Okay, but how bad are cats for birds?

E47. Cats kill billions of birds every year, but where does that number come from, and does the cat on your couch count? Dr. Pete Marra, dean of the Earth Commons at Georgetown University and co-author of Cat Wars, unpacks the science behind one of the most heated fights in bird conservation. Want to go deeper? Pick up Pete’s book, Cat Wars: The Devastating Consequences of a Cuddly Killer, co-written with Chris Santella.

In this episode, you'll hear about:

• How one lighthouse keeper's cat and her offspring caused the extinction of a bird almost as soon as it was discovered
• Whether that little bell on a cat's collar actually does anything
• Why New Zealand and Australia are making some of the toughest calls in conservation

All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But... Birds (© Okay Media, LLC) or used under license/permission from the respective rights holders. Media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows:

• Galapagos Petrel audio contributed by Robert J. Tomkins, ML20313
• Floreana Mockingbird audio contributed by Robert I. Bowman, ML85455