Domestic cats make life difficult for birds and small mammals in many places – what can nature lovers do to keep their pets from hunting wild animals without restricting their freedom? A study now shows that cats hunt significantly less if their owners give them food with a high meat content. It is also helpful to play with outdoor cats often so that they can live out their hunting instinct at home, the researchers report.
Every now and then a dead bird or a still twitching mouse lies on the kitchen floor or in the front garden: Many cat owners look sad at the “trophies” that “Kitty” occasionally brings in, because they don’t want their darling to threaten the animal neighborhood. In fact, this is also a significant nature conservation problem: studies show that the often unnaturally high numbers of domestic cats can severely decimate wild animal populations in settlement areas. But how can this problem be countered?
When house tigers terrorize wild animals
In order to spoil the hunting luck for outdoor cats, you can put colorful collars or bells around them. But these invasive measures are problematic: The effect on the hunting success is limited and many cats react irritated to the interventions. Many owners do not want to disturb the natural behavior of their cats or are concerned about risks – because the animals can get caught on collars. Against this background, the researchers led by Martina Cecchetti from the University of Exeter have now explored the potential of less invasive measures. Her focus was on the question to what extent the diet of domestic cats and the range of games on offer can have a positive effect on the hunting instinct.
The study, which ran for twelve weeks, took part in 219 households in south-west England with a total of 355 cats. For some, the effect of diet and for others the game offer was examined. First, with the help of the owners, the researchers recorded how many prey animals the cats brought back home from their outings in the neighborhood before the measures. By comparing them with the number of “trophies” during the test measures, their effects could be recorded.
The hunting instinct is decreasing
The feeding experiments showed: Compared to cat food with a comparatively high proportion of additives or vegetable proteins, feed with a lot of meat showed a significantly more favorable effect: The number of prey animals that the cats brought to their owners at home decreased by 36 percent, resulted in the evaluations. “Some cat foods contain proteins from plant sources such as soy. It is possible that these foods, despite ensuring adequate nutrition, cause a deficiency of one or more micronutrients in some cats – which then causes them to hunt, ”explains Cecchetti, explaining the possible background to the effect.
As the researchers report, there was also a positive effect on the play group. During the test phase, a typical cat toy was used in which the owners dangled a ball of feathers from a kind of fishing rod: the house tigers stalked these objects with joy, chased after them and pounced on them. The owners then gave the cats a mouse-like toy with which they could continue to play after each “successful hunt” in order to imitate real prey. As the scientists report, five to ten minutes of play time per day was enough to significantly limit the raids in the neighborhood compared to the controls: The owners found 25 percent less prey animals on the kitchen floor, veranda, etc.
The scientists come to the conclusion: “By playing with the cats and changing their diet, the owners can reduce their impact on the animal world without restricting the freedom of the little predators,” says senior author Robbie McDonald of the University of Exeter. In future studies, the researchers hope to uncover other ways to further limit the predatory behavior of domestic cats. They also want to find out which substances in carnal food are responsible for the beneficial effect.
“Meat production is linked to climate and environmental problems, so one of our next steps is to find out if certain micronutrients could be added to cat food to limit hunting behavior,” says Cechetti. “In addition, we are now planning to investigate whether different types of games have different effects and whether the combinations of strategies can further reduce the desire to hunt,” says the scientist.
Source: University of Exeter, Article: Current Biology, doi: 10.1016 / j.cub.2020.12.044