Abstract
Roaming pet cats Felis catus are a significant conservation issue because they may hunt, harass and compete with wildlife; spread disease, interbreed with cats in feral populations, and hybridise with wild native felids. Studies of the roaming behaviour of pet cats are often hampered by modest sample sizes and variability between cats, limiting statistical significance of the findings and their usefulness in recommending measures to discourage roaming. We resolved these difficulties through meta-analyses of 25 studies from 10 countries involving 469 pet cats to assess the influence of sex, whether a cat was desexed and housing density on roaming. A complementary linear mixed models approach used data on 311 individual animals from 22 studies and was also able to assess the influence of age and husbandry practices on roaming. This restricted sample gave greater statistical power than the meta-analyses.Meta-analyses found that: male pet cats had larger home ranges than females, desexing did not influence home range, and cats had larger home ranges when housing densities were low. The linear mixed models supported those results. They also indicated that animals ≥8years old had smaller home ranges than younger cats. Cats fed regularly, provided with veterinary care and socialised with humans had similar home ranges to cats living in association with households but not provided for in some of these ways. Short of confinement, there is no simple measure owners can adopt to reduce roaming by their cats and prevent the associated environmental problems.
Highlights
Many previous studies found that the mean home ranges of male pet cats were larger than those for females, but this was not statistically significant (Kays and DeWan, 2004; Lilith et al, 2008; Morgan, 2002; Thomas et al, 2014)
Liberg et al (2000) suggested that in entire cats, male home ranges are determined by the availability of females and female home ranges are clustered around food sources
This led to the conclusion that desexing female cats is unlikely to have an effect on home range but that desexing male cats should decrease their home range, because they should become more interested in food than females (Barratt, 1997)
Summary
Wandering pet cats (Felis catus) (those closely associated with a household providing food and other needs (Baker et al, 2010)) hunt wildlife (Baker et al, 2005; Kauhala et al, 2015), transmit diseases to people and wildlife (Lepczyk et al, 2015), compete with other predators (George, 1974), reduce the reproductive success of prey species by fear of predation (Beckerman et al, 2007) or causing prey to display defensive behaviour that attracts other predators (Preisser et al, 2005), reduce the genetic integrity of wild felids by hybridising (Beaumont et al, 2001), and contribute to feral populations by interbreeding or abandonment of kittens (Jongman, 2007). There are concerns about unrestrained roaming because of risks to cat welfare (Egenvall et al, 2009; Loyd et al, 2013). Concern about pet cats entering nature reserves or remnant native vegetation led Lilith et al (2008) and Metsers et al (2010) to use data on roaming behaviour to recommend buffer zones around sensitive habitat to protect against cat incursions. Reduced roaming should restrict opportunities for other problems such as disease transmission or encounters that could change prey behaviour through fear of predation, but we are unaware of relevant data
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