<p>A <a href="http://ecos.fws.gov/speciesProfile/profile/speciesProfile.action?spcode=A073">Canada lynx</a> (<i>Lynx canadensis</i>) sits primly on the shore of Loon Lake in Ontario, Canada in 1906. These 11- to 37-pound (5 to 17 kilogram) cats live in boreal forests across Canada and down into the northern United States.</p>
A Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis) sits primly on the shore of Loon Lake in Ontario, Canada in 1906. These 11- to 37-pound (5 to 17 kilogram) cats live in boreal forests across Canada and down into the northern United States.
Photograph by George Shiras, Naitonal Geographic Creative
The offspring of stray household pets, feral cat numbers are on the rise.
ByMaryann Mott
Published September 7, 2004
• 9 min read
You may have seen them wandering through parks or languishing behind restaurants. At first, these cats look domesticated. But they're really wild animals.
Feral cats are the offspring of stray or abandoned household pets. Raised without human contact, they quickly revert to a wild state and form colonies wherever food and shelter are available.
Many city and county animal control agencies are mandated only to deal with dogs—not cats. So for decades feral cats have remained untouchable.
Some feline experts now estimate 70 million feral cats live in the United States, the consequence of little effort to control the population and of the cat's ability to reproduce quickly.
The number concerns wildlife and ornithology organizations that believe these stealthy predators decimate bird populations and
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Japan poised to release nuclear wastewater into the Pacific
The plan to gradually discharge more than a million tons of treated water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant has deeply divided nations and scientists.
