Many people with a lost pet think that a search dog is the best method for finding their pet.  However, most people tend to have unrealistic expectations and a lack of understanding of how a search dog works.  I previously wrote an article on considerations for Using a Search Dog, and in this series of articles, I plan to go more in-depth on how search dogs are used to search for different types of lost pets starting with lost outdoor-access cats, specifically those lost from their home.  An outdoor-access cat is defined as a cat that is allowed outside and unsupervised.  These are the most difficult type of lost pets to find because of the number of possible scenarios for their disappearance and due to the nature of their scent trails.

A Brief Overview of Scent & Types of Search Dogs

Our cats are constantly depositing scent wherever they go.  Scent theory describes scent as small rafts of skin (i.e. clusters of skin cells) that are constantly being shed from the body and that are then being broken down by bacteria (Syrotuck 2000).  Some scent is deposited with direct contact with the ground while additional scent flows off the top of the body through air currents and travels through the air before being deposited on the ground.  Scent will be stronger in areas where a cat repeatedly walks such as on preferred travel routes throughout their territory or where they rest.  Large concentrations of scent can also collect (i.e. scent pools) where a cat spends a period of time such as a sleeping spot or refuge such as under a porch.

There are several different types of search dogs that may be called by many different names: tracking dogs, trailing dogs, area detection dogs, air-scenting dogs, cat detection dogs or remains detection dogs to name a few.  Scent-specific dogs (generally tracking or trailing dogs) are trained to follow the individual odor of a missing person or animal.  This individual odor is composed of the skins rafts and personal bacteria of the individual and is catalyzed by body secretions of that individual (Syrotuck 2000).  Tracking dogs are trained to follow the scent left by the actual tracks of the missing animal, while trailing dogs are trained to follow the greatest concentration of scent on the ground.  Since scent is also deposited in air currents from the animal, this scent may travel several feet to over 100 feet from where the animal actually walked.  Although there is technically a difference between tracking and trailing dogs, they are often both referred to as “tracking dogs” by the general public.  For simplicity, I will also refer to tracks or trails interchangeably, but if you were to study scent theory, you would find that there can be a lot of variation between the two.  

Area detection dogs (e.g. air-scenting or cat detection dogs) are trained to search an area and locate the concentrated scent of any cat.  Ideally this scent is “air scent” coming off of the actual lost cat, but the dogs may also indicate on a scent pool such as under a deck where the cat hid for a while.  Both tracking/trailing dogs and area detection dogs are usually also trained to indicate on the scent of a deceased cat though some dogs are trained to specialize in just this task.  Most people tend to assume that a tracking/trailing dog is superior to an area detection dog, but once you understand the challenges of tracking a lost outdoor-access cat, you may find that this is not always the case.

Challenges of Tracking a Lost Outdoor-Access Cat that Disappears from His Home Range

Outdoor-access cats usually have a home range where they regularly travel and rest.  This may also be referred to as the cat’s territory or home range though technically it is only truly a territory if the cat defends it from other non-resident cats.  For more information on cat home range size, read this article.  The following illustrations show a very simplified version of a cat’s home range and movements.  The first series of pictures (Tracks 1-6) show a cat regularly traveling around his home range culminating in Track 7, which shows all his travels for that week.

If the cat then goes missing, you can now imagine how difficult it would be for a tracking or trailing dog to follow the scent trail of the missing cat.  A well trained dog can differentiate between an older and newer trail and direction of travel, but this is made more difficult with the many regularly traveled trails that will have an accumulation of scent and trails going in both directions.  

The difficulty of locating the lost cat is made more difficult if there isn’t an uncontaminated scent article.  The scent article is an item that smells like the missing cat that will be presented to the search dog.  This tells the search dog what scent trail to follow.  Many cat owners have more than one cat or dogs in the home, and it can be very difficult to find an item that is unique to the missing cat (i.e. uncontaminated from other pet scents).  If the scent article also contains scents of other cats/dogs that go outside, then the search dog may also follow the numerous additional trails left by these pets.  A well trained search dog will be trained in “missing member searches.”  This is where the search dog is presented with a contaminated scent article and is then allowed to smell all the other pets in the house, and determine which pet is missing.

