Long enough for ecosystems to change, adapt and form as well as for animals to evolve based on their new environment. Considering that there are already rats & cockroaches adapting to pesticides, both birds & pests are most certainly adapting to cats to some degree after the passage of thousands of years.
Obviously there may be a point in restricting cats in more insular habitats such as small islands, but for anybody on a major continent it is rather pointless. Furthermore, cats serve an important purpose in hunting pests that spread alongside humans, primarily rats and mice, both of which can have an even more disastrous effect on local ecosystems.
What evidence do you have that it doesn’t matter save for insular habitats? You’re applying logic without having any sort of evidence – you’re spitballing as far as I can tell.
No, I didn’t miss it. I responded to the OPs statement regarding the passage of time, highlighting that animals are already adapting and evolving in the face of urban and human-adjacent ecosystems, which cats have always been an integral part of.
Do you think 2,000 years is a long time? About how long do you think extinction events usually take?
Long enough for ecosystems to change, adapt and form as well as for animals to evolve based on their new environment. Considering that there are already rats & cockroaches adapting to pesticides, both birds & pests are most certainly adapting to cats to some degree after the passage of thousands of years.
Obviously there may be a point in restricting cats in more insular habitats such as small islands, but for anybody on a major continent it is rather pointless. Furthermore, cats serve an important purpose in hunting pests that spread alongside humans, primarily rats and mice, both of which can have an even more disastrous effect on local ecosystems.
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aam8327
Maybe you missed this link from above:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/cats-kill-a-staggering-number-of-species-across-the-world/
What evidence do you have that it doesn’t matter save for insular habitats? You’re applying logic without having any sort of evidence – you’re spitballing as far as I can tell.
No, I didn’t miss it. I responded to the OPs statement regarding the passage of time, highlighting that animals are already adapting and evolving in the face of urban and human-adjacent ecosystems, which cats have always been an integral part of.