Abstract
Free-ranging domestic cats (Felis catus) cats kill billions of wild animals every year, spread parasites and diseases to both wildlife and humans, and are responsible for the extinction or extirpation of at least 63 species. While the ecology and conservation implications of free-ranging cats have been well studied in some locations, relatively little is known about cats inhabiting suburban nature preserves in the United States. To address this knowledge gap, we used camera traps to study the occupancy and activity patterns of free-ranging cats in 55 suburban nature preserves in the Chicago, IL metropolitan area. From 2010 to 2018 (4440 trap days), we recorded 355 photos of free-ranging cats at 41 randomly distributed monitoring points (ψ naïve = 0.18) within 26 preserves (ψ naïve = 0.45). Cats were detected every year, but rarely at the same point or preserve, and cats were active during day and night. Cat occupancy increased with building density and detectability was highest near preserve boundaries. Based on our top-ranked model, predicted occupancy within individual preserves ranged from 0.07 to 0.42 (ψ mean = 0.12) depending on the year. Overall, our results suggest that free-ranging cats are rare within suburban preserves in our study area, and that these cats are most likely owned or heavily subsidized by people (which pose different risks and management challenges than feral cats). We discuss the conservation and management implications for suburban natural areas.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Availability of data and material
(Data is included in the supplementary materials)
Change history
19 January 2021
A Correction to this paper has been published: <ExternalRef><RefSource>https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-021-01099-2</RefSource><RefTarget Address="10.1007/s11252-021-01099-2" TargetType="DOI"/></ExternalRef>
References
American Veterinary Medical Association (2019) U.S. pet ownership statistics. https://www.avma.org/sites/default/files/resources/AVMA-Pet-Demographics-Executive-Summary.pdf. Accessed 12 Dec 2019
Arnold TW (2010) Uninformative parameters and model selection using Akaike’s information criterion. J Wildl Manag 74:1175–1178. https://doi.org/10.2193/2009-367
Ash SJ, Adams CE (2003) Public preferences for free-ranging domestic cat (Felis catus) management options. Wildl Soc Bull 31:334–339
Bailey LL, Adams M (2005). Occupancy models to study wildlife. United States Geological Survey, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center
Balogh AL, Ryder TB, Marra PP (2011) Population demography of gray catbirds in the suburban matrix: sources, sinks and domestic cats. J Ornithol 152:717–726. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-011-0648-7
Blancher P (2013) Estimated number of birds killed by house cats (Felis catus) in Canada. Avian Conserv Ecol 8:3. https://doi.org/10.5751/ACE-00557-080203
Bowles ML, McBride J (2005) Pre-European settlement vegetation of lake county, Illinois. Report to Forest Preserve District of Lake, Chicago wilderness, USDA Forest Service, US fish & wildlife service, & Illinois Conservation Foundation. The Morton arboretum plant conservation laboratory, lisle, IL
Burnham KP, Anderson DR (2002) Model selection and multimodel inference: a practical information-theoretic approach, 2nd edn. Springer-Verlag, New York
Burton DL, Doblar KA (2004) Morbidity and mortality of urban wildlife in the midwestern United States. In: Proceedings 4th international symposium on urban wildlife conservation, Tuscon, pp 171–181
Carbone C, Christie S, Conforti K, Coulson T, Franklin N, Ginsberg JR, Griffiths M, Holden J, Kawanishi K, Kinnaird M, Laidlaw R, Lynam A, Macdonald DW, Martyr D, McDougal C, Nath L, O'Brien T, Seidensticker J, Smith DJL, Sunquist M, Tilson R, Shahruddin WN (2001) The use of photographic rates to estimate densities of tigers and other cryptic mammals. Anim Conserv 4:75–79. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1367943001001081
Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning Data Hub (2018) High-resolution land cover, NE Illinois and NW Indiana, 2010. https://datahub.cmap.illinois.gov/dataset/high-resolution-land-cover-ne-illinois-and-nw-indiana-2010
Churcher PB, Lawton JH (1987) Predation by domestic cats in an English village. J Zool 212:439–455. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7998.1987.tb02915.x
