Birds are Still Singing in Our Suburbs: Contemporary Hunting Data for Pet Cats in Urban Australia

Published estimates of predation by pet cats have led to claims that pet cats are having a devastating effect on native wildlife”. This is based on data collected 32-37 years ago, that reported pet cats in Australia caught an estimated 61 to 118 million birds a year, with every pet cat, regardless of age or containment catching an average of 15.6 to 31.2 birds per year. However, reliable contemporary data on hunting by pet cats in urban Australia remain limited, and national predation estimates are sensitive to assumptions about how many cats hunt, how much prey they catch, and how much prey is not observed by carers. Our study analyzed questionnaire data from 2,405 owned and semi-owned cats enrolled in a community sterilization program in lower-income suburbs of Ipswich, Queensland, between 2022 and 2025. Questionnaire completion was required for enrolment, reducing self-selection based specifically on an interest in cat hunting or wildlife. Of 2,392 cats with hunting information, 77% were reported never to hunt and 23% to hunt sometimes or often. Even among cats with outdoor access, 58% were not reported to hunt. Among cats reported to catch prey, insects and rodents were most common, while bird captures were least common and generally low in number. National predation estimates were calculated using observed hunting prevalence, prey composition and prey counts observed in this study population, with published correction factors applied for prey not observed by owners. Median-based estimates were 0.38 million birds, 3.29 million mammals and 4.07 million reptiles annually, and for birds, the estimated rate averaged across all cats (hunters and non-hunters) was 0.10 birds per cat per year. Our estimates for birds were 161 to 311 times lower than previously published Australian estimates, which exceed the estimated urban bird population of 11 million and annual turnover of approximately 3.6 million birds. These findings demonstrate substantial variation in hunting behavior among pet cats, and show that national predation estimates are strongly influenced by the underlying data and assumptions used in extrapolation.