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Free-ranging domestic cats (Felis catus) on public lands: estimating density, activity, and diet in the Florida Keys

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Abstract

Feral and free-ranging domestic cats (Felis catus) can have strong negative effects on small mammals and birds, particularly in island ecosystems. We deployed camera traps to study free-ranging cats in national wildlife refuges and state parks on Big Pine Key and Key Largo in the Florida Keys, USA, and used spatial capture–recapture models to estimate cat abundance, movement, and activities. We also used stable isotope analyses to examine the diet of cats captured on public lands. Top population models separated cats based on differences in movement and detection with three and two latent groups on Big Pine Key and Key Largo, respectively. We hypothesize that these latent groups represent feral, semi-feral, and indoor/outdoor house cats based on the estimated movement parameters of each group. Estimated cat densities and activity varied between the two islands, with relatively high densities (~4 cats/km2) exhibiting crepuscular diel patterns on Big Pine Key and lower densities (~1 cat/km2) exhibiting nocturnal diel patterns on Key Largo. These differences are most likely related to the higher proportion of house cats on Big Pine relative to Key Largo. Carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios from hair samples of free-ranging cats (n = 43) provided estimates of the proportion of wild and anthropogenic foods in cat diets. At the population level, cats on both islands consumed mostly anthropogenic foods (>80% of the diet), but eight individuals were effective predators of wildlife (>50% of the diet). We provide evidence that cat groups within a population move different distances, exhibit different activity patterns, and that individuals consume wildlife at different rates, which all have implications for managing this invasive predator.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the USFWS, the Florida Keys National Wildlife Refuge Complex, USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, and NC Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit. We thank A. Maurer for his assistance with camera trap surveys. Thanks to A. Morkill, P. Hughes, J. Dixon, S. Sneckenberger, T. Farraro, C. Anderson, A. Emerick, and N. Finley for their support during their tenures in the Keys. Thanks to K. Pollock, D. Lafferty and S. Giery for assistance with analyses and inferences. All research was approved under US Fish and Wildlife Service Permit #2013-008 and North Carolina State University Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) #13-003-O. Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. NC Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, Department of Applied Ecology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 27695, USA

    Michael V. Cove & Theodore R. Simons

  2. School of Environmental and Forest Science, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 98105, USA

    Beth Gardner

  3. U.S. Geological Survey, Cooperative Fish and Wildife Research Unit, Department of Applied Ecology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 27695, USA

    Theodore R. Simons

  4. North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, Raleigh, NC, 27695, USA

    Roland Kays

  5. Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 27695, USA

    Roland Kays

  6. U.S. Geological Survey, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Laurel, MD, 20707, USA

    Allan F. O’Connell

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  1. Michael V. Cove
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  2. Beth Gardner
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  5. Allan F. O’Connell
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Correspondence to Michael V. Cove.

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Cove, M.V., Gardner, B., Simons, T.R. et al. Free-ranging domestic cats (Felis catus) on public lands: estimating density, activity, and diet in the Florida Keys. Biol Invasions 20, 333–344 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-017-1534-x

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