Illinois State Climatologist (2019) Waukegan Climate Normals. https://stateclimatologist.web.illinois.edu/data/climate-data/waukegan/. Accessed 22 Mar 2019
Coleman JS, Temple SA (1993) Rural residents’ free-ranging domestic cats: a survey. Wildl Soc Bull 21:381–390
Cove MV, Gardner B, Simons TR, Kays R, O’Connell AF (2018) Free-ranging domestic cats (Felis catus) on public lands: estimating density, activity, and diet in the Florida keys. Biol Invasions 20:333–344. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-017-1534-x
Crooks KR (2002) Relative Sensitivities of Mammalian Carnivores to Habitat Fragmentation. Conserv Biol 16(2):488–502
Crooks KR, Soulé ME (1999) Mesopredator release and avifaunal extinctions in a fragmented system. Nature 400:563–566. https://doi.org/10.1038/23028
Crum NJ, Fuller AK, Sutherland CS, Cooch EG, Hurst J (2017) Estimating occupancy probability of moose using hunter survey data. J Wildl Manag 81:521–534. https://doi.org/10.1002/jwmg.21207
Destefano S, Deblinger RD, Miller C (2005) Suburban wildlife: lessons, challenges, and opportunities. Urban Ecosyst 8:131–137. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-005-4376-8
Doherty TS, Glen AS, Nimmo DG, Ritchie EG, Dickman CR (2016) Invasive predators and global biodiversity loss. Proc Natl Acad Sci 113:11261–11265. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1602480113
Dubey JP, Jones JL (2008) Toxoplasma gondii infection in humans and animals in the United States. Int J Parasitol 38:1257–1278. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpara.2008.03.007
Elizondo EC, Loss SR (2016) Using trail cameras to estimate free-ranging domestic cat abundance in urban areas. Wildl Biol 22:246–252. https://doi.org/10.2981/wlb.00237
Fiske I, Chandler R (2011) Unmarked: an R package for fitting hierarchical models of wildlife occurrence and abundance. J Stat Softw 043
Flockhart DTT, Norris DR, Coe JB (2016) Predicting free-roaming cat population densities in urban areas. Anim Conserv 19:472–483. https://doi.org/10.1111/acv.12264
Fuller AK, Linden DW, Royle JA (2016) Management decision making for fisher populations informed by occupancy modeling. J Wildl Manag 80:794–802. https://doi.org/10.1002/jwmg.21077
Galbreath R, Brown D (2004) The tale of the lighthouse-keeper’s cat: discovery and extinction of the Stephens Island wren (Traversia lyalli). Notornis 51:193–200
Gallo T, Fidino M, Lehrer EW, Magle SB (2017) Mammal diversity and metacommunity dynamics in urban green spaces: implications for urban wildlife conservation. Ecol Appl 27:2330–2341. https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.1611
Gehrt SD, Anchor C, White LA (2009) Home range and landscape use of coyotes in a metropolitan landscape: conflict or coexistence? J Mammal 90:1045–1057. https://doi.org/10.1644/08-MAMM-A-277.1
Gehrt S, Brown J, Anchor C (2011) Is the urban coyote a misanthropic synanthrope? The case from Chicago Cities Environ CATE 4
Gehrt SD, Wilson EC, Brown JL, Anchor C (2013) Population ecology of free-roaming cats and interference competition by coyotes in urban parks. PLoS One 8:e75718. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0075718
George WG (1974) Domestic cats as predators and factors in winter shortages of raptor prey. Wilson Bull 86:384–396
Gerhold RW, Jessup DA (2013) Zoonotic diseases associated with free-roaming cats. Zoonoses Public Health 60:189–195. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1863-2378.2012.01522.x
Goldspiel HB, Cohen JB, McGee GG, Gibbs JP (2019) Forest land-use history affects outcomes of habitat augmentation for amphibian conservation. Glob Ecol Conserv 19:e00686. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2019.e00686
Greenspan E, Nielsen CK, Cassel KW (2018) Potential distribution of coyotes (Canis latrans), Virginia opossums (Didelphis virginiana), striped skunks (Mephitis mephitis), and raccoons (Procyon lotor) in the Chicago metropolitan area. Urban Ecosyst 21:983–997. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-018-0778-2
Gu W, Swihart RK (2004) Absent or undetected? Effects of non-detection of species occurrence on wildlife–habitat models. Biol Conserv 116:195–203. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0006-3207(03)00190-3
Hall CM, Bryant KA, Haskard K, Major T, Bruce S, Calver MC (2016) Factors determining the home ranges of pet cats: a meta-analysis. Biol Conserv 203:313–320. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2016.09.029
