Domestic cat (Felis catus) preys reported by volunteers within the project Feral Cats

Study Extent

Reports of prey brought home and other occasional events were kept only when they came from Spanish peninsular locations in order to follow the aims of SUMHAL.

Sampling

A citizen science questionnaire was created in the framework of Feral Cats project in order to collect data on prey captured by domestic cats. The project and a link to the questionnaire were advertised several times through online social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram), mailing lists and Whatsapp groups and contacts. Volunteers were asked to attach/upload pictures or videos about prey brought home by their own cats or to report occasional predation events performed by unowned cats such as cats living in a colony (either managed or not) or cats with unknown origin. The questionnaire was launched in autumn 2021 and kept open until the end of summer 2023. In addition, and taking advantage of the fact that the Observation.org website allows uploading species observations with the tag "captured by cat", the project was also shared and advertised through its newsletter. Despite the promotion of Feral Cats project, Observation.org already had predation events dated prior to the start of our project which were included in this database due to convergence with the project's aim. The query to download Observation.org data with the "capture by cat" tag was made in 24th May 2023, so any predation event reported after this date will not appear in this database.

Quality Control

For predation events reported through the Feral Cats questionnaire: Fake pictures or non-related pictures such as playing kittens, pictures with no apparent prey on it or people selfies, were discarded as valid predation events. Valid events from other countries or Spanish regions outside Iberian Peninsula, were also discarded for not being of interest for the project. In addition, those events reporting species whose distributions are not present in Spain, were also discarded. Remaining pictures were identified to the most specific taxonomic level possible by experts. For predation events reported through Observation.org, the validation status provided by the platform was used. Any reported event tagged as accepted (either "with evidence ", "by admin" or "automatic validation") was left unchanged. Those observations tagged as "unknown" that had not been yet validated on the date the data was downloaded from the platform, were checked by an expert and the species taxon or level changed when appropriate. Unfortunately, those changes could not be translated into changes in the original observation due to a lack of permissions in Observation.org.

Method steps

1. Events coming from Feral Cats questionnaire were divided based on the type of cat the capture/predation event was from. Entries were separated in "owned", "colony" and "unknown". People selecting "owned" were asked the cat age, sex and sexual condition (neutered/spayed) of their pets. This information is missing in those events coming from Observation.org since the platform has its own structure to introduce the information of the observations. In terms of event coordinates, Observation.org events have more accurate coordinates, since the platform has an interactive map that allows you to select the exact point where the event has occurred. Volunteers who reported predation events through the Feral Cats questionnaire were asked to indicate the postal code instead of coordinates to make the procedure easier for them. Once the data from the questionnaire was downloaded, postal code was used to extract the centroid coordinates of its associated municipality, meaning that the species reported is present within the municipality borders but not necessarily where the centroid coordinates indicate.

1. Anacridium aegyptium
   rank: species
2. Anguis fragilis
   rank: species
3. Apodemus
   rank: genus
4. Apodemus sylvaticus
   rank: species
5. Apus apus
   rank: species
6. Apus
   rank: genus
7. Arvicola amphibius
   rank: species
8. Atelerix algirus
   rank: species
9. Aves
   rank: class
10. Carduelis carduelis
    rank: species
11. Cecropis daurica
    rank: species
12. Chalcides bedriagai
    rank: species
13. Chalcides striatus
    rank: species
14. Chamaeleo chamaeleon
    rank: species
15. Chiroptera
    rank: order
16. Chloris chloris
    rank: species
17. Chordata
    rank: phylum
18. Chroicocephalus ridibundus
    rank: species
19. Columba
    rank: genus
20. Columba livia
    rank: species
21. Columba palumbus
    rank: species
22. Cricetidae
    rank: family
23. Crocidura russula
    rank: species
24. Crocidura
    rank: genus
25. Cyanistes caeruleus
    rank: species
26. Delichon urbicum
    rank: species
27. Dendrocopos major
    rank: species
28. Eliomys quercinus
    rank: species
29. Emberiza cirlus
    rank: species
30. Epidalea calamita
    rank: species
31. Erithacus rubecula
    rank: species
32. Ficedula hypoleuca
    rank: species
33. Fringilia coelebs
    rank: species
34. Fringillidae
    rank: family
35. Hemorrhois hippocrepis
    rank: species
36. Ixobrychus minutus
    rank: species
37. Jynx torquilla
    rank: species
38. Lacerta schreiberi
    rank: species
39. Linaria cannabina
    rank: species
40. Macroprotodon brevis
    rank: species
41. Macroprotodon cucullatus
    rank: species
42. Malpolon monspessulanus
    rank: species
43. Microtus arvalis
    rank: species
44. Microtus duodecimcostatus
    rank: species
45. Microtus lusitanicus
    rank: species
46. Microtus
    rank: genus
47. Muridae
    rank: family
48. Mus
    rank: genus
49. Mus musculus
    rank: species
50. Mus spretus
    rank: species
51. Mustela nivalis
    rank: species
52. Natrix maura
    rank: species
53. Oryctolagus cuniculus
    rank: species
54. Papilio machaon
    rank: species
55. Parus major
    rank: species
56. Passer domesticus
    rank: species
57. Passer hispanolensis
    rank: species
58. Passer montanus
    rank: species
59. Passeriformes
    rank: order
60. Pelophylax perezi
    rank: species
61. Periparus ater
    rank: species
62. Phoenicurus ochruros
    rank: species
63. Phoenicurus phoenicurus
    rank: species
64. Phylloscopus collybita
    rank: species
65. Pica pica
    rank: species
66. Pieris brassicae
    rank: species
67. Pipistrellus
    rank: genus
68. Plecotus
    rank: genus
69. Podarcis bocagei
    rank: species
70. Podarcis liolepis
    rank: species
71. Podarcis muralis
    rank: species
72. Podarcis vaucheri
    rank: species
73. Podarcis
    rank: genus
74. Prunella modularis
    rank: species
75. Psammodromus algirus
    rank: species
76. Psammodromus occidentalis
    rank: species
77. Rattus
    rank: genus
78. Rattus norvegicus
    rank: species
79. Rattus rattus
    rank: species
80. Rhinechis scalaris
    rank: species
81. Rodentia
    rank: order
82. Sciurus vulgaris
    rank: species
83. Serinus serinus
    rank: species
84. Sorex coronatus
    rank: species
85. Soricidae
    rank: family
86. Streptopelia decaocto
    rank: species
87. Sturnus unicolor
    rank: species
88. Sturnus vulgaris
    rank: species
89. Suncus etruscus
    rank: species
90. Sylvia atricapilla
    rank: species
91. Sylvia melanocephala
    rank: species
92. Talpa occidentalis
    rank: species
93. Tarentola mauritanica
    rank: species
94. Timon lepidus
    rank: species
95. Troglodytes troglodytes
    rank: species
96. Turdus
    rank: genus
97. Turdus merula
    rank: species
98. Turdus philomelos
    rank: species
99. Vanessa atalanta
    rank: species

Reports of preys brought home and other opportunistic predation events coming from unknown free-ranging cats were kept only when they came from Spanish peninsular locations in order to follow the aims of SUMHAL.