Cordonnier Marion, Perrot Amira, Ferry Nicolas, Bonnaud Elsa, Baudry Emmanuelle
CNRS, AgroParisTech, Ecologie Systématique Evolution, Université Paris-Saclay Orsay France.
Lehrstuhl für Zoologie/Evolutionsbiologie, University of Regensburg Regensburg Germany.
Ecol Evol. 2023 Jan 24;13(1):e9651. doi: 10.1002/ece3.9651. eCollection 2023 Jan.
The domestic cat, , is one of the most popular and widespread domestic animals. Because domestic cats can reach high population densities and retain at least some tendency to hunt, their overall impact on wildlife can be severe. Domestic cats have highly variable predation rates depending on the availability of prey in their environment, their owners' practices, and individual cat characteristics. Among these characteristics, cat personality has recently been hypothesized to be an important factor contributing to variations in the hunting activity of cats. In this study, we surveyed 2508 cat owners living in France about their cats' personalities, using the Feline Five personality framework, and the frequency with which cats bring home prey. Personality traits were analyzed using factor analysis and related to predation frequency using cumulative logit models. For both birds and small mammals, cats with high levels of extraversion or low levels of neuroticism had significantly higher frequencies of prey return. Owners whose cats had low levels of agreeableness or high levels of dominance reported a significantly lower frequency of bird return. Personality differences therefore seem to contribute to the high variability in predation rates among domestic cats. We also found that the owner-reported prey return frequencies were significantly higher for cats spending more time outdoors, for non-pedigree cats, and for owners living in rural or suburban areas as opposed to urban areas. By contrast, we did not detect an effect of cat sex or age on their reported prey return rates.
家猫是最受欢迎且分布最广泛的家养动物之一。由于家猫能够达到较高的种群密度，并且至少保留了一定的捕猎倾向，它们对野生动物的总体影响可能很严重。家猫的捕食率差异很大，这取决于其所处环境中猎物的可获得性、主人的行为以及猫的个体特征。在这些特征中，最近有假设认为猫的个性是导致猫捕猎活动差异的一个重要因素。在本研究中，我们使用“猫咪五大人格”框架，对居住在法国的2508名家猫主人进行了调查，了解他们猫咪的个性以及猫咪把猎物带回家的频率。使用因子分析对人格特质进行分析，并使用累积对数模型将其与捕食频率相关联。对于鸟类和小型哺乳动物来说，外向性水平高或神经质水平低的猫带回猎物的频率显著更高。猫咪随和性水平低或支配性水平高的主人报告说，猫咪带回鸟类的频率显著更低。因此，个性差异似乎导致了家猫捕食率的高度变异性。我们还发现，主人报告的猎物带回频率对于在户外花费更多时间的猫、非纯种猫以及居住在农村或郊区而非城市地区的主人来说显著更高。相比之下，我们没有检测到猫的性别或年龄对其报告的猎物带回率有影响。