Hanmer HJ, Thomas RL, Fellowes MDE (2017) Urbanisation influences range size of the domestic cat (Felis catus): consequences for conservation. J Urban Ecol 3. https://doi.org/10.1093/jue/jux014
Heimlich RE, Anderson WD (2001) Development at the urban fringe and beyond: impacts on agriculture and rural land. https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/33943. Accessed 10 Oct 2019
Homer CG, Dewitz JA, Yang L et al (2015) Completion of the 2011 National Land Cover Database for the conterminous United States-representing a decade of land cover change information. Photogramm Eng Remote Sens 81:345–354. https://doi.org/10.14358/PERS.81.5.345
Horn JA, Mateus-Pinilla N, Warner RE, Heske EJ (2011) Home range, habitat use, and activity patterns of free-roaming domestic cats. J Wildl Manag 75:1177–1185. https://doi.org/10.1002/jwmg.145
Kays RW, DeWan AA (2004) Ecological impact of inside/outside house cats around a suburban nature preserve. Anim Conserv 7:273–283. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1367943004001489
Kays R, Costello R, Forrester T, Baker MC, Parsons AW, Kalies EL, Hess G, Millspaugh JJ, McShea W (2015) Cats are rare where coyotes roam. J Mammal 96:981–987. https://doi.org/10.1093/jmammal/gyv100
Kays R, Arbogast BS, Baker-Whatton M, Beirne C, Boone HM, Bowler M, Burneo SF, Cove MV, Ding P, Espinosa S, Gonçalves ALS, Hansen CP, Jansen PA, Kolowski JM, Knowles TW, Lima MGM, Millspaugh J, McShea WJ, Pacifici K, Parsons AW, Pease BS, Rovero F, Santos F, Schuttler SG, Sheil D, Si X, Snider M, Spironello WR (2020a) An empirical evaluation of camera trap study design: how many, how long, and when? Methods Ecol Evol n/a 11:700–713. https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.13370
Kays R, Dunn RR, Parsons AW, Mcdonald B, Perkins T, Powers SA, Shell L, McDonald JL, Cole H, Kikillus H, Woods L, Tindle H, Roetman P (2020b) The small home ranges and large local ecological impacts of pet cats. Anim Conserv. https://doi.org/10.1111/acv.12563
Kelly MJ, Betsch J, Wultsch C et al (2012) Noninvasive sampling for carnivores. In: carnivore ecology and conservation: a handbook of techniques. Oxford University press, New York
Kéry M, Royle JA (2016) Applied hierarchical modeling in ecology: analysis of distribution, abundance and species richness in R and BUGS. Elsevier/AP, Academic Press is an imprint of Elsevier, Amsterdam ; Boston
Konecny MJ (1987) Home range and activity patterns of feral house cats in the Galápagos Islands. Oikos 50:17–23. https://doi.org/10.2307/3565397
Krauze-Gryz D, Gryz JB, Goszczyński J, Chylarecki P, ̇Zmihorski M (2012) The good, the bad, and the ugly: space use and intraguild interactions among three opportunistic predators—cat (Felis catus), dog (Canis lupus familiaris), and red fox (Vulpes vulpes)—under human pressure. Can J Zool 90:1402–1413. https://doi.org/10.1139/cjz-2012-0072
Lepczyk CA, Mertig AG, Liu J (2004) Landowners and cat predation across rural-to-urban landscapes. Biol Conserv 115:191–201. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0006-3207(03)00107-1
Lesmeister DB, Nielsen CK, Schauber EM, Hellgren EC (2015) Spatial and temporal structure of a mesocarnivore guild in midwestern North America. Wildl Monogr 191:1–61. https://doi.org/10.1002/wmon.1015
Longcore T, Rich C, Sullivan LM (2009) Critical assessment of claims regarding management of feral cats by trap – neuter – return. Conserv Biol 23:887–894. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2009.01174.x
Loss SR, Marra PP (2018) Merchants of doubt in the free-ranging cat conflict. Conserv Biol 32:265–266. https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13085
Loss SR, Will T, Marra PP (2013) The impact of free-ranging domestic cats on wildlife of the United States. Nat Commun 4:4. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms2380
Loss SR, Will T, Longcore T, Marra PP (2018) Responding to misinformation and criticisms regarding United States cat predation estimates. Biol Invasions 20:3385–3396. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-018-1796-y
Lowe S, Browne M, Boudjelas S (2000) 100 of the World’s worst invasive alien species: a selection from the global invasive species database. Invasive Species Specialist Group, International Union for Conservation of Nature
Loyd KAT, Miller CA (2010a) Factors related to preferences for trap–neuter–release management of feral cats among Illinois homeowners. J Wildl Manag 74:160–165. https://doi.org/10.2193/2008-488
