Cat Ecology and Behaviour

Question 1

Newzealand cat contraversy

Answer 1

• 1st country to attempt to remove cats (or at least pet ownership) due to hunting native species of wildlife

Question 2

Trap-neuter return

Answer 2

• taking cats out of environment, neutering them and return to where they were traped from
• aim to reduce over population
• BUT seen as cruel and not solve over pop problem

Question 3

Defining categories of cats

Answer 3

• feral - unowned, not provided for by humans
• stray - unowned or lost, provided for by humans
  companion - owned, provided for by owners
• different countries use words differently and miscommunication can lead to intervention
  e.g. newzealand kill feral cats as there is no way to control them but US call them wild cats so think NZ is killing stray cats
• companion has positive image and nett gain finanticially and emotionally
• ferrel cats have a nett cost control/disease/predatory behaviours/ negative light as killers and peple atittude
• stray mixed image

Question 4

Wicked problem (Rittle and Webber 1973)

Answer 4

= socially complex problrms with no clear goal, solution, outcome

• is the goal to eliminate cats, to ensure they cant overpopulate, to ensure all cats get a home or provide needs, live in equilibrium without intervension?
• 3 pops (comp, stray, feral)

Question 5

Wider problem with cats

Answer 5

• prey taken depend on location and necessity
• ## well fed cat = hunt less

Question 6

Peoples perceptions on controlling stray and ferral cats

Answer 6

• for strays more acceptable use TNR rather than lethal trap (but significant proportion still agree with lethal)
• but bigger difference with ferral as much more people found lethal trapping more acceptable w/4 median score compared to TNR with median score of 2
• reasons for control - welfare of companion cats much higher accepted (5 median score) than stray/ferral
• stray = most agreed important (4) but some scored 1
• ferral = median 3 for welfare and only few scored 5

Question 7

Where are the cats

Answer 7

• stray cat presence is positively correlated with measures of social deprivation
• education is important for improving human and animal experiences
• large number of protected areas with high biodiversity not in places with a lot of people
• cats risk reducing biodiversity in unprotected areas

Question 8

Owners as managers for cats

Answer 8

• reduce cats natural ability to hunt
• companion cats comprise the largest subsection of the cat population
• most cats (around 95%) in NZ access to outdoors
• 40% have collars with bells and to recognise lost cats

Question 9

Conservationalists as managers

Answer 9

• study looked in perceptions of controling cats
• public, animal protection and conservationalists
• public and animal protection majorities chose TNR (34.1% and 69.2% respectfully) and only 14% animal protection use a lethal method
• conservationalits - lethal trapping most appropriate (48.1%) and 72% chose lethal method
• possibility where conflict arose

Question 10

How do we drive change

Answer 10

• human animal conflict is substantial issue and reducing it requires long term changes in human behaviour
• 2 projetcs conducted in NZ and UK
• thy assessed if and how people could be encouraged to change
  ~ NZ focused on companion cats
  ~ Uk study focused on stray community cats

Question 11

Changes to imporve communities and cats UK

Answer 11

• a substantial proportion of free roaming cats will not have a formal owner
• but dont mean dont recieve no care
• how to improve care provision?
• how do community attitudes affect problem?
• based on data from NZ an area with high level of deprivation was selected to explore stray cat numbers
• questionare delivered door-to-door in bulwell nottingham, assessed attitudes towards and knowladge about care intensions
• alongside project, community support was put in place
• resultus - atructual equation modeling revealed clear drivers of the intension to neuter community cats
  ~ behavioral intent increased if have a good knowldge of neutering and positive attude towards cats
  ~ negative perception of stray cats and knowlage in neutering (know less)
  ~ improving knowlage of needs of community cats and neutering and promoting positive attitudes to cats = worked together to improve the likelyhood that communties will take interventionist strategies to manage cat populations
• after results, there was a rduced incidence of cat litters in area questioned

Question 12

Changes to ownership practices NZ

Answer 12

• if cats are seen as a substantial threat to native wildlife, what are the options?
  ~ improve care provided to minimise impact
  ~ change ownership practices to avoid oppetunity
  ~ introduce legistlation
  ~ enforce restriction of cat ownership and movement
• cat owners recruited through vet clinics to investigate owner appetite for changes in cat management
• vets also asked to participate in the study
• study considered following: effectivemess = impact, probability of adoption, cat welfare
  ~ impact = percieved likelyhood that nay method would reduce wildlife pop
  ~ cat welfare = assessed through vet opinion relative to method suggested
  ~ probability of adoption = derived from owner reported intentions
  Results
• 9 behaviours of interest rated 1(worst) -7 (best)
• one most likely to be adopted (and most impact) = cats inside at night
• and considered least likly to have a negative welfare impact by by vets
  (inside 24 hours, collar, legal registration, microchip, commint to garden, strralising, limit cat no. per household)
• cats in 24 hours was best seen as best for native wildlife but worst for cat welfare and the likelyhood of adoption was 2nd lowest score
• only 1% repondants kept cat in 24 hours (low prob adopt)
• 30% kept cat in at night (higher prob adoption) as if comunicate with neighbours, more likely to do the same thing
  Determinative processes
• how beliefs affect behaviours and wether or not it translate into action
• generated 2 campaigns at 2 clinics and control flyer
• one vet safety and one family/cat enjoyment
• after 6 weeks owners were contacted to discuss bring in cats at night
• Campaigne 2 showed biggest positive increase in owner behaviour change
• camp 1 showed little change
• control had negavtive impact (possibly due to winter/spring changing

Question 13

Conclusion

Answer 13

• communities showed substantial interest in both cats and cat control but some communities have substantial burdans (services/money/knowladge limited)
• change is possible but requires sustained behavioural change and proffessional support
• messages which are predominantly cat-centric are more effective
• bewst options are not always most easily adopted
• people remain the biggest oppertunity and challenge for the future of cat management