Cats are mysterious creatures, they roam free and often live multiple lives. Your pet will have their home life and then their, out on the town social life.
Ever wonder where or how far your cat roams when not at home?
The Central Tablelands Local Land Services set up a cat tracking program using GPS units. It revealed just how far cats roam when they are not at their owners home.
I think it would be safe to assume that most cats would roam a few blocks away from their home, but it turns out that the cats they tracked, 14 in total, traveled incredibly far distances.
Each cat was outfitted with a GPS tracking unit and monitored for 10-days.
Peter Evans, a senior officer in charge of the project, talked about how surprised he was with the findings.
“Cats are given a pretty bad rap in terms of the damage they do to biodiversity, to native fauna and flora,” said Evans. This project showed how much a single cat can do and how far it can travel.
Evans explains further: “You always get the comment from owners that their cat doesn’t roam … but we thought it was a great visual to show owners where cats go when they don’t know where they are, because, generally, a lot of cats are unrestrained.”
They started with 25 cats, but only 14 were willing to keep their GPS units on. Some simply wouldn’t move as they normally would, and just laid down. They removed the trackers from all the cats who were unhappy with them on.
Evans talks about his surprise: “I knew they wouldn’t just stay in the backyard, but I was surprised with how far a few of the cats did go.” Some did indeed stay in the neighborhood, but others went miles away.
This certainly was a surprise for many cat owners who previously thought their cat did not stray far. It was shocking to think how dangerous it could be for the cat that is travelling such long distances. Evans would like to go nationwide with this project and reveal to even more cat owners just how far their cats roam.
Crazy to think it that while you are relaxing at home, your cat could be roaming miles and miles away!
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