>I wonder also whether there's something about towns/cities that makes birds flourish, compared to other wild animals.

I would assume it has got do with the reason pigeons are sometimes called "flying rats", i.e. they can subsist on human trash, can survive in the environment and are not seen as negatively as rats and thus have less pest-control efforts pointed at them.

▲

platesmead 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

If cats are killing wild animals that happen to flourish in human environments, is that such a loss to biodiversity?

(Genuine Q. I don't know anything about what biodiversity folk look for.)

▲

stnikolauswagne 2 days ago | parent [-]

An extreme example would be Maos Great Leap Forward, where there was a human-led drive to exterminate sparrows as part of pest control, which in turn led to famines because sparrows also served as pest control for insects.

Humans are very good at introducing invasive species (domestic cat, kudzu) and pretty bad at forseeing the impact they have

	▲	platesmead a day ago \| parent [-]
		I suppose I'm wondering that since domestic cats are already well introduced, perhaps removing them can also have unforeseen negative impacts to the environment!

▲

Tangurena2 a day ago | parent | prev [-]

Pigeons were domesticated by humans. And abandoned. They hang around us because we bent their nature to like us. When we stop eating goat & cattle, they'll hang around us and poop all over our lawns & sidewalks.