4
When most people think of cats 'living rough'
it is often images of Mediterranean countries
that come to mind. Groups of cats haunting the
tavernas and restaurants of Athens, or the
20, 30 or 40 cats flocking around the quayside
when a tourist ship lands on a Greek Island.
However, available food is limited on such
islands and the regular arrival of tourist
ships provides a focal source of food and it
becomes impossible to overlook these scavenging
groups.
The availability of food has a direct effect
on density, and consequently there are far more
feral cats in cities than in rural areas.
Cities throughout the world have more scavengable
wastes than the countryside.
In Britain we are not so obviously confronted
by feral cats, but we certainly have a large
population, and in London probably the highest
urban population in the world. The south west
of Essex contains a section of urban and
suburban London (particularly when considering
the historic county boundary of the Lea).
Consequently an appreciation of their numbers
and urban ecology ("A Walk on the Wildside"
QED programme BBC1) is as relevant to the
county's overall wildlife as is consideration
of rural feral and farm cats.
Feral animals are too often treated as if they
are 'not there' by naturalists as it does not
fit with the view we may have of the natural
world. But like it or not, feral cats have
been part of our county's wildlife longer than
parakeets, grey squirrels or even rabbits.
Essex probably had more of a paw in the
introduction of, and changing attitudes
towards, cats than any other area of Britain.