Image: Fahmi Sani Photography Getty Images
Anyone who has ever owned an outdoor cat knows that it tends to disappear for hours, sometimes days, at a time. Where do cats go when they are lurking out of sight? The question is of interest not just to pet owners but also to conservation scientists who study the impact of free-roaming cats on wildlife populations. Scientists at the University of Illinois and the Illinois Natural History Survey recently attached radio transmitters to the adjustable collars of 18 pet and 24 feral cats in southeastern Champaign-Urbana and tracked the animals by truck and on foot for more than one year. The research, published in the Journal of Wildlife Management, shows that pet cats maintain a rather lazy existence: they spent 80 percent of their time resting. They devoted another 17 percent to low-activity pursuits such as grooming and only 3 percent to high-activity pursuits such as hunting. Unowned cats rested just 62 percent of the time and spent 14 percent, mostly at night, being highly active. Feral cats roamed far more widely than researchers had expected: up to 1,351 acres. In contrast, pet cats stayed within an average of about five acres of home.
The small cats’ behavior is similar to that of their larger cousins. “Maintaining a ranging area is a very intrinsic behavior to cats,” says Alan Rabinowitz, CEO of the conservation organization Panthera. Like small cats, wild cats like to stay close to humans for easier access to food. Jaguars in Latin America, for example, slink quietly through massive stretches of human land. It’s part of a cat’s nature to live on the interface of wild and human-inhabited land.
This article was originally published with the title Where House Cats Roam.
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12 Comments
Add CommentI have a pet cat who arrived in the neighborhood as a stray, VERY skinny kitten. At first I would see him as far as a mile from our house, active both day and night. Gradually he tried out the facilities at at least four houses in the area, finally settling on us as the best providers. Now he disappears much of the day, but he's always within calling distance. From the time it takes him to respond and appear at the door, I'd guess he isn't going further than an acre to two acres in a circle around the house. Often, he appears yawning and probably was asleep somewhere in the woods. From his appearance, he's definitely not exercising much, wherever he goes during the day. This is quite a change, and may be partly his increasing domestication (and girth--he's not motivated to hunt!) but could also be partly his age. I wonder if the cats in this study were matched in age? Probably there are many older pets out there who spend the day snoozing, while perhaps younger ones hunt more. Conversely, I'd speculate that the average age of feral cats is younger, assuming not many live to old age. Another factor might be gender. Our current cat is male, and hunts far less than the female pet cat we previously had. She was never a stray, but hunted actively (including tackling squirrels and a pheasant) until she got too old to move very much. She lived to be 23 years old, and I know she hunted often until she was 14 or 15. I know this because she would bring her catches home to dine (ick!). She did this even though she always had food available, whereas the male cat seems to have been an active hunter when he was a stray just for survival. Could female cats have more of a hunting drive? I've also suspected they are more territorial. Maybe these traits would be beneficial to a mother cat feeding kittens.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOver the years, we have had several cats take up residence in our yard. Since they would not let us approach, we assumed they were feral. They certainly took a toll on the mice and shrews in the garden and on songbirds as well. Just doing the mental math, factoring in the number of cats, both domestic and feral, I figure that hundreds of thousands of their prey animals must perish annually, largely out of our sight. For that reason alone, I think cats should either be confined to the house or a yard, well-fenced with chain link.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPerhaps many in the category of "prey" are disease vectors and pests. Don't be so hard on the felines.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI was thinking the same thing about the average ages. Just watching the activity level of my own cats over the years, I'm certain there is a difference in activity levels even between cats of 1 yr and 3 years. In the wild I'm sure their average age is lower, so this would be a very important factor to consider. Without controlling for age I would think this study would be almost worthless.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe presence of our indoor-outdoor housecat had little effect, but since we have been adopted by 2 feral cats the rodent population around the house and property has dropped significantly. The songbirds, squirels, and other small animals seem to be doing well, but we are not in an urban setting.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBoth cats and man developed the ability to feed themselves during a fraction of their day.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMan developed poetry, art, civilization ... slavery, genocide, weapons of mass destruction, and global warfare.
Cats sleep.
Which species made the better choice?
I've known male pet house cats, especially unneutered males, to maintain "family" relationships with several different households in an area, dividing their time between them. I'm thinking that might expand the total range of such a cat, since he would have multiple bases to operate from.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFrom casual observation, it appears to me that female cats stick much closer to home than do males, regardless of whether they have been neutered or not. Did the cats in this study show a gender split? (I know, I'll probably not get that question answered here, but perhaps someone will read this and get curious enough to research it.)
SEE:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttps://rays1site.wordpress.com/2011/07/04/alley-cats/
https://rays1site.wordpress.com/2011/05/30/alley-cat-allies-tnr-policies/
And
Alley Cat Allies @
http://www.alleycat.org/
Our cats have always told us that what they were out doing during their travels was "a cat thing that (we) wouldn't understand."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAll I know is that, as long as our cats go out at night, the incidence of alien abduction and violent chupacabra and communist/fascist squirrel attacks on humans and property in the neighborhood has been at or within a statistically insignificant margin of error.
I say that, antithetical as it may sound to my fellow readers of SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, there are some questions in this world that are best left unanswered.
In the meantime, KEEP WATCHING THE SKIES AND THE LITTER BOXES!!
Over the past 30 + years of in the country living, our 25 feral cats have mostly been close friends. As rhinoguy said, the incidence of alien abduction are virtually nill.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe rules, and yes there are rules to feral cat ownership, are:
1. Name them
2. Feed them
3. Love them
Then; Their yours. Good luck with that.
Our housecat was a feral who came in for a winter and decided to stay. She has learned to cuddle and snuggle (surprised the heck out of me!) but will never be a lap cat.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOf our 2 feral friends, one is a male who is very territorial. He marks and sprays regularly (around the steps, corners of the driveway and yard, etc), and has taken to laying in wait for our housecat to go out so he can chase her away from the house and he actively chases her away when the opportunity presents itself. The feral male is also the one who has been seen the farthest away from our house, which seems to support the conclusion that males roam a larger territory.
Don't be harsh why, because of an emotional attachment? C'mon, it's a science mag; when I see cultural studies done on the consumption of dog (I have a 4 legged "son") I don't get squeamish, it's SCIENCE.
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