GPS data reveals the extended travels of
Mon Mon the cat, ranging over one kilometre from its home and covering
more than 29 hectares in one week.
Supplied: Google Maps/Movebank
Preliminary results from a University of South Australia
project has revealed domestic cats travel a lot further than expected
during night walks.
Of the 16 cats analysed so far, results from
the sample week vary from localised exploration of under half of a
hectare to travels covering more than 29 hectares. "We've looked at cats in urban areas around Adelaide so far," Dr Philip Roetman from UniSA's Citizen Science initiative said.
Researchers have been quite surprised by the variation in travels revealed as GPS tracking data is processed. "Some
of the cats are basically just going over the fence and having a look,
whereas other cats are trekking into local fields and going quite a long
way," Dr Roetman said.
How cats are being tracked
The cat
tracker project is a partnership research program being conducted by
the University of South Australia, Your Wildlife in North Carolina and
Victoria University in Wellington.
Photo
Dr Philip Roetman holds a GPS device that is placed in a harness and used to track cats. 891 ABC Adelaide: Brett Williamson
Each organisation plans to monitor the travels of a minimum
of 500 cats to provide a sample size of more than 1,500 to analyse
habits of particular breeds of domestic cats.
Cat owners nominate their animal for tracking locally via the Cat Tracker website and fill out a small questionnaire to provide details on the area they live in, breed and characteristics of their cat.
Once selected, owners are sent a small GPS unit and harness that is placed on the cat.
The
GPS does not activate until 48 hours after being fitted and then
captures the cat's movements for the next seven days before the unit is
returned for processing.
Discrepancies are automatically removed
from data, with unusual movements, such as trips to the vet, also
recognised and discarded. "One owner had no idea that their cat
was going out of their back garden, and another was really surprised to
see just how far their cat was going," Dr Roetman said.
Results so far showing most cats home-based
Dr Roetman said it was still too early to predict any patterns with movements of the animals monitored locally. "The
results from the US, where we are collaborating, that have tracked
about 100 cats so far are finding that most of the cats aren't
travelling very far," he said. Supplied: Brett WilliamsonSimilar results were beginning to be seen in the samples taken near Adelaide. "We need a lot more data before we can say confidently that we have found some trends in cat behaviour," Dr Roetman said.
By
tracking more than 500 cats in total for the project, Dr Roetman hopes
to smooth out anomalies such as cooler and hotter weather restricting
travels and begin to understand animal ranging patterns better. "Once
we have a lot of cats, we will be able to look at those trends and talk
to the community about what are those factors that lead to cats
travelling further," he said.
Dr Roetman said one goal for the
project was to provide potential owners with detailed information about
the differing needs and ranges of different cat breeds, to help match
cat and owner personalities.
"People may decide to choose a
certain breed because we found that they don't go so far, so they are
less likely to get into territorial fights with other cats, they are
less likely to encounter dogs, they are less likely to annoy
neighbours," he said. "I think people are very interested in that
sort of information so they can make their own decisions about what sort
of cat to get."
Dr Roetman also plans to introduce projects
covering "community-owned" cats and tracking cats' behaviour after
owners have relocated to further understand the movements and habits of
the animals.
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