Natoli Eugenia, Litchfield Carla, Pontier Dominique
Canile Sovrazonale, ASL Roma 3 (Local Health Unit Rome 3), 00148 Rome, Italy.
Conservation Psychology and Applied Animal Behaviour Research Group, Justice and Society (Discipline of Psychology), University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA 5000, Australia.
Animals (Basel). 2022 Jul 2;12(13):1717. doi: 10.3390/ani12131717.
Welfare and management decisions for unowned free-ranging cats in urban environments should no longer be based on knowledge about behavioural ecology of solitary cats living and breeding in more natural 'wild' environments. We provide evidence that urban free-ranging domestic cats in the Anthropocene have responded to rapidly changing environments, such as abundance of food and higher population densities of conspecifics by adapting their behaviour (behavioural plasticity-the ability of a genotype (individual) to express different behaviours according to its environment) and social organisation to living in complex social groups, especially those living in colonies. Urban free-ranging cats are now more social, as demonstrated by different breeding patterns, lower infanticide, more frequent affiliative interactions in general, and different spatial groupings. We argue that this knowledge should be disseminated widely, and inform future research and strategies used to manage free-ranging cats across environments. Understanding behavioural plasticity and other recently evolved traits of domestic cats may lead to management strategies that maximise health and welfare of cats, wildlife, and humans-otherwise domestic cat behaviour may be 'misunderstood'. Importantly, interdisciplinary research using expertise from biological and social sciences, and engaging human communities, should evaluate these management strategies to ensure they maintain optimal welfare of free-ranging domestic cats while preserving biodiversity and protecting wildcats.
城市环境中无主散养猫的福利与管理决策，不应再基于对生活和繁殖于更自然“野生”环境中的独居猫行为生态学的了解。我们提供的证据表明，人类世的城市散养猫已通过调整自身行为（行为可塑性——基因型（个体）根据环境表达不同行为的能力）和社会组织来适应快速变化的环境，比如食物丰富和同种个体更高的种群密度，以适应生活在复杂的社会群体中，尤其是那些生活在猫群中的猫。城市散养猫现在更具社会性，不同的繁殖模式、更低的杀婴率、总体上更频繁的亲和互动以及不同的空间聚集方式都证明了这一点。我们认为这些知识应广泛传播，并为未来管理不同环境中散养猫的研究和策略提供参考。了解家猫的行为可塑性和其他最近进化出的特征，可能会带来能使猫、野生动物和人类的健康与福利最大化的管理策略——否则家猫的行为可能会被“误解”。重要的是，利用生物科学和社会科学专业知识并让人类社区参与的跨学科研究，应评估这些管理策略，以确保它们在保护生物多样性和保护野猫的同时，维持城市散养猫的最佳福利。