How Different Probabilities Influence the Effectiveness of the Search Dog

When an outdoor-access cat goes missing from their home, there are different probability categories (or scenarios) for what might have happened to the lost cat.  These include: 1) Theft, 2) “Rescue” (i.e. when someone takes your cat because they think it is a stray), 3) Intentional Transport (e.g. a cat hating neighbor or angry ex-boyfriend kidnaps your cat and dumps him somewhere), 4) Unintentional Transport (e.g. your cat gets into the plumbers van), 5) Trapped (e.g. stuck in the neighbor’s shed), 6) Injury, Illness or Death (e.g. hiding because sick or injured or deceased due to illness or hit by car), 7) Wildlife Kill (i.e. victim of a predator attack), and 8) Displacement (e.g. chased out of their home range or otherwise leaves their home range). When an outdoor-access cat is lost away from home, this is a very different scenario and will be discussed in a future article.  In some search probabilities, specifically theft, rescue, or any type of transport, the tracking/trailing dog has no chance of successfully finding the lost cat because the cat has been removed by a person and there isn’t a scent trail to follow.  A search dog will also be unable to locate a cat outside if the cat is actually hiding or trapped inside the home, and this happens more frequently than people assume.

A tracking or trailing dog might be able to locate a missing cat within their home range (or just outside of it) if the cat is trapped somewhere outside, hiding and injured (such as from a severe cat fight or hit by a car) or deceased (such as hit by a car or killed by a predator).  An area detection dog can also be used to successfully locate a cat under most of these circumstances.  The picture below shows examples of where a cat might be located in each scenario.

Keep in mind that this is a very simplified scenario, and most cats will have a larger home range (usually 3 yards or more in each direction) which contains many more scent trails for the tracking/trailing dog to work through.  In neighborhoods where the houses are close together and fenced, a tracking/trailing dog will have a much more difficult time because he will be unable to follow the trails made by the cat since cats frequently climb under or over fences from yard to yard.  In these cases, an area search dog may be more effective to quickly check each yard for any sign of your cat.

Additional Challenges of Locating the Displaced Cat

One of the more common scenarios for a lost outdoor-access cat is that the cat has become displaced from his home range.  This may occur if he is new to the area and becomes lost or if he is scared out of his territory (such as by fireworks, construction, a loose dog, or another cat) and either becomes lost or is afraid to come back.  As much as we cat lover’s want to deny it, some “lost” cats will also choose to leave their homes when there is a significant change in the household such as a new baby, puppy or roommate.  Some cats are more sensitive than others and may leave due to a change in routine (such as a prolonged injury or illness of their owner) or even a small change in circumstances (such as a remodeled living room or change in brand of cat food).  In either case, the lost cat has left his home range and there may only be one scent trail leading to his new location.  The photo below shows an example of this scenario where the lost cat traveled to the neighbor’s home and got in a fight with their new cat and was chased across the busy road.

When a lost cat is displaced from their home range, it can be challenging for a tracking/trailing dog to work through all the scent trails and scent pools to find the one most recent track that leads away from their home.  This is made more difficult the longer the cat has been missing because the scent deposited throughout the home range might be an accumulation of years of scent while the trail leading out of the home range is only a single scent trail.  How long scent survives is a whole other discussion that I will blog about in a future article.  There has been some research that accumulated scent pools/trails may be viable for up to six months (Phillips 2006) while there is considerable debate on whether a single scent trail lasts for only 12 hours, a week or two, or even a month or more.  Personally I am skeptical of those who proclaim to track scents more than a month old.

If the search dog does successfully find the displaced cat’s scent trail, it is unlikely that they will actually locate the lost cat during the search.  These are referred to as “walk-up” finds and they usually only occur in less than 20% of searches and rates of only 5% or less are not uncommon.  Unless the lost cat is stationary (e.g. hiding, trapped, severely sick or injured or deceased), it is unlikely that the search dog will be able to find the exact location of the cat.  A cat that is being searched for by a dog will likely feel hunted and will evade the search dog team.  In fact, a well trained search dog team will likely stop the track for your lost cat if the search dog indicates that the scent is very fresh and the cat is likely nearby.  Using a search dog in this situation can provide some very useful information including where your cat went after leaving their home range and the area that they are currently hiding out.  This information can help you determine where to put up additional posters, distribute flyers, and perhaps set up a wildlife camera and/or humane trap.  Sadly, many people put all their hope (and often money) into hiring a tracking/trailing dog and then do not follow-up with the necessary search tactics after the search dog leaves.

