developing our growth management strategy.
5.)
commit to open and consultative decision-making on
developments and plans which may affect the environment; ensure that
environmental impact assessments include consultation with stakeholders.
6.)
implement effectively obligations under the Multilateral
Environmental Agreements already extended to
7.)
review the range, quality and availability of baseline
data for natural resources and biodiversity.
8.)
ensure that legislation and policies reflect the principle
that the polluter should pay for prevention or remedies; establish effective
monitoring and enforcement mechanisms.
1.)
encourage teaching within schools to promote the value of our
local environment (natural and built) and to explain its role within the region
and global environment.
2.)
promote publications that spread awareness of the special
features of the environment in
3.)
abide by the principles
set out in the
THE
We could use
some help!
A number of toads and toadlets
(newly metamorphosed toads) with limb deformities, especially missing,
shortened or fused toes, have been observed at various sites in
How can you help? Please contact Dr. Jamie Bacon at 236-6544
(fax: 238-4971, email: jbacon@ibl.bm – use "toads" in
the subject field) if you:
· Find a deformed toad (please sketch the deformity) or one with an eye problem
·
Know of an area or residence with a large toad
population, especially in Pembroke, Hamilton Parish or
· See tadpoles or toads breeding in a pond or creek
· Observe an emaciated, dying or recently dead toad (not a road-kill, please)
· Find a whistling frog egg mass
In June 2000, Works and Engineering Minister
Alec Scott said that the Government is considering a bill to reintroduce
deposits on empty bottles to help tackle the litter problem. The Bermuda
Audubon Society has already made its views clear. A Bottle Bill, with its economic incentives
for recycling, and the overwhelming need for comprehensive recycling is a
necessary step towards achieving a sustainable economic future.
Although
no-one would argue that recycling is a burden, it will not only be economically
rewarding in the long run but ecologically imperative as well. Education against
littering has not and will not work as long as we have an economic system that
encourages the throw-away society and penalizes those who want to recycle-for
that is the situation as it stands at present. Litterbugs are actually rewarded
because they are able to evade their responsibility for recycling at no cost or
inconvenience to themselves. Conscientious members of the community, on the
other hand, are doubly penalized because they not only bear the burden of
recycling their own trash without reward, but also take responsibility for the
litterbug's trash is the most inefficient, time-wasting and unrewarding way
imaginable i.e. by participating in voluntary litter clean-ups and trashathons. (It is especially ironic that trashathons and litter clean-ups take as a measure of their
success the amount trash collected-in other words the more trash that's out
there, the more successful these efforts are!) We are not denigrating the good
intentions and self sacrifice of these efforts, but simply pointing out that
there must be a fairer and more efficient way. Consciously or not, litterbugs
are getting a good deal and you can bet they are not the ones who participate
in clean-ups!
The beauty of bottle bill legislation is that it
can turn this ridiculous situation around. Litterbugs would be fined
automatically by losing their deposits and those who take the trouble to pick
up other peoples' litter could recover the deposit at a recycling centre. This
is anti-litter education the way it works best - through economic incentive.
The logic of economic incentive comes with the
recognition that all of our trash has at least some recovery value. In the case
of items which commonly become litter on the landscape, the value may simply be
that of keeping the environment tidy - a considerable plus in a community
depending on tourists. But trash can have a resource value too, as already
demonstrated by the successful aluminium recycling programme. The resource value of different kinds of trash
depends, of course, on the availability of markets for it, but we can be
absolutely certain of one thing: in an era of overpopulation and increasing
natural resource-scarcity, these markets are growing all the time and will soon
make most kinds of trash economically recoverable.
As we see it, the supermarkets and other retail
outlets which sell bottle bill items need not carry the burden of receiving and
handling the empties. All that is necessary is for the Government to tax each
item for the agreed amount of deposit at the import or manufacturing stage. The
retail centres simply pass this on to the consumer by
adding the equivalent of the deposit to retail cost. (As everybody has to do
this, the argument of reduced sales does not hold.) The customer then has the
option to recover the deposit, not at the retail centres
but at specially established recycling centres, set
up by Government at convenient points around the island. There is no reward as
such for recycling ones own purchase - on the contrary, it is a minor
inconvenience necessary to avoid losing the deposit. However the long-term
benefits to the community are a litter-free environment and - providing
comprehensive recycling measures are in place - ultimately a lower cost for
consumer goods and a huge reduction in the scale and cost of managing garbage
landfill sites.
Designing and implementing a comprehensive
recycling system won't be easy and it will certainly involve some degree of
inconvenience, self-discipline and change in consumer habits, notably the pre-sorting
of household waste before disposal or recycling. But the sooner our
representatives catch up with public opinion and realize that this is an
ecological imperative for a sustainable future, the sooner we will get on with
the task at hand!
