As you rest your head upon your pillow and drift off to sleep, do you ever ponder the whereabouts of your feline friend? If not tucked up in bed with you, exactly where is your pet moggy? Roaming the streets of suburbia? Meandering through a nature reserve?
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The somewhat clandestine lives of the bush capital’s domestic cats are set to be revealed through an insightful national cat tracker study coordinated through the University of South Australia.
This interesting research will delve into the day and night movements of our fluffy feline friends, bringing about valuable insights for researchers and cat owners alike.
Having first arrived upon these ancient shores as ships’ cats, moggies soon adapted to the local environment along with their fellow European travellers. Unfortunately the endemic native wildlife has not fared so well ever since. Extinction has been the ultimate outcome for some native species.
While domestic cats are a much loved member of the family, cats by their very nature are curious creatures, very inquisitive and incredibly capable stealth hunters. Even with a full tummy, they continue to hunt given their natural instincts to simply play, reacting to rapid erratic movements. Their prey, often native wildlife like small birds and reptiles, is often left uneaten or brought back home as a trophy to share with the family.
Research has revealed that domestic cats have the same kill regime as feral cats. It is clear that, unfortunately, our domestic cats that go wandering can have a negative impact upon our native wildlife.
The Cat Tracker Project is a wonderful citizen science initiative that is engaging the community as we collectively explore and better understand the movements of our pet cats. Selected cats will be fitted with a small non-obstructive GPS collar and satellite tracked for a week.
The project comes on the tail of highly successful South Australia research where around 40 percent of cats, thought by their owners to be inside at night sound asleep, were in fact out and about on the prowl. One family found their cat spent his nights with another family.
Given the bush capital’s natural setting with so much wildlife on our doorstep, there’s a wonderful opportunity to become involved with this project. Anyone can complete the short survey online then, if they wish, volunteer their cat for selection. Canberra will have 100 cats tracked. There’s also a fun cat personality survey at the same site.
To find out more visit: www.discoverycircle.org.au/projects/cat-tracker
- Brett McNamara is with ACT Parks & Conservation Service.
