Cat ownership is increasing globally, representing a growing threat to urban wildlife. Although some cities have policies and strategies for managing owned cats, the companionship value placed on cats makes such management contentious. Prioritizing cat management in urban residential zones adjacent to large significant ecological areas (SEAs; areas designated on the basis of representativeness, threat status or rarity, diversity, connectedness, or uniqueness) could maximize return on management effort. Residents in these areas may place a relatively higher value on nature than residents in suburbs with minimal or no SEAs, and therefore may be comparatively more likely to perceive cats’ wildlife impacts as important. We used a quantitative survey to compare SEA and non-SEA suburbs’ residents’ attitudes towards cat impacts and management in Tāmaki Makaurau-Auckland, Aotearoa-New Zealand. Participants were asked to rate the importance of different feral and owned cat impacts, the importance of feral-cat control in different locations, and various ownership behaviors in terms of acceptability and best practice. SEA suburb residents placed more importance on wildlife predation impacts of feral cats and were more likely to regard 24-h cat confinement as best practice than non-SEA suburb residents. However, we also found that cat ownership and youth were negatively associated with perception of cat impacts, and owners were less likely to accept belled collars and cat confinement than nonowners. Therefore, although targeting SEA adjacent areas for cat management holds promise for reducing resident contention, proximity to such areas is a relatively minor influence for cat owners.

中文翻译：

---

猫的所有权和靠近重要生态区域影响对猫影响和管理实践的态度

猫的拥有量在全球范围内不断增加，这对城市野生动物构成了越来越大的威胁。尽管一些城市制定了管理自有猫的政策和策略，但猫的陪伴价值使这种管理存在争议。在与大型重要生态区（SEA；根据代表性、威胁状态或稀有性、多样性、连通性或独特性指定的区域）相邻的城市住宅区优先管理猫，可以最大限度地提高管理工作的回报。与 SEA 极少或没有 SEA 的郊区的居民相比，这些地区的居民对自然的重视程度可能相对更高，因此可能相对更可能认为猫对野生动物的影响很重要。我们使用定量调查来比较 SEA 和非 SEA 郊区居民对新西兰 Aotearoa 的 Tāmaki Makaurau-Auckland 的猫影响和管理的态度。参与者被要求对不同野猫和自有猫影响的重要性、在不同地点控制野猫的重要性以及在可接受性和最佳实践方面的各种主人行为进行评分。与非 SEA 郊区居民相比，SEA 郊区居民更重视野猫对野生动物捕食的影响，并且更有可能将 24 小时猫禁闭视为最佳做法。然而，我们还发现养猫和年轻与对猫影响的看法呈负相关，与非主人相比，主人不太可能接受喇叭形项圈和猫禁闭。所以，