If you support our views on Bottle Bill
legislation, take action! Share your ideas with friends and neighbours,
talk to your Government representatives or write a letter to the Editor of the
daily paper. You can help rid our roadsides of unsightly bottles.
Andrew Dobson
The
most serious environmental problem facing the world is climate change – and the
need to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases released into the air. What
should be
The
benefits of trees and other plants are often under-estimated. Their benefit as
a wildlife habitat is well known; as is the protection they afford us from
strong winds. Roads that are attractively bordered by lush vegetation are a
hallmark of
Rather
than just trimming the hedgerows, perhaps the same work crews could become
skilled planters, restoring areas of
I
have just returned from
Helium-filled Balloons - Deadly Celebration
"In 1985, a young sperm whale was found
dying on the shores of
The May 1996 issue of Science Scope (a journal
for secondary school science teachers), featured an article on helium balloons,
which said, in part, "Helium-filled balloons that are released into the
atmosphere eventually burst and fall to the Earth's surface. Animals,
particularly those in aquatic environments, are vulnerable to lethally
ingesting latex balloons."
Because of growing concern about this danger to
fish, marine mammals and, particularly, marine turtles, school students in some
parts of the
Helium-filled
balloons that are released in
The following
organizations also support the campaign to stop the use of helium balloons:
Bermuda Zoological Society; Bermuda
National Trust; Friends of Fish;
and Keep
Bermuda Beautiful.
If you wish to
declare your opposition to the use of helium balloons, click here:
Balloons Can Kill – Don’t Trash the Ocean
Reduce Resource
Use - and SAVE!
Penny Hill
For
far too long, we have ignored the warnings of conservationists and
environmental organisations, and have been using the
earth's precious resources wastefully.
As a result, broad opinion in scientific reports is that we have about
thirty years to turn things around before the natural systems on which we
depend will be damaged beyond repair.
This is a soberingly short period of time for
solving such huge problems as pollution, population and climate change. The UNEP's
end-of-century review, Global Environment
Outlook 2000, recommends that the developed world massively reduce its use
of natural resources to give the rest of the world a chance of emerging from
poverty. It predicts "full-scale
emergencies" to come, including water shortages and reduced agricultural
productivity.
But there are solutions out there - environmentally-friendly
technologies that are up and running. Among these
are the fleets of "Solar Baby" taxis that are helping reduce air
pollution significantly in several Asian cities. It is clear that government-led initiatives
are vital to change, but often the political will is lacking until it is simply
too late. Shockingly, the environment,
central to our very existence, is still way down the list when it comes to
political importance. Party politics are
generally acknowledged to be a block to visionary thinking and innovative
action in governments because short-term election goals usually take
precedence. When it comes right down to it, it's up to individuals to push for
change. So, what can we do? Here are a few ideas:
• Join organisations that are working to
preserve the environment - the more voices, the more power a group has to lobby
against entrenched views and detrimental special interests.
·
Create a demand for more environmentally-friendly products in
supermarkets and stores. They are
available in abundance and suppliers will import them if they can sell
them.
• Refuse to buy over-packaged products and make sure you let store
owners know why.
• Take your own bags to the supermarket - the cost and waste of
importing container loads of grocery bags is huge and unnecessary and most
supermarket managers would be happy not to have to supply them.
While small in themselves, these things add up and demonstrate
an environmental awareness, which can affect others too.
Energy
use is another area where we can reduce waste.
A few months ago, concerned about my high electricity bill, I finally
sought advice from a local energy conservation company. Following some simple suggestions plus
installing compact fluorescent light bulbs wherever I could cut my electricity
bill cut almost in half!
In
the early '90s, staff at Kempe & Whittle (now
Ernst & Young) set up a 'green team' based on the strong belief that good environmental
practices could be good business, too.
So impressive was the programme they
implemented, it was recognised with an award from the
Bermuda National Trust. 'Green teams'
can be set up in any work or school situation.
Start by making small changes such as turning off unnecessary lights,
using china cups and mugs instead of disposable ones, and trying to ensure that
every sheet of copy paper is used on both sides. (This can cut your paper costs almost in
half, and think of the space saved on shelves and in filing cabinets!)
