A single stray cat has wiped out a colony of endangered ground squirrels \u2013 around 20 animals \u2013 at the farm of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki\u2019s Agricultural School, raising concerns about the impact of stray pets on native wildlife.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was a healthy, compact colony over an area of 4,000 square meters,\u201d Dr Lida Rammou, a postdoctoral researcher studying the species, told the Athens-Macedonia News Agency on Tuesday. \u201cBut after one cat appeared in 2023, the colony was completely gone within two years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rammou noted the cat was very adept at hunting the squirrels, particularly juveniles, and was nearly impossible to remove due to her feral nature and kittens.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not about blaming the animal. It\u2019s a complex issue that needs coordinated management,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
For biologist Elias Strachinis, stray cats are a growing threat that have \u201ccontributed to the extinction of at least 63 wildlife species globally.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe cat is not a natural part of any ecosystem; it\u2019s a human creation through selective breeding,\u201d he explained. \u201cThe fault lies with us, not the cats.\u201d<\/p>\n
He emphasized the need for public education, more intensive spaying\/neutering campaigns, responsible pet ownership, and rapid removal of stray animals from sensitive habitats.<\/p>\n
Animal welfare volunteer Evi Kalaitzidou agreed: \u201cSystematic sterilization is urgent. Coordination between agencies is the key. The solutions are there; we just need to work together.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A single stray cat has wiped out a colony of endangered ground squirrels \u2013 around 20 animals \u2013…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":301294,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3847],"tags":[40607,728,729,12,70,16,15,1717],"class_list":{"0":"post-301293","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-animal-protection","9":"tag-environment","10":"tag-nature","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-wildlife"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=301293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301293\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/301294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}