Bad Kitty creates his own Landscape of Fear

Couple of things here, who is Bad Kitty and what is a Landscape of Fear, to begin.

Bad Kitty is a feral cat (that my sister feeds) who even though now neutered still strikes fear in the hearts of the rest of the neighborhood cats and even a few of the neighborhood dogs. He is big, he used to be an indiscriminant killer, and even his own offspring weren’t off limits. He recently lay down in a fire ant bed and even when covered with fire ants proceeded on unaffected. That’s how mean he is, or at least still appears to be.

A Landscape of Fear is a place where an intimidating predator changes and controls entire areas by simply instilling fear in their prey. An example of this is when wolves were reintroduced in Yellowstone National Park. Researchers found that wolves didn’t just kill elk, their presence (scent maybe) created a perpetual state of apprehension (fear) causing the elk to move into areas that provided more protection but less food. The result even without the elk being eaten by the wolves was a decline in elk population.

So to put this all together, I guess Bad Kitty isn’t so bad after all and not just because he’s been fixed, having him still around helps keep the population of others in check in other ways too. My sister thinks his motive when he swats or chases others away is just a misguided attempt at play. I think Bad Kitty is just creating and maintaining his very own landscape of fear.