Movement Mondays

Jonathan Chu - September 28th

Outdoor domestic cat predatory behaviour in two ecologically distinct regions in Canada.

Globally, outdoor domestic cats (Felis catus) are estimated to kill billions of animals annually, however there are uncertainties regarding which species are at risk of depredation from cats and what factors influence variation in predation rates. We used animal-borne cameras and GPS trackers to quantify predation by owned outdoor cats in two ecologically distinct regions of Canada: Waterloo-Wellington, south-western Ontario, and the South Okanagan, south-central British Columbia. Cats killed 0.025 animals/hr in Waterloo-Wellington and 0.037 animals/hr in the South Okanagan, resulting in approximately 190,000 – 310,000 animals killed between Jun. – Oct. in Guelph, ON, and 110,000 – 296,000 between May – Aug. in the South Okanagan each year. Mammals dominated the prey base in both regions (71% and 59%), while birds comprised a lower proportion of prey in Waterloo-Wellington (8%) than South Okanagan (23%). Cats primarily killed ground-active, non-fossorial, urban-adapted mammals and ground-foraging, low-nesting, urban-adapted birds. Most cats had low predation rates while a minority hunted intensively, and leaner, more agreeable cats tended to have higher predation rates. In this talk to you will see the world from the point-of-view of a cat and get a detailed snapshot of the impacts cats have on wildlife.