Where Have The Symi Cats Gone? 17 July 2008
Over the past few months, one question FAROS is constantly being asked by residents of Symi and visitors alike is "where have all the cats gone?" If you haven't noticed that there are far fewer left on Symi than for many years, have a walk by the travernas in Yialos one evening and count. We did that last week and didn't even reach fifteen. If you walk the lanes of Horio or around Harani you may not even spot any at all!
The past winter killed more than the usual number of cats, due to recurring epidemics and mass poisonings (that regrettably still carry on). The common consensus is that the number of cats on Symi is now less than a quarter of what it was last year and in large areas of Horio, they seem to have gone completely.
The question is why this has happened so suddenly? Despite all the other problems, with the decline in cat numbers the rat population is booming and becoming bolder.
Are disease and poisoning enough to account for this huge decline? Have too many cats been taken from the streets and neutered in recent years? What is the future going to be for Symi's cats now that small numbers could see an increase in inbreeding and more birth defects which upto now have been reasonably rare (litters of kittens with three legs, families of cats with misaligned jaws, oversized teeth, etc.)
FAROS in collaboration with the Department of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Thessaloniki is looking into the problem and we hope that we will very soon be in a position to answer some of these difficult questions.
The past winter killed more than the usual number of cats, due to recurring epidemics and mass poisonings (that regrettably still carry on). The common consensus is that the number of cats on Symi is now less than a quarter of what it was last year and in large areas of Horio, they seem to have gone completely.
The question is why this has happened so suddenly? Despite all the other problems, with the decline in cat numbers the rat population is booming and becoming bolder.
Are disease and poisoning enough to account for this huge decline? Have too many cats been taken from the streets and neutered in recent years? What is the future going to be for Symi's cats now that small numbers could see an increase in inbreeding and more birth defects which upto now have been reasonably rare (litters of kittens with three legs, families of cats with misaligned jaws, oversized teeth, etc.)
FAROS in collaboration with the Department of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Thessaloniki is looking into the problem and we hope that we will very soon be in a position to answer some of these difficult questions.
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CommentsUpdated 17/07/2008, 00:08, hits
Will said on 17/07/2008, 00:21
This is quite worrying, really. The mis-aligned jaw problem is endemic in all of the cats that live up by the Mavrovouni bins. The three-legged cats that were born near Kalodoukas's office were/are lovely, but they have been disadvantaged and sweet Missie is already dead.
I hear this all the time...one lady told me she thought it was about 1 in 10 left. If the cat population is collapsing, it may not recover for years and could be severely weakened.
SamanthaF said on 17/07/2008, 00:35
Hopefully, the litters that have been born this spring and summer may do something to boost the population. Of the kittens I saw this year at Pedi, Nimborio and by the Town Hall bins they looked healthy(ish), maybe the mums are getting more food through less population.
We noticed the reduced numbers this year, but an increase in the ratio of ball swinging, spraying toms to the number of females.
I'll be very interested to hear the findings.
(And if I ever got my hands on the poisoners, I'd hate to think what I'd do....)