When an outdoor-access cat goes missing from its home range, this frequently means that something has happened to the cat to prevent it from returning home. Death, injury or illness may all prevent a cat from returning home. When sick or injured, a cat may hide within its home range and may die if not …
Many lost cats will react in fear when they are approached by any person including their owner. This well documented behavior is frequently confusing and even heart-breaking to the lost cat’s owner who cannot understand why their cat would act this way. I think that former pet detective Donna Holsten described this phenomenon best when …
Owners’ of lost cats are frequently concerned with whether their cat might be hiding or lost somewhere in the woods. This is a valid concern since 1) the probability of detection may be very low in the woods depending on the density and type of vegetation; 2) there may be many miles of woods surrounding …
Habitat Use of Suburban Cats: do they travel in the woods? Read More »
Most studies of urban/suburban coyotes have found that coyotes in these areas relied predominantly on natural food sources rather than human generated food such as trash, domestic animals, pet food, and domestic fruit (Gerht and Riley 2010; Morey et al. 2007). The most common food items were leporids (rabbits) and rodents and occasionally deer or …
While the behavior of lost cats is likely to differ from that of outdoor-access or free-ranging (stray, feral or farm) cats, we can still learn something from studying their normal movement patterns. In this post, I want to focus on research studies that measured how far cats normally traveled within their home ranges and the …
Before covering additional topics on cat behavior, I wanted to take a moment to review cat research in general. Although the cat is the most popular pet in the US, there is surprisingly little research on its natural behavior. So far I have only been able to find five research studies that focus on the …
This post relates to the earlier post “Observations of Coyote Predation on Cats.” Although it may sound like I’m criticizing Grubbs and Krausman’s (2009) study, I’m not saying that we should disregard the results entirely. As I said earlier, this is a fascinating research study and the only published study on observations of coyote-cat interactions. …
More Observations on Coyote-Cat Interactions: What Can We Learn? Read More »
In 2009 Grubbs and Krausman published a study on “Observations of Coyote-Cat Interactions,” which was then dubbed “Coyotes Eat Cats!” by the media. This is a very interesting study since it is the only published research on direct observations of coyote-cat interactions. However, I’m skeptical that this high level of coyote predation on cats is …
Pet detectives may advise owners’ of lost cats to search locations that offer safety and familiarity to the lost cat. The general knowledge is that domestic cats will seek shelter in locations that most closely resemble locations that they are familiar with; therefore, a house cat is most likely to seek shelter near or in …
The Importance of Shelter for Lost, Stray, and Feral Cats Read More »
If a cat gets lost in the winter, you may have the opportunity to track him/her without the use of a search dog. This method would be most useful for escaped indoor-only cats since they are frequently hiding close to home. However, it may also be useful for finding an outdoor-access cat if there are …
A cat’s home range is the area that the cat normally uses in its daily activities. A home range is different from a territory in that it may not be defended from other cats, but non-biologists frequently use the terms interchangeably. When an outdoor-access cat goes missing, it probably means that something has happened to …
Please note, this article is no longer being updated. I have since written a new article which better describes the differences between GPS and radio-trackers and highlights a few of my recommended products. Be sure to check out: Best Cat Tracking Devices. There are both GPS trackers and radio-tracking devices available to help you find …
GPS versus Radio-Tracking: pros and cons for finding cats Read More »
