Humans are reshaping the earth's ecosystem with their own wisdom. In the contemporary world, only a few places still look like human intervention. This has both advantages and disadvantages. For example, many species have been destroyed by humans. According to the Report on the Vitality of the Earth 20 18, the number of wild animals disappeared by 60% from 1970 to 20 14.
Many times, creatures are not directly destroyed by human beings, but are doomed to extinction because of human changes to the ecosystem. Maybe many people don't know that many creatures on the earth are extinct because of cat shit.
In 200 1 year, scientists discovered that Hawaiian capuchin seals died mysteriously, and finally the number of deaths continued to increase, leading to the extinction of capuchin seals, with only 1000 left. Finally, after investigation, it was found that it was because of cat shit.
Hawaii's permanent population 1, 2 1, 000, and floating population 1.33 million. Many people like to keep pets, which greatly increases the number of pet cats and the number of stray cats. There are about 300 thousand stray cats in Oahu, Hawaii alone. Many local people regularly feed these stray cats ... which also allows them to reproduce further. Toxoplasma gondii is contained in cat excrement.
Cat is the ultimate host of Toxoplasma gondii, which refers to the host where parasites develop into adults or parasitize after experiencing sexual maturity. Toxoplasma gondii is a cell parasite. Toxoplasma gondii is parasitic in the small intestinal epithelial cells of cats, forming a zygote and excreted with feces. Other mammals and birds ate it and became infected, and developed into cysts in their body tissues. Zygote and cyst are different developmental stages of Toxoplasma gondii.
Toxoplasma gondii has a complex life cycle, including sexual and asexual stages. Although this parasite can infect many mammals, it can only complete its life cycle in cats, including domestic cats. That is, Toxoplasma gondii can only reproduce asexually in other animals except the ultimate host, and its offspring cannot be spread to the outside world. Although Toxoplasma gondii cannot spread its offspring in other animals, it can spread itself to the outside world.
At present, one third of the people in the world are infected with Toxoplasma gondii, and most of the adult Toxoplasma gondii infections are recessive infections. However, infants, pregnant women and immunosuppressants will be infected with acute acquired Toxoplasma gondii, which will lead to abortion, stillbirth and encephalitis, with serious harm and high mortality.
With the increasing number of cats in the world, many people abandon cats at will, resulting in an increase in the number of stray cats. Stray cats excrete cat feces at will, and Toxoplasma gondii in cat feces can survive in water and on the ground for as long as 18 months. Cat droppings on the seashore are washed into the sea by seawater, and monk seals may be infected directly, or they may be infected after eating fish and shrimp with Toxoplasma gondii. After infection, people will get sick or die ...
This is also the reason why the Hawaiian capuchin seal died strangely and eventually led to extinction. In addition to capuchin seals, long-billed dolphins, Hawaiian geese and Hawaiian crows, all kinds of fish are deeply affected. ...
According to the statistics of IUCN, stray cats/wildcats have caused the extinction of 87 species of birds, 45 species of small mammals and 10 species of reptiles in the world, and hundreds of animals have gone to the bottom of the sea (most of them are island species, because they are docile and easy to adapt to the island environment, but they were slaughtered before they could evolve).
The culprit of all this is Toxoplasma gondii in cat feces. There are 1000000 zygotes in the feces of infected cats, and 100 zygotes can cause pig infection.
Besides Toxoplasma gondii, hunting stray cats is another reason. According to the paper in Nature Communication in 20 13, stray cats can kill/kloc-0.4 billion to 3.7 billion birds every year in the United States. It can also kill about 6.9 ~ 20.7 billion mammals every year. According to the Australian Network, there are currently 6 million stray cats in Australia, and most animals have no resistance to cats. According to the statistics of Biological Dialogue magazine, wild cats kill about 3160,000 birds every year, including 7 1 bird of endangered species such as partridges, pigeons and night parrots.
For hunting wild animals, stray cats are more likely to be infected with Toxoplasma gondii, thus infecting more creatures. Because cats are infected with Toxoplasma gondii, cats are mainly infected with Toxoplasma gondii through infected cat feces, predation of mice and birds, or eating raw pigs, cattle and mutton.
Remember not to let your cat eat raw meat. Eggs become contagious 1-2 days. Remember to clean cat litter in time to prevent Toxoplasma infection. Pregnant women should avoid touching cats and their droppings during pregnancy unless their serum tests prove that they have been infected with Toxoplasma gondii.
Finally, I hope everyone will think carefully about raising cats. If they have a cat, they should take care of it for life and don't throw it away at will. According to WSPA, adult female cats can give birth to 3-5 kittens every year on average. A female cat can have more than 40 kittens in three years. In the ideal mode, a pair of cats will have 12 kittens in the first year, 67 kittens in the second year, 376 kittens in the third year ... In the eighth year (the fertility is obviously reduced), it will be 20725 14 kittens.
It can be said that stray cats have caused serious damage to the ecosystem. In nature, it is not advisable to pay attention to balance, too much or too little.