A
recent acquisition of mine is a windup and solar radio - no expensive and
polluting batteries! Out of doors, it
sits in the sun and plays powered by the sun's energy. Indoors, you wind it up. There are many
similar products available - solar lanterns, flashlights, and ovens. Solar technology for lighting and water
heating is widely available and constantly improving, yet so little used in
The
recent ministerial car controversy prompted a friend to say, half-jokingly,
"Now why couldn't they have brought in solar cars?" Why not, indeed? That would have been truly progressive - a
step towards a solution rather than adding to an already chronic problem. This tiny dot in the ocean could be a model
for the world. Can we meet that
challenge?
(As
well as being the Audubon Society's secretary, Penny Hill is librarian with the
Department of Agriculture & Fisheries.
She can be found at either the Botanical Gardens, tel. 236-4201, or the
Aquarium, tel. 293-2727. If you would
like further information, please give her a call. This article was first run in the
We Gain Some
and Lose Some! Has the Introduced
Whistling Frog Eleutherodactylus gossei Died Out?
David
Wingate
Two species of whistling frogs were accidentally introduced
from the
When Dr. Donald Linzey began his research on toads and whistling frogs in the 1990s, he consistently failed to find E. gossei, despite explicit advice on where to look for it. I last found it myself in Paget Marsh in 1994, when searching for specimens to photograph, with Richard Ground, for an article in Bermuda Magazine (Fall 1994). Last year, Dr. Linzey and I decided to search for it together at an optimum time of year, but still without any success. Others, like Robin Marirea of the Aquarium Zoo, have also tried without success.
Dr. Linzey has suggested that the disappearance of E. gossei may be related in some way to the worldwide decline of amphibians. The toad has declined here as well but in this case I think the mortality from increased motor traffic is enough to account for it. Ironically, one can never 'prove' extinction or extirpation with absolute certainty. (Witness the rediscovery of the cahow after 350 years!) So, keep on trying everyone. I only regret that I didn't make a tape-recording of E. gossei calls so searchers would know exactly what to listen for.
Red-eared Terrapins - A New
Addition to the Invasive Species Crisis on
David Wingate
Invasive species introduced deliberately or accidentally by
man from the continents pose the greatest threat to the native and endemic
flora and fauna of remote oceanic islands.
In the case of Bermuda's flora, introduced species which have become
established in the wild now vastly outnumber natives, and thanks to a few
particularly aggressive "monopolistic" invasives
like Brazil pepper, fiddlewood, allspice, Surinam cherry, Chinese fan palm and Asparagus spp., introductions
now make up about 95% of the flora biomass.
Moreover, there are still no restrictions on the importation of plants
for horticultural use with the result that new species are becoming established
as invasives all the time. Some recent examples are Indian laurel,
Australian umbrella tree, and
In the case of fauna, the situation is just as bad, even though we have learned to appreciate the dangers of animal importations from bitter experience and now impose severe restrictions on the kinds of fauna that can be legally imported. Early examples of animal imports that were catastrophic to our native heritage in one way or another were pigs (about 1560), rats (1614), cats (1615), house sparrows (1870), American crow (1842), cane toads (1885), anole lizards (1905) and kiskadee (1957). As with plants, imported invasive fauna now makes up more than 90% of the fauna biomass.
Although rigid quarantine is now imposed against the importation of insect pests and certain categories of fauna, such as snakes and mammal predators, the pet industry, in particular, continues to lobby for the right to import aquarium fish, certain kinds of cage birds, amphibians and reptiles. The usual argument in these cases is "what possible harm can they do, even if they escape?" or "they are for the pet trade only and not intended for release". The problem is that despite the best intentions, accidents, or deliberate releases, by people who do not understand the implications, are commonplace. For example, mass escapes of cage birds from damaged cages in Hurricane Emily (1987), resulted in the new establishment, or temporary establishment, of several cage bird species including African red bishops, weaver finches, common and orange-cheeked waxbills. Escaped cockatoos and parrots are a chronic problem, causing significant damage to fruit orchards.
Red-eared terrapins have been imported for the pet trade for
decades and so many were released or escaped in the 1960s and '70s that they
are now thoroughly naturalized in our ponds and marshes. Present surveys by the Conservation Division
and Zoological Society volunteers have confirmed breeding populations on
virtually every pond in
Although the importation of freshwater aquarium fish has remained largely unrestricted because our freshwater pond system is so impoverished, the deliberate release of imported fish into our ponds would still have dire consequences. A few years ago, somebody deliberately released a species of piranha into the City Hall lily pond! We do have at least one endemic species of brackish pond killifish, Fundulus bermudae, and this might easily be threatened with extinction.
We have only to remember the catastrophic loss of the endemic Bermuda cedar forest as a result of an innocent importation of ornamental juniper from California (which harboured a scale insect pest), to appreciate that the potential for catastrophe exists with every new species introduction, especially on remote oceanic islands like Bermuda.
