Bright cat collars cut the number of birds brought home by nearly two-thirds

Summarised by Centrist

A brightly coloured fabric cover fitted over a cat’s collar reduced the number of birds brought home by 61% in trials involving 94 hunting cats.

The device appears to work because birds have exceptionally strong colour vision and can spot the moving fabric before the cat gets close enough to strike.

The cats alternated between two-week periods wearing and not wearing the collar cover. Researchers then counted and identified the animals they brought home.

With the cover fitted, the cats returned with 2.7 times fewer birds.

The effect varied by region and season. Bird kills fell by 69% in New York and 47% in Florida. One spring trial recorded approximately 19 times fewer birds, although the combined result across all studies was substantially more modest.

The fabric did not reduce the number of mammals caught because mice and other small mammals perceive colour differently.

A separate Swiss trial found the combination of a bright collar cover and a bell reduced both bird and mammal kills, with the bell cutting mammal captures by between 54% and 62%.

Free-ranging cats are estimated to kill between 1.3 billion and four billion birds in the continental United States each year.

Most of the damage is attributed to feral, stray and barn cats rather than owned household pets.

Read more at Ecoportal

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