Literature Cited

Jones, Phillip.  2006.  Scents and Sense-Ability.  Forensic Magazine (online edition).  April/May 2006.

Syrotuck, William G.  Scent and the Scenting Dog.  2000.  Barkleigh Productions, Inc.  Mechanicsville, PA.

So many of the people who contacted me this summer were convinced that their lost cat had been killed by coyotes.  This is a pervasive belief that unfortunately causes many people to lose hope and stop searching for their lost cat after a short period of time.  Unless you are able to find his/her remains, you may never know whether your lost cat was killed by coyotes.  However, understanding some basic behavior of coyotes in urban/suburban areas may help you understand the relative risk of your cat being killed by coyotes.  In many cases, you will find that the probability of this happening is much less likely than you may have initially feared.  For more perspective on this issue, you may also want to read my article “Coyotes Don’t Eat Cats Very Often.”

Coyote packs generally consist of a breeding pair and 1-2 associates (young of previous years) who stay to help raise the current pups.  Although many coyotes live in packs, they frequently travel singly or in pairs.  Coyotes in urban/suburban areas generally have smaller home ranges than their rural counterparts.  Way et al. (2002) found that  the average home range for a breeding adult coyote in Massachusetts was approximately 30 km² (11.5 square miles).  This is equivalent to 7,400 acres or a circular area with a 3.8 mile diameter.  In comparison, Gehrt et al. (2009) found that coyotes in the Chicago metropolitan area had an average home range of only 4.95 km² (1.9 square miles).

Denning & Pup Rearing

The coyote breeding season generally runs from January – February and pups are born between mid-March and mid-April.  Way et al. (2001) found that den sites in eastern Massachusetts were located within 300 m (984 ft) of water and were devoid of prey remains and adult scat.  In late-May to mid-June the pups are moved from the den to a series of rendezvous sites.  These are concealed resting sites where the pups are left while the adults are out hunting.  Way et al. (2001) found that rendezvous sites were located 0.2-8.0 km (0.1-5 miles) from the nearest house and were within 4 km (2.5 miles) of water.  Pups are self-sufficient by September and may either disperse or remain with their parents for up to several years. 

In a previous article, Observations of Coyote Predation on Cats, I noted that researchers in Arizona (Grubbs and Krausman 2009) found that coyotes killed the largest number of cats (68%) during the pup rearing season (May-August).  Similarly, a study in California found that predatory attacks on children were most common in the spring/summer (Timm and Baker 2004).   This suggests that coyotes are most likely to attack pets and young children when they are under the increased food demands of gestating and raising pups.  However, some pet detectives that I work with in the eastern US have observed that they find more coyote killed cats during the winter months. 

Activity Patterns & Travel (Way et al. 2004)

Coyotes in suburban environments were mostly active during dawn, dusk and especially at night.  In contrast, studies of coyotes in natural areas found that they were more active during the day.  However, breeding females may be active at all hours during April – June when they are nursing pups.

Coyotes travel about 20-26 km (12-16 miles) per day/night.  In urban/suburban areas, coyotes frequently travel along power lines, dirt roads, and railroad tracks.  They also hunt and travel in altered areas such as golf courses, cranberry bogs, and dumps.  Neighborhoods that bordered natural areas  or altered areas were used on an especially frequent basis.  Coyotes always slept in wooded/natural areas or remote altered areas during the day, but they were often within 50 m (164 ft) of a house.

