Island kittens conceived in the wild need good homes
By Alex Wilson 01/21/2010
Kittens whose ancestors lived in the wild on San Nicolas Island are ready for adoption by loving families willing to play a role in ambitious efforts to restore the island’s natural ecosystem.
They were destined to grow up as wild feral cats themselves, until a program was launched last summer to capture all the island’s cats, which eat seabirds, endemic deer mice and endangered island night lizards. They also compete for food with San Nicolas Island foxes found nowhere else on earth.
The $3 million effort is funded by a legal settlement with chemical company Montrose, which decimated bird populations by dumping DDT in the ocean decades ago. It’s primarily aimed at saving seabirds that the cats are adept at hunting.
The feral cats descended from pets brought by ranchers and sailors stationed at the remote island that’s now part of Naval Base Ventura County. Some of them apparently escaped and multiplied.
Scientists originally planned to euthanize the cats after catching them with catnip-scented humane leg traps. But U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Biologist Annie Little says that option drew outrage from animal lovers and the Humane Society of the United States. “That was not their preferred method. They wanted to see a solution to see if we could remove the cats without euthanizing them,” says Little.
That led to revised plans and construction of a cat sanctuary in Ramona run by the Fund for Animals Wildlife Center, where about 60 island cats currently live.
Feral Cat Coordinator Kim D’Amico says the adults are thriving in their new home. “They’re going to spend the rest of their lives here. We have been able to build a 4,000-square-foot enclosure that incorporated trees and stuff into their habitat. They’ve got shelters and plants and grass and all kinds of stuff in there for them,” says D’Amico.
Most of the adult island cats still act wild, and tend to run away and hiss when humans come near, but two now allow D’Amico to pet them.
One thing the scientists forgot to plan on was that three of the trapped cats were pregnant. “That was a surprise. I think we covered every aspect of the program but that one in planning,” says Little. “Once we got over that initial shock, we were like, ‘OK, we can do this. We know how to take care of kittens.’ ”
D’Amico says they still have some kittens that need homes, and they’re healthy, cute and used to human contact. “If they’re kept in the wild they will be feral, but these cats were born under the care of people so they were immediately socialized with humans,” says D’Amico. “They’re very sweet and very tame.”
The adopted cats must be kept indoors so they can’t eat birds as their ancestors have. People can receive applications for adoption by calling D’Amico at (760) 789-2324.
Scientists believe there are probably around 10 cats left on the island, and the trapping program is taking a break until next summer because the rare island foxes breed during spring. They don’t want to injure any fox pups with the traps, and three foxes were unfortunately killed during the first round of trapping. Little says one cat also had to be shot because it avoided the traps.
It’s possible that remaining cats are still breeding and more kittens could come up for adoption. “A few cats can turn into a lot of cats in a short period of time if there’s females and males breeding on the island,” says D’Amico.
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