Movement and diet of domestic cats on Stewart Island/Rakiura, NZ

Wood, V., Seddon, P. J., Beaven, B., & van Heezik, Y. (2016). Movement and diet of domestic cats on Stewart Island/Rakiura, New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Ecology, 40(1), 0-0.

Domestic cats (Felis catus) in Halfmoon Bay, Stewart Island/Rakiura, were tracked to assess the
potential for incursions into native forest around the township, and into Rakiura National Park c. 5 km away.
During February and April 2005, 15 and 4 radio-collared cats were tracked, respectively. During a six-month period, cat-owners logged prey brought home by 11 cats. Cats were at home >90% of the time. Of the six cats that left home, movements were small: home range was between 0.05 and 16.6 ha (100% minimum convex polygon). Four cats brought prey home, comprising rats (Rattus spp.; 67% of prey items), and birds (four species, one native; 33%). Cats sampled at Halfmoon Bay were unlikely to enter the national park; however, many locations were within native forest patches, indicating that native birds within Halfmoon Bay were vulnerable to predation. The high proportion of rats caught could have benefits for native species.

Factors regulating the presence of domestic dogs in a national park

Soto, C. A., & Palomares, F. (2014). Human-related factors regulate the presence of domestic dogs in protected areas. Oryx, 1-7.

The presence of domestic species such as dogs Canis familiaris in protected areas can cause problems for native species as a result of competition, predation and disease transmission. To improve our ability to design effective control policies we investigated the factors affecting detection of dog tracks in a Mediterranean national park.
We investigated the presence of dogs across 69 2 × 2 km grid squares in Doñana National Park in south-west Spain and used logistic regression models to analyse the associated environmental and human constraints. We did not detect dogs in areas away from the edges of the national park close to human settlements (track census effort > 470 km) and the detection of dog tracks was correlated with human presence. We conclude that domestic dogs occasionally enter the Park from the surrounding area and are a direct threat to wildlife at the edges of the Park. Management actions to reduce the effects of domestic dogs in protected areas where feral dog populations are not established should focus on the spatial extent of local settlements, regulation and awareness-raising to encourage responsible dog-ownership, and control measures such as removing un-owned dogs from boundaries and areas close to human dwellings, and forbidding unleashed dogs in public facilities.

Dogs disturbing wintering plovers

Lafferty, K. D. (2001). Disturbance to wintering western snowy plovers.Biological Conservation, 101(3), 315-325.

In order to better understand the nature of disturbances to wintering snowy plovers, I observed snowy plovers and activities that might disturb them at a beach near Devereux Slough in Santa Barbara, California, USA. Disturbance (activity that caused plovers to move or fly) to wintering populations of threatened western snowy plovers was 16 times higher at a public beach than at protected beaches. Wintering plovers reacted to disturbance at half the distance (∼40 m) as has been reported for breeding snowy plovers (∼80 m). Humans, dogs, crows and other birds were the main sources of disturbance on the public beach, and each snowy plover was disturbed, on average, once every 27 weekend min and once every 43 weekday min. Dogs off leash were a disproportionate source of disturbance. Plovers were more likely to fly from dogs, horses and crows than from humans and other shorebirds. Plovers were less abundant near trail heads. Over short time scales, plovers did not acclimate to or successfully find refuge from disturbance. Feeding rates declined with increased human activity. I used data from these observations to parameterize a model that predicted rates of disturbance given various management actions. The model found that prohibiting dogs and a 30 m buffer zone surrounding a 400 m stretch of beach provided the most protection for plovers for the least amount of impact to beach recreation.

Domestic cat range in an urban environment

Thomas, R. L., Baker, P. J., & Fellowes, M. D. (2014). Ranging characteristics of the domestic cat (Felis catus) in an urban environment. Urban Ecosystems, 1-11.

In many countries, high densities of domestic cats (Felis catus) are found in urban habitats where they have the potential to exert considerable predation pressure on their prey. However, little is known of the ranging behaviour of cats in the UK. Twenty cats in suburban Reading, UK, were fitted with GPS trackers to quantify movement patterns. Cats were monitored during the summer and winter for an average of 6.8 24 h periods per season. Mean daily area ranged (95 % MCP) was 1.94 ha. Including all fixes, mean maximum area ranged was 6.88 ha. These are broadly comparable to those observed in urban areas in other countries. Daily area ranged was not affected by the cat’s sex or the season, but was significantly larger at night than during the day. There was no relationship between area ranged and habitat availability. Taking available habitat into account, cat ranging area contained significantly more garden and other green space than urban habitats. If cats were shown to be negatively affecting prey populations, one mitigation option for consideration in housing developments proposed near important wildlife sites would be to incorporate a ‘buffer zone’ in which cat ownership was not permitted. Absolute maximum daily area ranged by a cat in this study was 33.78 ha. This would correspond to an exclusory limit of approximately 300–400 m to minimise the negative effects of cat predation, but this may need to be larger if cat ranging behaviour is negatively affected by population density.

