Community Cats Monitoring Activity with Camera Traps

Abstract

Record ID: 230

Program Affiliation: Capstone

Presentation Type: Poster

Abstract: Felis catus, or the domestic housecat, has been named one of the top 100 most destructive invasive species on the planet. Our primary objective in this study was to monitor public parks near urban areas to determine the presence of roaming cats in the Cincinnati and Covington area. We chose these locations because there have been significant reports of roaming cats in Covington, and Hamilton county has a robust TNR (trap, neuter, release) program with multiple locations throughout the area. To test the difference in cat frequency between urban parks in the two counties, motion-sensing cameras baited with cat food were placed at different locations around Covington to establish an interactions/hour metric, which we could then compare to data from various city parks around the Greater Cincinnati area, using the same testing method. The interactions/hour data for testing sites in Hamilton county were considerably lower than sites within the city of Covington. In many testing sites, zero cats were observed per hour, and other animals like squirrels, raccoons and dogs were observed consuming the cat food. We propose that high participation in TNR programs, decreased access to supplemental feeding, and lower abundance of mating opportunities within Hamilton county to be contributing factors in the discrepancy.