Abstract/Summary

Urbanisation may alter prey-predator interactions, largely because the number and proportion of generalist predators is greater in expanding urban areas. As one of the most dominant and abundant predators, the presence of pet domestic cats (Felis catus) caused the death of billions of birds, mammals and individuals from other taxa. In order to reduce the risks posed by cats in urban and suburban areas, it is necessary to improve our understanding of the behaviour of domestic cats. In Chapter 1, I reviewed the literature about the movement patterns, predation effects, zoonotic diseases, attitudes and management strategies associated with pet cats. I also reviewed how other generalist predators affect predation rates in urban areas to provide wider context. In Chapter 2, I investigated fine-scale habitat use by pet cats using GPS collars, finding that cats prefer more open space when roaming in or around garden habitats, but they prefer habitats with cover (i.e. shrubland), when they roam in natural habitats. In Chapter 3, by fitting small cameras onto cats, I assessed micro-habitat use from the cat’s point of view, and investigated the relationship between habitat use and cat behaviour, and in doing so test how robust our interpretation of GPS results is. This study showed that cats are more likely to select open habitats for navigational pathways, and select closed habitats like winter deciduous woodlands and shrublands for resting. In Chapter 4, I conducted a meta-analysis of predation rates by domestic cats, finding that the frequency of birds and reptiles differed among continents, showing that large scale (biogeographic) differences in habitat and prey availability affects predation. In Chapter 5, I compared the attitudes towards cat risks and cat management strategies of academic researchers and reserve managers (practitioners), finding that researchers were more likely to perceive cat risks and more likely to accept management strategies than managers. In Chapter 6, I investigated how edge effects and nest height affect nest predation rates in a suburban park through camera traps. Nests near the ground suffer higher predation rates than higher nests. However, in contrast to our expectation, nests in core zone suffer more predation rates than buffer zone. No cats were captured by camera traps in this study. In the last Chapter, I summarised the main findings and novel contributions of my research to our understanding of how we can mitigate predation by pet cats.