Actually, there are feral cats in Africa, and a small part of cats separated from feral cats existed as early as 130,000 years ago, evolved into African feral cats, and have lived until today. So, feral cats can survive on the African grasslands.

If we put Chinese domestic cats into Africa, would they survive?

This problem can actually help us understand how a species' survival depends on whether it can adapt to a new environment. The key factors for survival are energy, predators, and environment.

If these three aspects are met, the species can live and thrive here; if not, the species will be eliminated.

Energy factor

For all species to survive, there must be a stable and sustainable energy sourceThis is also crucial for Chinese feral cats.

Chinese feral cats are also feline animalsFelines have lost the sweet taste gene and only eat meat.For feral cats, their main food is small mammals, but they also often hunt birds, reptiles, amphibians, and insects, with a wide food source.

Although the African climate has dry and rainy seasons, small mammals will not migrate in the dry season, so the energy for feral cats is relatively stable.

However, Chinese feral cats need to compete with African feral cats for energy in Africa, African feral cats are about the same size as Chinese feral cats, but they have more experience in wild survival, and it is very likely that they can find prey more easily.

In addition, some large carnivorous birds and snakes also exist in competition for energy with them, so it can be seen that Chinese feral cats will face great difficulties to live in African grasslands.

Predator factor

Cats have few predators, but there are some in the African grasslands, some large carnivorous birds not only compete with them for energy but also directly threaten their numbers.

For example: African eagles, they not only hunt rabbits, chickens and rodents, but also capture cats, occasionally eat birds and fish. Therefore, even if feral cats can survive in Africa, they will not become invasive species.

However, Australian feral cats became invasive species because feral cats preyed on Australian rabbits. Since Australian rabbits are agile and fast-running, Chinese feral cats were not interested in them, so they ate local clumsy birds.

Because there are no large carnivorous animals in Australia, Australian birds are not agile and easily caught by feral cats. The local people once organized the eradication of feral cats, but were opposed by cat lovers. Nevertheless, even in some villages, cats are not a welcome species, and if owners do not keep their cats well, others have the right to eliminate them.

Environment factor

Once a species leaves its native habitat, it will face

Local constraintsFor example, snakes that live in warm areas cannot live in cold areas; bears that live in the Arctic will also show abnormal reactions in warmer areas. Currently, cats have a very strong ability to adapt, except for extremely cold places, almost all cats have distributed throughout the world, so cats can survive well in Africa.

Biological invasion

In fact, no matter what cat is put on the African grasslands, it will not have a significant impact on the African grasslands, this is because there are already cats in the African food chain

Biological invasion refers to a species that does not originally exist in a region, when this species suddenly enters an ecological chain, if it can adapt to the environment and there are no predators, it will cause serious damage to the environment.

For example, rabbits in China are affected by predators such as lynx and eagles, and their numbers have not changed much, but without rabbits in Australia, plus rabbits can adapt to the Australian environment, so Australian rabbits have become uncontrolled, becoming invasive species.

However, if Australian koalas arrived in China, they could not become invasive species. First, koalas only eat eucalyptus leaves, and there are few eucalyptus forests in China, so

Koalas' energy source is limitedOnce koalas reach the number that the eucalyptus forest can support, the koalas in that area will face food competition, and the species that loses the competition will likely die.In addition, koalas are slow-moving, easily caught by large carnivorous animals, such as wolves. This means that koalas are not only limited by energy but also limited by predators. Therefore, koala will not cause harm to other regions even if it leaves its original food chain.

Similar cases exist a lot, so, it is not necessary for a species to become an invasive species just by leaving its original food chain.

Summary

To judge whether a species can survive in a strange environment, it is necessary to judge whether there is food, predators, and whether the local environment is suitable for the survival of the species.