The authors found that just a few
types of invasive mammals — rats, cats, pigs, mongooses, and
weasels — are most strongly associated with the extirpation
of native species (island - level extinction).
We're all familiar with the use
of animal species names (general and specific) as labels for a sets
of human charateristics, for descriptions
of types of people, some good, some bad; for example; lion, tiger,
weasel, rabbit, rat, dinosaur, pigeon, shark, albatross, crow, snake, (teddy) bear, sloth, insect, rodent, bug, cat etc..