Polish institute classifies cats as alien invasive species

Warsaw: A Polish scientific institute has classified domestic cats as an “invasive alien species,” citing the damage they cause to birds and other wildlife.

Wojciech Solarz, a biologist at the state-run Polish Academy of Science entered “Felis catus,” the scientific name for the common house cat, into a national database run by the academy’s Institute of Nature Conservation.

Solarz described the growing scientific consensus that domestic cats have a harmful impact on biodiversity given the number of birds and mammals they hunt and kill.

The criteria for including the cat among alien invasive species, “are 100% met by the cat,” he said.

Dorota Suminska, the author of a book titled “The Happy Cat,” pointed to other causes of shrinking biodiversity, including a polluted environment and urban building facades that can kill birds in flight.

As far as categorizing cats as “alien,” the institute noted that “Felis catus” was domesticated probably around 10,000 years ago in the cradle of the great civilizations of the ancient Middle East, making the species alien to Europe from a strictly scientific point of view.

The institute also stressed that all it was recommending was for cat owners to limit the time their pets spend outdoors during bird breeding season.

“I have a dog, but I don’t have anything against cats,” Solarz said.

About the Polish Academy of Science

The Polish Academy of Sciences is also a network of 68 research institutes, the International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology and the International Institute of Molecular Mechanisms and Machines PAS (IMol) that cover all research disciplines. In various rankings, including the Scimago Institutions Rankings and the Nature Index, the Polish Academy of Sciences ranks first among research institutions based in Poland. the Polish Academy of Sciences ranks first among research institutions based in Poland.


Source: Agencies Cat Alien species classification Cat Alien species classification