[dsr_]

The other way around: the domestication of the cat helped deal with pest problems.

Here's a question: suppose next year we mandate all cats are indoors unless they work on farms, and all cats allowed outdoors are sterilized. What happens to the small bird and mammal populations ten years later?

[colechristensen]

It’s even more the other way around, the native cat species basically domesticated itself finding hanging around humans for our density of vermin to prey on to be more advantageous than living in the wild. We didn’t go stealing cute kitties from the wild because they looked nice, we started taking care of the vermin eaters that migrated into our cities, especially the ones that had adapted themselves to be cuter and nicer to us.

We are not separate from the evolutionary process and several species have effectively domesticated us in order to survive better. Our civilization has created new habitats and we don’t need to pretend that it doesn’t exist.

You want to help your local bird populations? Plant oak trees.

[klyrs]

Why oak, and/or what region does this advice apply to?

[colechristensen]

Advice applies to anywhere which has native oak species.

Oak trees serve as host to a particularly large number of species, many of them feed on the tree and serve as food for others year round along with acorns as food and species that feed on acorns as food. Oaks are keystone species as they have a particularly large positive impact on the local ecosystem.

Lots of birds eat mostly insects and only sometimes seeds, oak trees provide year round supplies of insects for birds to eat, in a wider variety and number than most other trees.