Ever wonder how far a cat roams when it is outside? I do! A new extensive study uncovers some interesting facts. The study used radio telemetry and a sophisticated activity-tracking device to keep track of feral and house cats. Just in case you don't know, feral cats are wild cats, or cats without owners.
The results? House cats barely roam at all compared to feral cats. See the picture. The red area is the roaming area of one of the feral cats in the study, the one that roamed the most. He roamed and area of 1,351 acres. The really small yellow dot just to the right of the center is the small roaming area of a house cat. Quite a big difference. The mean roaming area for house cats is only 4.9 acres.
The activity monitors showed that house cats are active only 3% of the time. They are either resting or sleeping. Feral cats are active 14% of the time. This makes sense, feral cats have to hunt and be on alert to stay alive.
See http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-05-track-secret-feral-free-roaming-house.html for a full explanation of the study.
No comments:
Post a Comment