Keep cats in at night
The simplest way of making a difference is to keep your pet in at night when the hunting instinct peaks. Restricting night-time activity not only reduces hunting, it might also reduce the incidence of unwanted litters. In turn, this will prevent quite so many domestic cats contributing to the feral population, which poses a greater threat to wildlife. For feral cats, hunting is a matter of survival and they are responsible for many more kills than the average domestic moggy. Keeping your pet in is therefore an effective step in protecting our wildlife.

Many owners are concerned about being cruel by restricting their pet's natural instinct to hunt and roam. Evidence suggests, however, that decreasing a cat's opportunity to hunt actually decreases its desire to - so you won't deny your cat's freedom of expression by keeping it in at night.

Attract more birds to your garden
Whilst turning your garden into a haven for birds might seem like an open dinner invitation to neighbourhood cats, there is a positive side to increasing the bird presence in your garden. The greater the number of birds, the higher their rate of survival, as increased numbers create a more efficient and alert early warning system.

Warning bells
Attaching bells to your cat's collar may help protect mammalian prey, but seems to have little effect on birds. Eventually the cat learns to hunt without jingling its bell. There are also concerns that collars can get caught on bushes and perhaps hurt the cat. A better solution might be to fit a sonic collar, with an elasticated section to prevent problems from snagging. This emits a sound that alerts birds to the cat's presence. If you decide to use bells, fit two to make it harder for the cat to stop them sounding.

Neutering
The RSPCA now recommends that cats should be neutered at an early age. The link to reducing the hunting of endangered species might not be obvious, other than through potential suppression of the hunting instinct. In fact, neutering probably has the greatest impact on protecting wildlife from cats by stopping unwanted litters that are often left to add to the feral population. Even keeping your cat in at night won't stop it mating altogether, so it needs to be neutered as well.

The feral cat population has grown out of the numerous unwanted, runaway or lost domestic cats living in cities and the countryside and is far larger than a natural wild cat population would be. There is only one way of controlling the hunting of these feral cats, and that is to destroy the cats themselves - an unpleasant prospect that responsible cat ownership can help to mitigate in the future.