Data from: The small home ranges and large local ecological impacts of pet cats [United Kingdom]

McDonald JL, Cole H. 2020. Data from: The small home ranges and large local ecological impacts of pet cats [United Kingdom]. Movebank Data Repository. https://doi.org/10.5441/001/1.pf315732

Abstract

Domestic cats (Felis catus) are a conservation concern because they kill billions of native prey each year, but without spatial context the ecological importance of pets as predators remains uncertain. We worked with citizen scientists to track 925 pet cats from six countries, finding remarkably small home ranges (3.6 ± 5.6 ha). Only three cats ranged > 1 km^2 and we found no relationship between home range size and the presence of larger native predators (i.e. coyotes, Canis latrans). Most (75%) cats used primarily (90%) disturbed habitats. Owners reported that their pets killed an average of 3.5 prey items/month, leading to an estimated ecological impact per cat of 14.2‐38.9 prey ha^−1 yr^−1. This is similar or higher than the per‐animal ecological impact of wild carnivores but the effect is amplified by the high density of cats in neighborhoods. As a result, pet cats around the world have an ecological impact greater than native predators but concentrated within ~100 m of their homes.

Keywords

Felis catus,animal tracking,citizen science,domestic cats,Felis catus,GPS logger,predation,urban ecology

Taxa

Taxon

Felis catus

Domestic Cat

Sensors

Sensor

GPS

DOIs of related Publications

https://doi.org/10.1111/acv.12563

URI

https://datarepository.movebank.org/handle/10255/move.882

BibTex

@misc{001/1_pf315732,
  title = {Data from: The small home ranges and large local ecological impacts of pet cats [United Kingdom]},
  author = {McDonald, JL and Cole, H},
  year = {2020},
  URL = {http://dx.doi.org/10.5441/001/1.pf315732},
  doi = {doi:10.5441/001/1.pf315732},
  publisher = {Movebank data repository}
}

RIS

TY  - DATA
ID  - doi:10.5441/001/1.pf315732
T1  - Data from: The small home ranges and large local ecological impacts of pet cats [United Kingdom]
AU  - McDonald, Jenni L.
AU  - Cole, Holly
Y1  - 2020/03/13
KW  - Felis catus
KW  - animal movement
KW  - animal tracking
KW  - citizen science
KW  - domestic cats
KW  - Felis catus
KW  - GPS logger
KW  - predation
KW  - urban ecology
KW  - Felis catus
PB  - Movebank data repository
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.5441/001/1.pf315732
DO  - doi:10.5441/001/1.pf315732
ER  -

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