@gemlog Don't get me wrong, I'm not that sentimental, I do eat meat myself a lot. And yes, no natural predators does make sense, still, ecosystems should somehow balance themselves out, right? So it's definitely human intervention even if an indirect one. I get how that happened to cats — humans love cat so they just let them breed uncontrollably. USSR used to mess with ecosystems to the point that it became a problem: artificial waterbeds and all, but it was plants which were their "forte".
@gemlog E.g. these guys: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heracleum_sosnowskyi
Or poplar trees in big cities, where they still cause trouble for the ones allergic to them during summer.
And most of all, the pigeons! I'm not sure about Americas, but in Europe I think they at least try to control their population, not here in Russia, they are like rats — flying rats that are everywhere 😅
But then again… Deer — that's a nice animal and a useful one! Sounds like something out of the ordinary in my book 😄
