A Day in the Life of a Traveling Feline
Science shows that free-roaming cats often “go astray”—literally and figuratively. They capture wildlife (including native birds and rodents), are hit by cars, and contract and spread disease (Dabritz and Conrad 2010, Kays and DeWan 2004, Rochlitz 2003). There’s ongoing debate over the degree to which these activities pose a threat
to wildlife, human and animal health, or the cats themselves. Regardless, many American cat owners allow their pets to wander outside. In fact, a recent study in Georgia revealed that 45 percent of cat owners in the study area allowed their pets to roam outdoors (Loyd and Hernandez, in press).
In 2010, a cat conflict was brewing in Athens, Georgia. Cat advocates suggested that cat predation is “natural” and insignificant, while conservation biologists cited the negative influence of cats on native species (Dauphiné and Cooper 2011). Inspired by the controversy — and concerned about the welfare of cats and wildlife — we decided to conduct research using small video cameras to monitor felines as they traveled through the great outdoors.
A Cat’s Eye View
Animal-borne video systems, called Crittercams, have been around for years, deployed to study habitat use, food habits, and general animal behavior in a variety of species including marine mammals, sea turtles, and even penguins (Marine Technology Society Journal 2007/2008). Those devices tend to be too large for cats, however, so we needed something smaller and lighter that cats would tolerate.
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Because of the controversial nature of the activities of free-roaming cats (especially with regard to inter- actions with native wildlife), we wanted to collect a fair amount of objective data using this new animal- borne video system. We determined that we would need a minimum of seven days of outdoor footage per participating cat in order to increase the probability of detecting a hunting event and identify the percentage of cats that were actually hunters.
http://news.wildlife.org/twp/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-traveling-feline/
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Kitty Cam reveals wildlife killers in our midst
That soft and fluffy ball of fur that is cuddling up on your bed at night may be wreaking carnage in your backyard during the daytime, researchers reported Tuesday. Using cameras attached to the collars of your friendly neighborhood cats, researchers at the University of Georgia found that the feline fighters kill much larger numbers of wildlife than previously thought. That may be because such earlier studies didn't consider animals that the cats ate or simply left behind, said biologist Kerrie Anne Lloyd, who presented her findings at a Portland, Ore., meeting of the Ecological Society of America.
In cooperation with the National Geographic Society's CritterCam team, which attaches cameras to animals to record the activities of a variety of species, Lloyd and her colleagues recruited 60 cat owners in Athens, Ga. The owners attached the tiny cameras to the cats' collars every morning when the animals were let out, then dowloaded the day's images every night. Each animal was followed for seven to 10 days.
The team found that about 30% of the cats killed prey, an average of two animals per week. The cats brought home nearly a quarter of the animals they killed, ate 30% and left 49% to rot where they died. About 41% of the prey were lizards, snakes and frogs; mammals such as chipmunks and voles accounted for 25%; and birds only 12%. The low percentage of birds may be because they can fly, but with an estimated 74 million cats in the country, the total carnage is high.
The cats were also not very careful. About 45% crossed roadways, 25% ate and drank things they found, 20% entered storm drains and 20% entered crawlspaces where they could easily become trapped. Male cats were more likely to take risks than female cats, and younger animals were more likely to do so than older ones.
(end of article)
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-kitty-killers-20120807,0,6611224.story?track=rss
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