Feral cat

A feral cat is an un-owned domestic cat (Felis catus) that lives outdoors and avoids human contact: it does not allow itself to be handled or touched, and usually remains hidden from humans. Feral cats may breed over dozens of generations and become an aggressive apex predator in urban, savannah and bushland environments. Some feral cats may become more comfortable with people who regularly feed them, but even with long-term attempts at socialization they usually remain aloof and are most active after dusk. Feral cats are devastating to wildlife, and conservation biologists consider them to be one of the worst invasive species on Earth. Attempts to control feral cat populations are widespread but generally of greatest impact within purpose-fenced reserves. In Australia each feral cat kills up to 1000 native animals a year, ranging from crickets to lizards and small mammals. Some feral 'catastrophic' cats will develop a taste and skill for hunting larger prey: Indigenous rangers in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yangkuntjatjara lands caught a 6.8-kilogram cat with a 5 kilogram rock-wallaby (warru) in its gut. To help protect native animals, feral cats are trapped where possible but are often also shot. Some animal-rights groups advocate trap-neuter-return programs to prevent the cats from continuing to breed, as well as feeding the cats, socializing and adopting out young kittens, and providing healthcare. Others advocate euthanasia. Feral cats may live outdoors in colonies: these are regarded as managed colonies when they are provided with regular food and care by humans. The authors of an article published in the Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery in 2013 found that rescuers and veterinarians in the United Kingdom tended to distinguish feral cats from domesticated cats based on traits such as their levels of socialization, ownership, and confinement, and on the amount of fear of, interaction with, and dependence upon humans. They found that rescuers and veterinarians tended to agree that feral cats were cats that had not had much human contact (particularly before eight weeks of age), would try to avoid humans, and would prefer to escape rather than attack a human. However, veterinarians and rescuers disagreed on whether a feral cat would tend to hiss and spit at or attack a human during an encounter, and disagreed on whether adult ferals could potentially be tamed. The article provided a composite definition of a feral cat as a cat that would choose not to interact with humans, could survive with or without human assistance, and would hide or defend itself when trapped rather than allowing itself to be handled. A survey of rescue and veterinarian facilities in the United States revealed that no widely accepted definition of a feral cat exists. Many facilities used waiting periods to evaluate whether a cat was feral by observing whether the cat became less afraid and evasive over time. Other indicators included the cat's response to touch with an inanimate object, and observation of the cats' social behavior in varying environments such as response to human contact, with a human nearby, or when moved to a quieter environment. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals defines community cats as either cats that were born and raised in the wild, or domestic cats that have been abandoned or lost and turned feral in order to survive. The Australian government categorizes cats who have no interaction with or assistance from humans as feral, and unowned cats who rely on humans as semi-feral or stray. The meaning of the term feral cat varies between professions and countries, and is sometimes used interchangeably with other terms such as free-roaming, street, alley, or community cat. Some of these terms are also used to refer to stray cats, although stray and feral cats are generally considered to be different by rescuers, veterinarians, and researchers. Stray cats are socialized cats who no longer live in homes, but could potentially be successfully reintroduced to a home environment. Farm cats (also called barn cats) are cats that live on agricultural properties in feral or semi-feral condition. They primarily live outdoors, usually sheltering in outbuildings. They hunt vermin such as rodents and other small animals that live in or around outbuildings and farm fields.