Unfortunately, in most instances, it is never possible to predict a catastrophe beforehand. There are, however, a number of notorious case histories of imported species elsewhere from which we can be forewarned. These examples form the basis of our quarantine regulations and stop lists and people should learn to respect these regulations without exception.
The government grant to the Bermuda Feline Assistance Bureau
raises the stakes in the growing controversy between BFAB’s
feral cat trap, neuter and release approach, and concurrent biodiversity efforts
in
While the Society accepts that both BFAB and various
conservation agencies are striving towards the same goal of reducing the feral
cat population in
The rationale of the BFAB approach is as follows: If all the feral cats can be trapped and neutered, there will be no long-term harm in letting them live out the rest of their lives comfortably with the aid of feeding stations because they will be unable to breed and will eventually die off naturally of old age. They also argue that well-fed cats don’t bother to kill wildlife, although some of their claims are ambiguous in this regard, such as the recent news release (Royal Gazette 1/4/98) claiming that their reduction of feral cats was the reason for the increase in feral chickens because cats formerly controlled them!
The conservationist argument in rebuttal is as follows:
- Given the extremely high reproductive potential of cats, it would only require BFAB’s failure to capture 5% of the feral cat population to guarantee enough new kittens born to replace losses from mortality, thereby maintaining the population ad infinitum.
- Even if BFAB succeeded in catching all of the feral cats, the problem would still not be solved because all the privately owned cats which are not required to be spayed and yet are free to roam, breed and benefit from the feeding stations.
- The maintenance of feeding stations, especially in rural areas where sources of human garbage and handouts would otherwise not be so readily available, actually makes it possible to maintain cat populations four to ten-fold denser than nature alone would support. (This is no exaggeration as some feeding stations support up to 40 cats!).
- While it is true that well fed cats might not tackle larger prey, where risk of injury is possible (such as Longtails or adult chickens), there are numerous documented scientific studies which prove that even well fed cats continue to hunt smaller prey (such as mice, lizards and small passerine birds). This is either instinctive ‘play’ or to hone hunting skills.
- Such incidental hunting by unnaturally dense cat populations maintained by feeding stations, could easily tip the balance towards extinction for such endangered local species as the Eastern Bluebird and Bermuda Rock Lizard or Skink.
- There is no controversy over whether cats do kill these species in significant numbers. Local conservationists obtain proof of it all the time as people telephone the Audubon Hotline, or the Aquarium and Zoo, to report that “their cat just caught the female bluebird at their nestbox”, or “walked into the house with a dying skink in its mouth”, or “a neighbour’s cat just killed all of my bluebird fledglings as they emerged from the box and fluttered to the ground”.
- The
situation is especially critical in
- Finally, cats are reasonably long-lived, especially if aided by feeding stations. Can we really afford to allow them to live out their days for perhaps another 6-10 years while the bluebird and skink risk extinction now?
All of these points raise the obvious question: Why on earth go to all the trouble of capturing, neutering, re-releasing and feeding feral cat is the stated goal is to reduce or eliminate them? Is it any crueler to put them to sleep for good if you are going to put them through the trauma of capture and anaesthesia for neutering anyway? Pondering this question causes some to suspect the real motives of the BFAB membership. Only a fanatic sentimentality could explain such an illogical approach.
Many local conservationists actually believe the feral cat population has actually worsened because a few fanatical cat-lovers have persuaded both the SPCA and the private and government veterinary services to stop putting down unwanted cats, by offering to set up colonies with feeding stations instead, whenever there are not enough home-owners willing to take them as pets. Given the cats enormous reproductive potential, and in the absence of legislation requiring licensing for breeding or compulsory neutering, the whole situation has spun out of control. More and more feeding stations have had to be set up and more and more money found to provide the cat food. When there were no longer enough people willing to have feeding stations on their private properties, BFAB even began establishing them on government land and parklands, thus imposing their narrow self-interest on a public that might actually prefer native wildlife, such as bluebirds, in its parks. Despite what BFAB may claim, this is the state of affairs as we see it now, with more feral cats than ever before!
Clearly we all need to step back
and take a sane and more scientific look at the problem. Given the cat’s
reproductive potential in the presence of adequate food, we must either revert
to humane euthanasia on the unfortunate scale that the SPCA and veterinary
services used to do in the past, or we will have to pass comprehensive
licensing legislation to set up a cat-catching authority for cats, much as we
have licensing and dog-catching for dogs today. The challenge is formidable,
but nowhere is it more important than on the world’s remote oceanic islands
like
Surely the survival of our unique Bermudian species is more important than maintaining unnaturally high populations of feral cats that everybody claims not to want anyway!