Ecology of a feral cat Felis catus population in an agricultural area of northern Italy

Abstract

The eco logy of a feral cat popul ation in an inten sively cultiv ated region of northern Italy was studied. The study area is a land accretion territory, reclaimed in the early 1970s, characterised by the absence of any food source of human origin (e.g. garbage dumps, farms, houses) and surrounded by a continu ous irrigation channel that is likely to limit immigration/emigration of cats. The cat popul ation was censused for two success ive yea rs using the sighting-resighting method ; spac ing pattern s were studied by means of radio-telemetry; hunt ing behavi our was assesse d by obser vation. Feral cats avo ided any direct co ntact with human s, and reproduced in the wild. The density of the popul ation remained stable throu ghout the study period. Turn over appeared very high , and was remark ably higher than that of cats regularly fed by humans. Very low densities, large home range sizes, solitary habit s, territ orial pattern s similar to those of the wildcat, seasonal parturiti on , and prevalenc e of hunting activity were found. We speculate that these patterns are related to the peculiar conditions of resource availability and disp ersion in the study area. Ou r results indicate that feral cats, eve n in agricultural areas and in the abse nce of any food provided by humans, have solitary habits and low densities, thus confirming a key role of resource ava ilability and dispersion on the eco logy of ca rnivores.

Evaluation of euthanasia and trap - neuter - return (TNR) programs in managing free-roaming cat populations

“…Therefore, both euthanasia and TNR would require immigration to be concomitantly controlled or reduced under both scenarios. Our results are consistent with long-term evaluations of TNR colonies that showed population abundance failed to decrease because of immigration (Castillo and Clark 2003) and with studies that showed high rates of transients and population turnover in feral cats (Langham and Porter 1991;Genovesi et al 1995).…”

Ranging characteristics of the domestic cat (Felis catus) in an urban environment

“…One additional factor that may also affect the ranging behaviour of cats that has not been considered in this study is the density of other cats and whether domestic cats are quasiterritorial (feral cats typically are semi-social and territorial: Genovesi et al 1995;Hall et al 2000). If it were the case that range size was negatively affected by cat density, then higher densities of cats may decrease range sizes and indeed this may explain the differences in nocturnal maximum ranging size considered above.…”

Habitat use of Medium-Sized Carnivores in Southeast Finland — Key Habitats for Rabies Spread?

“…Thus, the habitats surrounding the farms infl uence the habitats available for each cat. In Italy, cats used mainly habitats providing cover but avoided cultivated fi elds (Genovesi et al 1995). In addition in USA, cats often used corridors between habitat patches but fi elds less often than expected by chance (Gehring & Swihart 2003).…”