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Home Range and Activity Patterns of Free-Ranging Cats: A Case Study from a Chinese University Campus

SIMPLE SUMMARY: In this study, we used collar-mounted sensors to determine the home range size of free-ranging cats on a Chinese university campus. Twenty-nine adult cats (fifteen males and fourteen females) were tracked via attached GPS units from October 2018 to June 2020. Throughout the study, ho...

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Autores principales: Zhang, Zhenwei, Li, Yuhang, Ullah, Sana, Chen, Lixin, Ning, Sihan, Lu, Liangyu, Lin, Weiming, Li, Zhongqiu
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9103849/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35565567
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani12091141
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author Zhang, Zhenwei
Li, Yuhang
Ullah, Sana
Chen, Lixin
Ning, Sihan
Lu, Liangyu
Lin, Weiming
Li, Zhongqiu
author_facet Zhang, Zhenwei
Li, Yuhang
Ullah, Sana
Chen, Lixin
Ning, Sihan
Lu, Liangyu
Lin, Weiming
Li, Zhongqiu
author_sort Zhang, Zhenwei
collection PubMed
description SIMPLE SUMMARY: In this study, we used collar-mounted sensors to determine the home range size of free-ranging cats on a Chinese university campus. Twenty-nine adult cats (fifteen males and fourteen females) were tracked via attached GPS units from October 2018 to June 2020. Throughout the study, home range sizes ranged from 0.56 to 19.83 ha at 95% KDE for all cats. The home range of free-ranging cats is affected by the breeding status and sex; for example, male cats tend to have a larger home range size in the breeding season than in the non-breeding season, and in the breeding season, male cats generally have a larger home range than females. In the study of activity patterns, we provided the activity steps of free-ranging cats at different times of the day, and the mean (±SE) number of steps a cat takes per day was 19,863.96 ± 1627.21. The results show that free-ranging cats have more intense activities at twilight and relatively lower activity intensity in the afternoon. Our study provided a case study of the home range and activity patterns of free-ranging cats living on a Chinese university campus, and provided theoretical support for the management and conservation implications of free-ranging cats in cities. ABSTRACT: Human activities and the available resources influence the home range and activity patterns of free-ranging cats. Our objective in this study was to determine sex and breeding season vs. non-breeding season home range size, as well as activity patterns for unowned free-ranging cats at a university campus in China. Twenty-nine adult cats (fifteen males and fourteen females) were tracked with attached GPS units from October 2018 to June 2020. We considered the effects of sex and breeding status on the home range size of free-ranging cats. Male cats had larger home ranges (95% KDE: 12.60 ± 2.61 ha) than female cats (95% KDE: 5.02 ± 1.34 ha) in the breeding season. There was a seasonal effect on the home range size of male cats; for example, during the non-breeding season, the home range (95% KDE: 6.68 ± 1.22 ha) was smaller than that during the breeding season (95% KDE: 12.60 ± 2.61 ha), while female cats tended to have larger home ranges in the non-breeding season (95% KDE: 7.73 ± 2.77 ha) than in the breeding season (95% KDE: 5.02 ± 1.34 ha). We used the number of activity steps to measure the activity intensity of cats to explore their activity patterns. The mean (±SE) number of steps a cat takes per day was 19,863.96 ± 1627.21. There were two peak periods of activity in a day, 6:00–10:00 and 17:00–21:00. Our study provided a case study of the home range and activity patterns of free-ranging cats living on a Chinese university campus, and the results show that the home range of free-ranging cats is affected by the breeding status and sex, and free-ranging cats have more intense activities at twilight and relatively lower activity intensity in the afternoon. The results provided theoretical support for the management and conservation implications of free-ranging cats in cities.