Loyd KAT, Miller CA (2010b) Influence of demographics, experience and value orientations on preferences for lethal management of feral cats. Hum Dimens Wildl 15:262–273. https://doi.org/10.1080/10871209.2010.491846
Ma X, Monroe BP, Cleaton JM, et al (2018) Rabies surveillance in the United States during 2017. 253:14
MacKenzie DI, Bailey LL (2004) Assessing the fit of site-occupancy models. J Agric Biol Environ Stat 9:300–318
MacKenzie DI, Nichols JD, Lachman GB et al (2002) Estimating site occupancy rates when detection probabilities are less than one. Ecology 83:2248–2255. https://doi.org/10.2307/3072056
MacKenzie DI, Nichols JD, Hines JE et al (2003) Estimating site occupancy, colonization, and local extinction when a species is detected imperfectly. Ecology 84:2200–2207. https://doi.org/10.1890/02-3090
MacKenzie DI, Nichols JD, Royle JA et al (2017) Occupancy estimation and modeling: inferring patterns and dynamics of species occurrence, 2nd edn. Academic Press, Amsterdam
Magle SB, Fidino M, Lehrer EW, Gallo T, Mulligan MP, Ríos MJ, Ahlers AA, Angstmann J, Belaire A, Dugelby B, Gramza A, Hartley L, MacDougall B, Ryan T, Salsbury C, Sander H, Schell C, Simon K, St Onge S, Drake D (2019) Advancing urban wildlife research through a multi-city collaboration. Front Ecol Environ 17:232–239. https://doi.org/10.1002/fee.2030
Marzluff JM, Bowman R, Donnelly R (2001) A historical perspective on urban bird research: trends, terms, and approaches. In: Marzluff JM, Bowman R, Donnelly R (eds) Avian ecology and conservation in an urbanizing world. Springer US, Boston, pp 1–17
McDonald JL, Maclean M, Evans MR, Hodgson DJ (2015) Reconciling actual and perceived rates of predation by domestic cats. Ecol Evol 5:2745–2753. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.1553
Metsers EM, Seddon PJ, van Heezik YM (2010) Cat-exclusion zones in rural and urban-fringe landscapes: how large would they have to be? Wildl Res 37:47–56. https://doi.org/10.1071/WR09070
Midwestern Regional Climate Center (2019) cli-MATE: MRCC Application Tools Environment. https://mrcc.illinois.edu/CLIMATE/welcome.jsp. Accessed 18 Jun 2019
Monterroso P, Alves PC, Ferreras P (2013) Catch me if you can: diel activity patterns of mammalian prey and predators. Ethology 119:1044–1056. https://doi.org/10.1111/eth.12156
Morgan SA, Hansen CM, Ross JG, Hickling GJ, Ogilvie SC, Paterson AM (2009) Urban cat (Felis catus) movement and predation activity associated with a wetland reserve in New Zealand. Wildl Res 36:574. https://doi.org/10.1071/WR09023
Morin DJ, Lesmeister DB, Nielsen CK, Schauber EM (2018) The truth about cats and dogs: landscape composition and human occupation mediate the distribution and potential impact of non-native carnivores. Glob Ecol Conserv 15:e00413. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2018.e00413
Parsons AW, Forrester T, Baker-Whatton MC et al (2018) Mammal communities are larger and more diverse in moderately developed areas. eLife 7:e38012. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.38012
Planning, Building, and Development Department (2019) County Demographics. https://www.lakecountyil.gov/1963/County-Demographics. Accessed 12 Dec 2019
Powell LA, Gale GA (2015) Estimation of parameters for animal populations: a primer for the rest of us. Caught Napping Publications, Lincoln
R Core Team (2018) R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing. Version 3.4.3. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. URL https://www.r-project.org/
Rowcliffe JM, Kays R, Kranstauber B, Carbone C, Jansen PA (2014) Quantifying levels of animal activity using camera trap data. Methods Ecol Evol 5:1170–1179. https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.12278
Royle JA, Nichols JD (2003) Estimating abundance from repeated presence-absence data or point counts. Ecology 84:777–790
Tyre AJ, Tenhumberg B, Field SA, Niejalke D, Parris K, Possingham HP (2003) Improving precision and reducing bias in biological surveys: estimating false-negative error rates. Ecol Appl 13:1790–1801
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, U.S. Census Department (2017) The 2017 AHS Neighborhood Description Study. https://www.huduser.gov/portal/AHS-neighborhood-description-study-2017.html#overview-tab. Accessed 1 Oct 2019
United States Census Bureau (2018) 2018 TIGER/Line® Shapefiles: Urban Areas. https://www.census.gov/data.html. Accessed 10 Nov 2018
