How Cat Poop is Killing Endangered Species

-
There are hundreds of thousands of stray cats on Big Island, Oahu, Maui and Kauai. On Oahu, colonies of feral and stray cats have been thriving at Honolulu Community College, University at Manoa, alleys, empty parking lots. 


The stench of feces or caterwauling is not the main concern though.

Scientists are very worried about the spread of toxoplasmosis, a parasitic disease that cats have spread around the areas from Manoa to Waianae. Toxoplasmosis has been known to kill at least eight critically endangered Hawaiian monk seals, two spinner dolphins, nene geese and native birds over the past 15 years.

A Hawaiian monk seal RN36, also known as Uilani resting on the shoreline. Uilani died of toxoplasmosis in 2015.


This parasite attacks the tissue and cause massive inflammatory response in the organs and the cells stop working.

Toxoplasmosis can only reproduce in cat feces. Other animals are exposed to this parasite by contaminated food or water.

From mauka to makai, cat feces can be flushed down any sidewalk sewer, into a watershed after a rainy day.

Scientist have been trying to save our endangered marine animals, but the issue is animal rights activist are preventing this in efforts to save the abandoned cats.

I myself am a cat person, but our endangered endemic animals are in dire need attention. Hawaii's endemic species, only found in Hawaii, are so vulnerable from loss of habitat, disease, introduced species. Once they disappear, that's it, we can't find them in any other place.

A study by Ward Research, commissioned by the Hawaiian Humane Society in 2012 found that 17 percents of Oahu residents feed stray cats.

The Humane Society has supported an approach called TNRM. TNRM stands for Trap, Neuter, Release, and Manage. On Oahu, only about 10,000 cats are sterilized a year,  and there is about 300.000 feral and stray cats total. TNRM is the best strategy the Humane Society has found, but it was very expensive and uses a huge amount of resources.

Scientist with NOAA and the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources are saying the TNRM program is not enough to make a difference and a more aggressive strategy needs to happen to reduce the population. A NOAA toxoplasmosis expert, Amlin says "Nobody wants to euthanize cats,". "It's not somethings you desire to do. It's just an understanding that this is something that's not a part of our natural environment here and it's destroying our ecosystem."

Barbieri, a wildlife veterinary medical officer with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Hawaiian Monk Seal Research Program, mentions "It's not the kitten's fault, but to reduce the risk to monk seals we have to get their poop out of the environment."

A bill in efforts to ban feeding cats on state lands died, after a heavily supported testimony went against it.

Officials are running out of options to find a strategy for this issue.

I agree that it's not a nice idea of euthanizing cats and it's not their fault either. But I think the longer this issue is pushed back, the faster we are losing already critically endangered Hawaiian monk seals and other native animals. We need to take drastic action now before it's too late.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is Your Sunscreen Reef Safe?

-
Image
Healthy vibrant coral reef on the left, and dead reef on the right. An estimate of 14,000 tons of sunscreen end up in the ocean—onto coral reefs, causing further progress of irreversible damage. Efforts in Hawaii have already taken action to support the protection of coral reefs. Hawaii is the first state to pass a bill banning the sale of sunscreen containing chemicals harmful to the reefs. These chemicals include: oxybenzone, octinoxate, and paraben. Oxybenzone lowers the temperature level at which the coral will begin to bleach. What is coral bleaching? The coral turns white when it is under stress, in consequence to a slight change in the seawater temperature. The algae (zooxanthellae) share a symbiotic relationship with the coral and under stress it will expel from the coral, turning it white (This does not mean the reef is dead). However, after this event leaves the coral reef vulnerable to infection and because the algae is gone it loses its main provider of nutri...
Read more

What is a Manu O Kū?

-
Image
Manu o Kū means "Bird of Kū" in Hawaiian (Kū, the god of war in Hawaiian mythology) Look familiar? You've probably seen these birds at Kapiʻolani Community College. These graceful seabirds are known as the Manu-o-Kū ( Gygis alba ) on Oahu. Outside of the Hawaiian Islands they are commonly known as White Tern, Fairy Tern, Angel Tern or White Noddy. These native Hawaiian seabirds can be found throughout tropical and subtropical regions of the Pacific, Southern Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Most of the Hawaiian population of Man o kū  are found mainly on the island of Oahu. On Oahu, you don't have to hike to see these birds; they can easily be spotted in urban and suburban areas of Honolulu, from Niu Valley to Sand Island. Manu o Kū breed during all months of the year. Reaching 5 years of age, they will begin to find a mate. After a successful breeding, one egg is laid and it takes about 35 days to hatch. What's quite unique about these birds are that they...
Read more

One Of The Most Diverse Species in Hawaii

-
Image
                                      ʻAmakihi perched in a Māmane tree Hawaii is home to over 25,000 unique species. Geologically being in such a remote and isolated location, thanks to volcanic hot spots in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, there is an abundance of biological diversity. These endemic species, only found in Hawaii, either came by flying, floating, or being blown thousands of kilometers to the Hawaiian archipelago. One of the most unique group of species is the endemic Hawaiian honeycreepers. They have a remarkable physical diversity, in result to filling in different ecological niches, within the Hawaiian Islands. Scientist found an ancestor of the rosefinches, a group of Eurasian bird species to be the closest relative of the Hawaiian honeycreepers. The ancestors of the Hawaiian honeycreepers must have immigrated to the Hawaiian Islands around 7.2 million and 5.8 mi...
Read more