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spelling pubmed-91038492022-05-14 Home Range and Activity Patterns of Free-Ranging Cats: A Case Study from a Chinese University Campus Zhang, Zhenwei Li, Yuhang Ullah, Sana Chen, Lixin Ning, Sihan Lu, Liangyu Lin, Weiming Li, Zhongqiu Animals (Basel) Case Report SIMPLE SUMMARY: In this study, we used collar-mounted sensors to determine the home range size of free-ranging cats on a Chinese university campus. Twenty-nine adult cats (fifteen males and fourteen females) were tracked via attached GPS units from October 2018 to June 2020. Throughout the study, home range sizes ranged from 0.56 to 19.83 ha at 95% KDE for all cats. The home range of free-ranging cats is affected by the breeding status and sex; for example, male cats tend to have a larger home range size in the breeding season than in the non-breeding season, and in the breeding season, male cats generally have a larger home range than females. In the study of activity patterns, we provided the activity steps of free-ranging cats at different times of the day, and the mean (±SE) number of steps a cat takes per day was 19,863.96 ± 1627.21. The results show that free-ranging cats have more intense activities at twilight and relatively lower activity intensity in the afternoon. Our study provided a case study of the home range and activity patterns of free-ranging cats living on a Chinese university campus, and provided theoretical support for the management and conservation implications of free-ranging cats in cities. ABSTRACT: Human activities and the available resources influence the home range and activity patterns of free-ranging cats. Our objective in this study was to determine sex and breeding season vs. non-breeding season home range size, as well as activity patterns for unowned free-ranging cats at a university campus in China. Twenty-nine adult cats (fifteen males and fourteen females) were tracked with attached GPS units from October 2018 to June 2020. We considered the effects of sex and breeding status on the home range size of free-ranging cats. Male cats had larger home ranges (95% KDE: 12.60 ± 2.61 ha) than female cats (95% KDE: 5.02 ± 1.34 ha) in the breeding season. There was a seasonal effect on the home range size of male cats; for example, during the non-breeding season, the home range (95% KDE: 6.68 ± 1.22 ha) was smaller than that during the breeding season (95% KDE: 12.60 ± 2.61 ha), while female cats tended to have larger home ranges in the non-breeding season (95% KDE: 7.73 ± 2.77 ha) than in the breeding season (95% KDE: 5.02 ± 1.34 ha). We used the number of activity steps to measure the activity intensity of cats to explore their activity patterns. The mean (±SE) number of steps a cat takes per day was 19,863.96 ± 1627.21. There were two peak periods of activity in a day, 6:00–10:00 and 17:00–21:00. Our study provided a case study of the home range and activity patterns of free-ranging cats living on a Chinese university campus, and the results show that the home range of free-ranging cats is affected by the breeding status and sex, and free-ranging cats have more intense activities at twilight and relatively lower activity intensity in the afternoon. The results provided theoretical support for the management and conservation implications of free-ranging cats in cities. MDPI 2022-04-28 /pmc/articles/PMC9103849/ /pubmed/35565567 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani12091141 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Case Report
Zhang, Zhenwei
Li, Yuhang
Ullah, Sana
Chen, Lixin
Ning, Sihan
Lu, Liangyu
Lin, Weiming
Li, Zhongqiu
Home Range and Activity Patterns of Free-Ranging Cats: A Case Study from a Chinese University Campus
title Home Range and Activity Patterns of Free-Ranging Cats: A Case Study from a Chinese University Campus
title_full Home Range and Activity Patterns of Free-Ranging Cats: A Case Study from a Chinese University Campus
title_fullStr Home Range and Activity Patterns of Free-Ranging Cats: A Case Study from a Chinese University Campus
title_full_unstemmed Home Range and Activity Patterns of Free-Ranging Cats: A Case Study from a Chinese University Campus
title_short Home Range and Activity Patterns of Free-Ranging Cats: A Case Study from a Chinese University Campus
title_sort home range and activity patterns of free-ranging cats: a case study from a chinese university campus
topic Case Report
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9103849/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35565567
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani12091141
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