Assessing Potential Risk to Missing Cats

If you answer yes to most of these questions, then there is a higher risk that your cat may have been killed by a coyote:

1. Is your cat an outdoor-access cat that didn’t return home?
2. Did your cat go missing at dawn, dusk or during the night?
3. Did your cat go missing in May through August?
4. Have many other outdoor-access cats also gone missing within your town?  (Have you seen lots of other lost cat posters up lately?)
5. Is your cat a kitten, sick, elderly or unusually small (less than 5 lbs)?
6. If you live in an urban/suburban area, is your neighborhood next to a park, conservation area, golf course, cemetery or dump?
7. During your search did you find the remains of any deceased cats?  (High risk.)  Have you found the remains of any cats in your area in the last several months? (Moderate risk.)
8. Have you observed coyotes chasing cats in your neighborhood in the past few months? (High risk.)
9. Are coyotes frequently seen during the day in your neighborhood? (Moderate risk.)
10. Have there been reliable reports of coyotes attacking or killing dogs or cats in your town?  These reports are only really reliable if someone saw the pet get attacked or found the remains afterward.  In some cases there may be as many as 30-40 reported attacks per month (Baker and Timm 1998). (Highest risk.)

Even if you answer yes to all these questions, it does not necessarily mean that your cat was killed by a coyote.  If there are coyote killing cats in your area, there is also an increased risk that your cat might get injured and be hiding or might get chased out of his home range and not know how to find his way home.  Even in the Arizona study, where the coyote pack was frequently seen hunting cats, many cats interacted with coyotes, but were not killed (Grubbs and Krausman 2009).  Out of 36 observed coyote-cat interactions, cats were killed 53% of the time, chased 28% of the time, and stood their ground 17% of the time.

To learn more about coyote behavior and how to coexist in an urban/suburban environment, I also recommend these resources.

• Eastern Coyote Research: most of the coyote biology in this article is summarized from the research of Jonathan Way who has been studying coyotes in Massachusetts for over 10 years.
• Project Coyote: includes a downloadable book, Coyotes in Our Midst, on understanding and coexisting with coyotes.
• The Cooke County, Illinois, Coyote Project: research on coyotes in the Chicago metropolitan area.
• Myths & Truths About Coyotes: a very comprehensive yet easy-to-read book including almost everything you ever wanted to know about coyotes.  Personally, I think the author is overly grim in her assessment of coyote risk to cats, but in general it is a rather unbiased account of coyote behavior.

Literature Researched

Baker, Rex O. and Robert M. Timm.  1998.  Management of Conflicts Between Urban Coyotes and Humans in Southern California.  Proceedings of the 18th Vertebrate Pest Conference: 299-312.

Gehrt, Stanley D., Chris Anchor, and Lynsey A. White.  2009.  Home Range and Landscape Use of Coyotes in a Metropolitan Landscape: Conflict or Coexistence?  Journal of Mammalogy 90(5): 1045-1057.

Grubbs, Shannon E. and Paul R. Krausman.  2009.  Observations of Coyote – Cat Interactions.  Journal of Wildlife Management 73(5): 683-685. 

Timm, Robert M., Rex O. Baker, Joe R. Bennett, and Craig C. Coolahan.  2004.  Coyote Attacks: an Increasing Suburban Problem.  Transactions of the North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference 69, 67-88.

Way, Jonathan G. and Marc Bekoff.  2007.  Suburban Howls: Tracking the Eastern Coyote in Urban Massachusetts.  Dog Ear Publishing, LLC.

Way, Jonathan G., Issac M. Ortega, and Eric G. Strauss.  2004.  Movement and Activity Patterns of Eastern Coyotes in a Coastal, Suburban  Environment.  Northeastern Naturalist 11(3): 237-254.

Way, Jonathan G., et al.  2002.  Eastern Coyote Home Range, Territoriality, and Sociality on Urbanized Cape Cod.  Northeast Wildlife 57: 1-18.

Way, Jonathan G., Peter J. Auger, Issac M. Ortega, and Eric G. Strauss.  2001.  Eastern Coyote Denning Behavior in an Anthropogenic Environment.  Northeast Wildlife 56: 18-30.

