Pet Cats Australia

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Date
2020-03-13
DOI
https://doi.org/10.5441/001/1.289p5s77/1
Authors
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Citation
Roetman P, Tindle H. 2020. Pet Cats Australia. Movebank Data Repository. https://doi.org/10.5441/001/1.289p5s77/1
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
animal movement,animal tracking,citizen science,domestic cats,Felis catus,GPS logger,predation,urban ecology
Taxa
Sensors
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URI
https://datarepository.movebank.org/handle/10255/move.877
BibTex
@misc{001/1_289p5s77/1,
  title = {Pet Cats Australia},
  author = {Roetman, P and Tindle, H},
  year = {2020},
  URL = {http://dx.doi.org/10.5441/001/1.289p5s77/1},
  doi = {doi:10.5441/001/1.289p5s77/1},
  publisher = {Movebank data repository}
}
RIS
TY  - DATA
ID  - doi:10.5441/001/1.289p5s77/1
T1  - Pet Cats Australia
AU  - Roetman, Philip
AU  - Tindle, Hayley
Y1  - 2020/03/13
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/10.5441/001/1.289p5s77/1
DO  - doi:10.5441/001/1.289p5s77/1
ER  -
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