Outdoor Cats’ Secret Lives
A study done at the University of Illinois tracked 42 owned outdoor and free-living cats for two years. The report, published in the Journal of Wildlife Management, found that stray/feral cats had larger territories than pet cats; in one case, the cat's home range covered more than 1,300 acres! Unowned cats were much more active than outdoor pet cats, because they had to spend more time hunting for food. Interestingly, all cats stayed fairly close to buildings, whether or not they had contact with humans. Earlier work by one of ...