azure mica
Hi, I'm a paleoecologist and avid gamer. I like the game a lot so far, but I'm getting real cognitive dissonance from the presence of outdoor cats. The game is clearly conservation focused and ecologically bent, but outdoor cats cause extensive amounts of havoc to ecosystems - they cause upwards of 3 billion bird deaths alone per year in the continental USA; and many endemic species of animals on islands went extinct precisely because of outdoor cats (often, a single individual cat). I'm just wondering why the game has outdoor cats when it clearly prioritizes environmentalism, and outdoor cats are an ecological disaster. Thanks.
p.s. the dogs aren't great either because of predator anxiety among wild animals - there's a documented phenomenon of animals having less sleep, fewer babies, and shorter lifespans in areas with higher presence of dogs and cats - but I'll settle for the outdoor cats only being inside townie homes.
p. p. s. I know this is a game and not real life, but like... if the point of the game is to save the ecosystem of the island... in any real conservation effort that would include putting the cats inside 🤷🏻
floral anvil