Our friend Roland Kays turning in some very reinforcing citizen science evidence on how Coyotes help keep cats from killing birds in natural areas.................As most of us know, domestic cats kill billions of birds and small mammals in the U.S. each year............. Kays research has found that the birds and small mammals that live close to human development are most at risk of falling prey to a cat..............Cats avoid natural areas where coyotes live,........Cameras at 171 sites throughout Raleigh, North Carolina photographed both cats and coyotes.............. Cats were most commonly spotted in residential yards -- places where coyotes were rarely seen...............Cameras in residential yards were 300 times more likely to spot a cat than cameras in protected areas.............The only protected area where Kays and team didn’t photograph any coyotes (Gambrill State Park in Maryland) was also the one where the most cats were spotted............. This reinforces the notion that coyotes keep cats out of the wild places.................Coyotes will kill cats,” Kays said. “That’s one of the benefits of having predators in the environment -- they help keep the balance of nature and help prevent cats from overrunning it.”

https://www.google.com/url?rct=j&sa=t&url=http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-cats-coyotes-20150702-story.html&ct=ga&cd=CAIyGjQyMjFiY2NiNTFmYjE5OTM6Y29tOmVuOlVT&usg=AFQjCNEHc1WNLtiHF2__O-6oxo_bsNM19A