VanDruff LW, Rowse RN (1986) Habitat association of mammals in Syracuse, New York. Urban Ecol 9:413–434. https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-4009(86)90013-6
Vanek J P (2020) Wildlife ecology and conservation in an urban ecosystem: applications of long-term monitoring data. PhD, Northern Illinois University
Vázquez-Domínguez E, Ceballos G, Cruzado J (2004) Extirpation of an insular subspecies by a single introduced cat: the case of the endemic deer mouse Peromyscus guardia on Estanque Island, Mexico. Oryx 38:347–350. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605304000602
Vitousek PM, Mooney HA, Lubchenco J, Melillo JM (1997) Human domination of earth’s ecosystems. Science 277:494–499. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.277.5325.494
Wang Y, Allen ML, Wilmers CC (2015) Mesopredator spatial and temporal responses to large predators and human development in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California. Biol Conserv 190:23–33. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2015.05.007
Wierzbowska IA, Olko J, Hędrzak M, Crooks KR (2012) Free-ranging domestic cats reduce the effective protected area of a polish national park. Mamm Biol 77:204–210. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mambio.2012.01.004
Woinarski JCZ, Murphy BP, Legge SM, Garnett ST, Lawes MJ, Comer S, Dickman CR, Doherty TS, Edwards G, Nankivell A, Paton D, Palmer R, Woolley LA (2017) How many birds are killed by cats in Australia? Biol Conserv 214:76–87. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2017.08.006
Woinarski JCZ, Murphy BP, Palmer R, Legge SM, Dickman CR, Doherty TS, Edwards G, Nankivell A, Read JL, Stokeld D (2018) How many reptiles are killed by cats in Australia? Wildl Res 45:247. https://doi.org/10.1071/WR17160
Woolley CK, Hartley S (2019) Activity of free-roaming domestic cats in an urban reserve and public perception of pet-related threats to wildlife in New Zealand. Urban Ecosyst 22:1123–1137. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-019-00886-2
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the numerous interns, technicians, and volunteers who made this research possible, and laud their enthusiasm for wildlife field work despite having to carry smelly sardine cans while fighting off swarms of mosquitos. John Vanek would like to thank Richard King for help with planning, support, and manuscript editing. John Vanek would also like to thank his loving spouse for putting up with the smells (e.g. hot sardine oil), burrs, and mud that inevitably get brought home after a day of field work. Live animal use was approved by the Northern Illinois University IACUC (ORC# LA14-0002) with permits from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Illinois Nature Preserve Commission and the Lake County Forest Preserve District. This study was funded by the Lake County Forest Preserve District (Grant 60004-133-826) and Northern Illinois University.
Funding
(This study was funded by Northern Illinois University and the Lake County Forest Preserve District Grant 60,004–133-826)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
(John Vanek: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Formal Analysis, Investigation, Writing - Original Draft, Supervision, Project administration; Andrew Rutter: Investigation, Data Curation, Writing - Review & Editing, Project administration; Timothy Preuss: Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Data Curation, Writing - Review & Editing, Project administration; Holly Jones: Conceptualization, Resources, Writing - Review & Editing, Supervision, Funding acquisition, Project administration; Gary Glowacki: Conceptualization, Project administration, Methodology, Investigation, Resources, Data Curation, Writing - Review & Editing, Supervision, Funding acquisition)
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflicts of interest/competing interests
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Ethics approval
(This study was approved by the Northern Illinois University IACUC ORC# LA14–0002)
Consent to participate
(not applicable)
Code availability
(R code is provided in the supplimentary materials.)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Vanek, J.P., Rutter, A.U., Preuss, T.S. et al. Anthropogenic factors influence the occupancy of an invasive carnivore in a suburban preserve system. Urban Ecosyst 24, 113–126 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-020-01026-x
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-020-01026-x