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Unnatural Predators, Uneasy Controls

For the past 15 years, biologist Leora Feeney has monitored endangered California least terns, trapped their predators, and tried to keep one of their habitats - approximately 60 acres at the Oakland Airport - free of invasive vegetation. ("I tell my husband I'm going to go weed the airport," jokes Feeney.) Although young terns have not fledged at the airport since 1989, they do use the site for courtship and resting on soft sand. Feeney believes the airport is crucial for the endangered terns as an additional site to the Alameda Naval Air Station, where the terns have successfully bred for over ten years and predators are carefully managed.

"Its really important when you have an endangered species to have more than one site, especially if predators get really focused on one of them," says Feeney. In 1982 for example, feral cats became focused on the Naval Air Station, and the following year, when the Station had only three nests, the airport had over 80. What Feeney likes least about her job is "predator management" - keeping non-native, predatory animals like feral cats and red foxes from decimating terns. But Feeney's predator control options are limited: when Animal Damage Control (part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture) shot foxes at the colony after least terns were confirmed nesting there, fox and cat-lovers protested so much that shooting is now prohibited and predator management limited to trapping the animals for later euthanasia. Feeney wishes fox and cat supporters would realize that being trapped and confined in a small space for several hours is more stressful to the animals than being shot. Although when instructed to accompany the sharpshooters, Feeney found herself dreading the experience, she says she now believes that, if the shooting is done properly, the animals literally don't know what hits them. "It was like turning the lights out," she says.

Just one cat or red fox can do an incredible amount of damage, according to Laura Collins, biologist at the Naval Air Station. Both are focused predators that will return again and again to an area where they have found abundant food. The red fox also displaces native predators like the grey fox, which tends to be less likely to forage in open areas. Red foxes have even been known to follow the scent of biologists to nesting sites.

Trapping and relocating the cats and red foxes is not an option, since the problem will be relocated right along with the animals. Although an effort was made a few years back to relocate red foxes, wildlife officials in other states decided not to accept them, fearing diseases and parasites. Feeney says the red fox has been the tragic victim in California from the start, introduced for hunting, fur farming, and even as pets - and now caught between animal rights activists and those charged with protecting endangered species.

Despite a firm belief in the need to control foxes and cats, Feeney also has great empathy for them. "Some of these animals take a while to trap," she says. "They're incredibly intelligent and wily - they've got nerve endings too; you develop a relationship with them." Feeney also empathizes with the fox rescuers and cat-colony feeders, people who have spat on her and threatened her life. "If I didn't understand so clearly the dynamics of the damage these animals are doing, I'd probably be right there with them," she says. But she wishes they could realize that "terns are wonderful animals too," and that the quality of life for these foxes and cats is not very healthy, with too many predators in one area and not enough food or shelter. Once a cat colony has been established at a site, people frequently dump unwanted cats there, which just adds to the problem.

At the Alameda Naval Air Station, the biggest predator problem is feral cats, which are primarily controlled by trapping and euthanasia. Native predators, such as birds of prey, which can also become a problem in small patches of habitat, are trapped and relocated. The cost to the Station ranges from $7,000-$15,000 a year, according to the Navy's Doug Pomeroy.

At the S.F. Bay National Wildlife Refuge, the endangered clapper rail population doubled after a program to control foxes and feral cats was implemented in 1991. The Refuge shares two full-time animal control officers (and their salaries) with a number of other South Bay agencies. As human development continues to encroach on the Bay's last natural areas and wildlife are relegated to patches of habitat that attract unnaturally high concentrations of predators, it may be time for everyone to think twice about what is being saved and what is being lost and about the prospect of managing predators in perpetuity.

"Pets belong in the home, they don't belong in parks, wetlands and endangered species habitats, no matter how cute and cuddly," says the Audubon Society's Arthur Feinstein, a self-professed cat lover. "Seeing cats or introduced foxes as 'natural' and 'wild' in these contexts borders on ecological ignorance." "I think when the public goes out into our last remaining open spaces, they want to see and enjoy other living things besides domestic cats," says Feeney.

Contact: Leora Feeney (510)522-8525 or Laura Collins (510)843-3263

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