Cat-exclusion areas to reduce impact in reserves

Metsers, E. M., Seddon, P. J., & van Heezik, Y. M. (2010). Cat-exclusion zones in rural and urban-fringe landscapes: how large would they have to be?.Wildlife Research, 37(1), 47-56.

Context. The process of urban sprawl brings the human population and their domestic cats (Felis catus) in close contact with wildlife in areas that were previously remote, including reserves and conservation areas created to protect populations of vulnerable or threatened species. Various mitigation measures have been proposed, including devices designed to hinder cat hunting ability, desexing to reduce wandering and nuisance behaviours, containment at night or at all times and regulations governing cat ownership. Such regulations may aim to reduce cat densities by limiting the number of cats per household, or they may define zones around sensitive conservation areas where cat ownership is prohibited.

Aims. The present study sought to establish the necessary size of cat-exclusion zones in rural and urban-fringe landscapes where vulnerable prey species may also reside.

Methods. With GPS collars, we tracked 38 domestic cats at three sites (one rural, two urban fringe) where small reserves contained threatened lizard species.

Key results. Home ranges (95% kernel density estimates) were considerably larger for cats at the rural site (0.3–69 ha) than at urban-fringe sites (0.35–19 ha at Kaitorete Spit and 0.2–9 ha at Otago Peninsula), and were larger at night than day. Resource selection ratios indicated avoidance of open areas with little cover, such as cultivated areas (farmland), tussock grassland and duneland, whereas sources of cover such as trees and buildings were preferred. Maximum distances moved and large variability between individual cats suggest buffers in rural landscapes would need to be at least 2.4 km wide, whereas those in urban-fringe habitat could be half as large.

Conclusions. Despite significant home-range size differences exhibited by cats living in rural v. urban-fringe habitats, exclusion zones would need to be wide to account for considerable inter-cat variation in movement behaviour.

Implications. The size of an effective cat-exclusion zone should represent the specific landscape, amount of residential development and substantial variability between individual cats.

Pet cats reduce effective protected area

Lilith, M., Calver, M.C. and Garkaklis, M.J. (2008) Roaming habits of pet cats on the suburban fringe in Perth, Western Australia: What size buffer zone is needed to protect wildlife in reserves? In: Lunney, D., Munn, A. and Meikle, W., (eds.) Too close for comfort : contentious issues in human-wildlife encounters. Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales, Mosman, NSW, pp. 65-72.

We radiotracked 18 pet cats Felis catus from rural and urban areas within the City of Armadale, Western Australia, both at night and during the day between August 2003 and February 2005 to estimate the size of buffer zone required to reduce incursions by pet cats into native bushland. Home ranges of rural cats ranged from 0.07ha to 2.86ha, while those of urban cats were 0.01 ha to 0.64ha. Male and female cats had similar home ranges and there was no evidence of seasonal differences in home ranges.The longest linear distance moved by any cat was 300m, so allowing a 20% margin for estimation error a buffer zone of 360m is needed to reduce incursions by pet cats into native bushland in this municipality.

Cats reduce effective protected area

Wierzbowska, I.A, J.Olko, M.Hędrzak, K.R. Crooks. 2012. Free-ranging domestic cats reduce the effective protected area of a Polish national park, Mammalian Biology - Zeitschrift für Säugetierkunde, 77 (3) 204

Poland's Animal Protection Act, as of 2002, made it legal to shoot free-ranging cats and dogs. The act triggered substantial social debate with opponents arguing that this legislation was weakly supported by scientific evidence of the ecological impacts of free-ranging pets. Our main research goal was to examine the activity of free-ranging domestic cats within a Polish protected area by applying radio-telemetry methods to determine space use and degree of encroachment into the national park. We trapped and radio-tracked 19 animals from three sites (focal households) located in Ojcow National Park (ONP) in southern Poland from June 2003 to March 2006. Annual 100% MCP home range size varied from 0.02 km² to 1.46 km², and was significantly larger for males (mean ± SE = 0.79 ± 0.34 km²; median = 0.53 km²) than for females (mean ± SE = 0.13 ± 0.05 km²; median = 0.13 km²). The distance travelled by individual cats from focal sites did not significantly differ between males (mean ± SE = 232.00 ± 21.05 m; median = 191 m) and females (mean ± SE = 232.50 ± 12.47 m; median = 228 m), with maximum distances of 1.5 km for males and 1.1 km for females. All monitored cats were in close proximity to nature reserves and ranged into protected areas without any human control. Cats living in the households in the park and its surrounding buffer zone, roaming at 200 m and 1000 m radius distances from their households, occupied from 6% to 100% of the park area, respectively. Our results reveal that free-ranging domestic cats roam through and potentially impact the entire national park, thus reducing its effective protected area.