Cats & Rabbits - Cause Map

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Unintended Consequences

Sometimes the solution to a problem can inadvertently create an even bigger problem.

Macquarie Island is located about half-way between Australia and Antarctica. The seabird population on the island was being threatened by feral cats. The cats had been brought to the island to help control the rodent population. The obvious solution was to remove the cats. With fewer predatory cats, however, the rabbit population exploded. The rabbits consumed an estimated 40% of the island's vegetation creating an ecosystem crisis larger than the original cat problem.

The point is solutions can produce the desired outcomes and undesirable side effects. The purpose a root cause analysis is to completely understand the causes of an issue. Most problems in organizations involve several people from different groups. Each person sees the problem from their point of view, which is usually only part of the story. A thorough root cause analysis creates a complete picture so everyone can see all the causes (the Cause Map).

Understanding the causes of the problem and the effects of the solutions should be part of the problem solving diligence in every organization. Review this Cause Map in your next staff or safety meeting as a reminder to avoid focusing too narrowly on the problem. There are details inside each individual problem that provide insight to improve operations overall.

Problem Outline

This is a simple outline of the original problem. There are no peronnel safety issues, but the environmental goals were negatively impacted because of the loss of native seabirds.

 

Cause Map (2-Whys)

This Cause Map starts with a negative impact to the environmental goal because of the reduction in the seabird population. The seabirds were being eatan by the cats. This simple Cause Map asks 2-Why questions.

Cause Map (5-Whys)

There are three causes of the cats reducing the native seabird population: there have to be seabirds on the island, the cats have to be predators of the birds and have to be cats on the island. All three are required for the cats to kill the native seabirds.

An obvious solution is to remove the cats. The solution is placed directly on the cause that it controls. Solutions are specifc actions that control causes. If the cats are gone the seabird population won't be threatened by the cats anymore.

Removing the cats is a solution to having cats on the island, but it's also a cause of fewer predators for rabbits.

Another Cause Map (2-Whys) with...

Fewer predators did increase the population of some of the seabirds which was one positive impact to the environmental goal. Fewer predators also significantly increased the population of rabbits and rodents.

The rabbits consumed a massive amount of vegetation causing extreme erosion and insufficient cover for the seabirds. This created another serious threat to the seabird population.

The original problem outline now changes to reflect the impact to the ecosystem.

The solution now is to remove the rabbits, rats and mice. Originally removing the cats and rabbits at the same time would have prevented this issue. Because of the severe erosion a $16.2 US remediation project is also in the works.