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 fruit.  However, coyotes in more urbanized areas, did consume more human generated food than their rural counterparts (2% to 35%: Gerht and Riley 2010).  Of particular concern to owners’ of lost or outdoor-access cats is how frequently coyotes eat cats.  Based on observations of coyotes in Tuscan, Arizona, Grubbs and Krausman (2009) reported the alarming find that cats constituted 42% of coyote diets.  However, the majority of studies of urban coyotes have found that cats occurred in only 1%- 2% or less of coyote diets (Gerht 2006; Gerht and Riley 2010; Morey et al. 2007).  In a few studies, cat remains were found in larger frequencies.  Morey et al. (2007) found that  6.7% of scats contained cat in the site with the most urban development.  Quinn’s (1997) study in western Washington found a higher percentage of cat remains in coyote scat with an average of 7.8%.  In the residential study area, cat was the most abundant mammalian food item at 13.1% though fruit was considerably more common for all items (42.6%).  However, Quinn (1997) only recorded the “dominant” prey item for each scat, which would lead to greater representation for those items (i.e. if a scat contained mostly cat hair and only one mouse, he only recorded the cat remains for that scat).  In the highest incidence of coyote predation on cats, Crooks and Soule (1999) found that 21% of 219 coyote scats contained cat remains.  This study took place in southern California were attacks on cats may be the highest in the US.

The difference between Grubbs and Krausman’s (2009) study and the other research studies is that their estimates were based on a small number of observations (45) of coyotes consuming prey or fruit while the majority of food habits studies assess coyote diets by analyzing scat (feces).  Scat analysis is most commonly reported as percent occurrence, which can be measured with one of several methods.  The most common methods (a) measure percent occurrence as the number of occurrences of a diet item/ total number of occurrences of all diet items or (b) measure occurrence as the number of scats with an item/ total number of scats analyzed.  In the case of (b), the percentages will often not add up to 100% because some scats contain more than one diet item.  For example, if the percent occurrence of rodents was 30%, then either (a) 30% of the total items consumed by coyotes were rodents or (b) 30% of all scats analyzed contained rodent remains.

Although scat analysis is a convenient way to study dietary habits, it does have some well known errors.  Percent occurrence is biased by the size of the prey consumed such that larger prey items are overrepresented.  For example, if a coyote eats a mouse, the entire mouse will be present in one scat, but when a coyote eats a deer, the same deer may be present in several scats resulting in a higher percent occurrence for deer even though the same number of mice and deer were consumed.  It is also not possible to determine whether prey items consumed were killed by the predator or scavenged from an already dead animal.  Lastly, if coyotes are killing cats but not consuming them (as might occur in interspecific competition), then scat analysis would under-represent the number of cats being killed.  However, Grubbs and Krausman (2009) found that coyotes consumed cats in 18 out of 19 observed kills, and the coyote only left the one cat uneaten because it was disturbed by a person.  Given my personal experience studying coyotes in Yellowstone National Park, I also find it hard to believe that coyotes would not consume any animal that they killed or found dead.  In contrast, wolves would frequently kill coyotes but not consume them.

For more information on coyote predation on cats, check out these articles “Observations of Coyote Predation on Cats” and “More Observations on Coyote – Cat Interactions: what can we learn?”  I have also created a file that contains this discussion and the diet analysis research tables from several studies.

Review of Coyote Predation on Cats Based on Diet Analysis Studies

If you find yourself strongly disagreeing with this article, then you may live in an area where coyotes do indeed eat more cats.  If you are concerned that your cat may have been killed by a coyote, then you should read this article: “Understanding Coyote Behavior in Urban/Suburban Areas and Assessing Risk to Cats.”

Literature Cited

Crooks, K.R. and M.E. Soule.  1999.  Mesopredator release and avifaunal extinctions in a fragmented system.  Nature 400: 563-566.

Grubbs, Shannon E. and Paul R. Krausman.  2009.  Observations of Coyote – Cat Interactions.  Journal of Wildlife Management 73(5): 683-685.

Morey, Paul S. , Eric M. Gese, and Stanley Gehrt.  2007.  Spatial and Temporal Variation in the Diet of Coyotes in the Chicago Metropolitan Area.   American Midland Naturalist 158: 147-161.

Gehrt, Stanley and Seth P.D. Riley.  2010.  “Coyotes (Canis latrans)” in Urban Carnivores: Ecology, Conflict, and Conservation. Gehrt, Stanley, D., Seth P.D. Riley, and Brian L. Cypher, editors.  The John Hopkins University Press.

Gehrt, Stanley D.  2006.  Urban Coyote Ecology and Management.  Ohio State University Extension Bulletin 929. 32 pp.

Quinn, Timothy.  1997.  Coyote Food Habits in Three Urban Habitat Types of Western Washington.  Northwest Science 71(1): 1-5.