By Stephanie Dalzell
A fashion relic of the late eighties and nineties, the humble scrunchie has found a new lease on life preventing the slaughter of wildlife by domestic cats.
In a new study, West Australian researchers found putting a scrunchie-like collar on cats reduced the amount of native wildlife killed by more than half.
Murdoch University PhD student Catherine Hall spearheaded the research which observed the behaviour of 114 cats for two years.
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Over the course of the study, the owners of the cats froze everything their pets caught, both with and without the collar.
She said the results showed the scrunchie-esque neckwear reduced the number of birds, reptiles and amphibians captured by the cats by 54 per cent.
“Bright colours are very noticeable to songbirds, they should see the cats further away, allowing them to escape earlier,” Ms Hall said.
“Because it’s based on colour and vision, cats won’t be able to learn to make it stop working.
“Unlike what people say about bells. [They say] that cats can learn to make them less effective over time.”
The study found the collar did not make a difference to the number of mice and other mammals caught as their colour vision was not as good, meaning owners could still use their cats to catch garden pests.
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“For people who want their cats to catch small rodents like rats and mice but don’t want them to catch birds, this is an effective device to use,” Ms Hall said.
Serpentine resident Robyn Brown’s two cats, Chocco and Milo, were recruited for the study.
She said they used to be active wildlife hunters and would often leave birds like wrens on her doorstep.
“We were very concerned about that. We’ve tried everything. We’ve tried double bells and all kinds of things and we’ve tried locking them in at night time,” she said.
But she said since the collars were placed on her cats more than two years ago, they had not caught a single bird.
“We just can’t believe it. We’re very happy,” Ms Brown said.
“I’ve always loved cats … I didn’t want to give up cats because I had birds as well, and I loved having them in the environment, but now I can have both.”
This article was originally published on the ABC website. It has been republished here with full permission.
Top Comments
Mine is locked inside after dinner and let out again after breakfast.
I think cats left out all night are a nuisance as they are nocturnal.
Interestingly, I feed my cat a raw diet only (Guide dogs leading raw) and he has only caught about 4 birds in his entire life (he is 3) and when he did he completely ate the whole bird. He catches the odd lizard and cricket but he brings them inside, plays with them for about half an hour and then I take them outside if I haven't got to it earlier, he never kills them for some reason.
In Australa in the new suburbs in ACT your cat must be kept inside your house fences so there is no choice about having your cats outside. My 2 cats catch crickets, white moths and the odd skink. They certainly would like the birds (sparrows, mynors, cockatoos, magpies, galahs, rosellas etc) but they never get them. Yes, cats like to hunt but they don't need to go out at night and they don't pine if they never get a bird or a small native animal. I say keep them in and make it illegal for them them not to be desexed. Also give them good playtime inside. It really isn't that hard.