Home ranges of domestic cats (Felis catus) in south-eastern Norway

Abstract

Small GPS units were used to track pet cats in south-eastern Norway from august 2019 to November 2019, in order to obtain home range size estimates. In total, 111 (51 females and 60 males) cats were tracked using their owners as citizen scientists. Of these, 104 cats provided data that could be included in the analysis. I used two different methods to estimate home range size – Minimum Convex Polygon (MCP) and Kernel Density Estimation (KDE). Results show that mean home range size was 3.6 ha with MCP 95% and 4.7 ha with KDE 95%. On average, male cats have larger home range sizes than females, thus only significantly larger with MCP 95%. In addition, older cats tended to have smaller home ranges than younger cats. Cats in rural areas had larger home ranges, but larger home ranges were not related to an increase in hunting behaviour. Home range size estimates provided here are larger than those for pet cats in other countries where similar work has been conducted. A larger buffer zone around important wildlife areas is suggested than in other countries, to protect local wildlife in south-eastern Norway.