Free-ranging domestic cats are a detriment to wildlife and humans by preying on native species and transmitting disease. As a result, removing free-ranging cats from the landscape has become a conservation and public health priority. Estimating cat population size with an unbiased sampling design, however, especially in human-dominated areas, is logistically challenging and rarely done. The lack of robust cat population sampling limits our understanding of where cats pose risks, which is important for evaluating management strategies, such as trap-remove or trap-neuter-return. We hypothesized that cat abundance and activity both depend on human land use and demographics. Using a network of sites participating in a community science program, we conducted transect and camera trap surveys to test predictions of cat population abundance and activity across a gradient of residential land use intensity. Both sampling methods determined that cat abundance was greatest in areas with intermediate human population density and lower educational attainment. Transect data also provided evidence that cat abundance was greatest at intermediate levels of impervious surface cover (e.g., road, buildings), while data from camera traps also showed that cat abundance was positively associated with household income. Using counts of cats observed on cameras, we found that the timing of cat activity varied depending on the degree of urban intensity. Cats were more strictly nocturnal in medium and high intensity residential land-use areas, possibly because a greater proportion of these cats are unowned or because they avoid human activity. These results suggest that transect surveys conducted during the day may undercount cats in urban environments where unowned free-roaming cats predominate. Taken together, our results highlight the importance of incorporating human demographics, land use patterns, and urban context in estimating the abundance of free-ranging cats to better inform management decisions and improve conservation outcomes.

中文翻译：

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住宅用地使用梯度上的家猫数量和活动

自由放养的家猫捕食本地物种并传播疾病，对野生动物和人类有害。因此，将自由放养的猫从景观中移除已成为保护和公共卫生的优先事项。然而，使用无偏抽样设计来估计猫的种群规模，尤其是在人类占主导地位的地区，在逻辑上具有挑战性，而且很少这样做。缺乏可靠的猫种群抽样限制了我们对猫构成风险的理解，这对于评估管理策略很重要，例如陷阱去除或陷阱中性返回。我们假设猫的数量和活动都取决于人类的土地利用和人口统计。使用参与社区科学计划的网站网络，我们进行了横断面和相机陷阱调查，以测试对住宅用地强度梯度上的猫种群数量和活动的预测。两种抽样方法都确定，在人口密度中等且教育程度较低的地区，猫的数量最多。横断面数据还提供证据表明，在中等水平的不透水地表覆盖物（例如道路、建筑物）中，猫的数量最多，而来自相机陷阱的数据还表明，猫的数量与家庭收入呈正相关。使用在相机上观察到的猫的数量，我们发现猫活动的时间根据城市强度的程度而变化。在中高强度住宅用地区域，猫更严格地在夜间活动，可能是因为这些猫中有很大一部分没有主人，或者因为它们避免人类活动。这些结果表明，白天进行的横断面调查可能会低估城市环境中无主的自由漫游猫占主导地位的猫。综上所述，我们的结果强调了在估计自由放养猫的数量时结合人口统计、土地利用模式和城市环境的重要性，以更好地为管理决策提供信息并改善保护结果。