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What the Cat Brought In - Project News
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The ‘What the Cat Brought In’ project is currently developing several new and exciting research programmes.
If you are already taking part in the ‘What the Cat Brought In’ study then I will be contacting you very soon to ask you and your cat to take part in the projects listed below. If you are not part of our study group then you can still get involved, just send me an email and I will get back to you with some more details.
GPS Tracking
Now this is very
exciting!!! I have teamed up with a company called
PawTrack who
specialise in using GPS technology to track lost or missing pets. They
have designed a lightweight, waterproof collar that will fit around your
cats neck, and can position your pet to within 5 metres.
The
PawTrack
device only
weights 50grams, and is rechargeable so it can be used around the clock.
Normally you have to pay for this service, but we will be letting you
have
it free if you are willing to participate in this study. Your cat will wear this collar
every day, and from this we will be able to tell, where your cat is and
where it has been.
So, if you have ever wondered where your cat goes when you let it out at night, then send me an email to let me know that you and your cat are interested in participating in the project.
Nest Monitoring
If you have a birds nest in your garden that
you would not mind us monitoring then please get in touch (the
monitoring will not effect the breeding birds as we only need to visit
the nest a few times)..jpg)
We are hoping to find as
many birds nests as possible this breeding season (April-June) so we can
monitor their productivity.
Acceleration Data Loggers
A small device is fitted to the collars of a number of cats,
which will monitor their activity.
Every time your cat moves, the data
logger will record it, and some very clever software will be able to
tell us what your cat was doing, whether it be running, eating or
sleeping!!
This is a new and very
exciting technology developed at the
University of Swansea, which has been adapted so it can be used safely on
cats.
Stable Isotope Analysis
For this part of the
study we will need a number of cats, some who are active hunters and
some who are not. We will ask you to change your cats diet for two months - for example, we may ask you to just feed their cats a
food that contains fish (rather than meat). After the two months we will
need a sample of hair from your cat for isotope analysis. This sample can
be obtained by grooming
your cat just as you would normally do.
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