Multistate matrix population model to assess the contributions and impacts on population abundance of domestic cats in urban areas including owned cats, unowned cats, and cats in shelters
Fig 11
Population abundances of cats in Guelph, Ontario, Canada.
The model-predicted numbers of cats (dark green bars) based on the four states of the model: Owned, Shelter, Free-roaming, and Feral. The owned cats are subdivided into indoor cats and indoor-outdoor cats based on the proportion of cats that have outdoor access (40%;[26]). The predicted total indoor cats is the number of indoor-outdoor cats and the total predicted outdoor cats is the sum of indoor-outdoor cats, free-roaming, and feral cats. The predicted total cat population is the sum of owned, shelter, free-roaming, and feral cats. The estimated mean and 95% confidence interval of the owned cat population abundance from Van Patter et al. [26] (light green bars) are based on 115 random surveys of Guelph residents. The estimated annual intake of cats into the Guelph Humane Society (yellow bars) is based on Janke [27] who reported 3295 cat intakes between 2011 and 2015. The estimated mean and 95% confidence interval of outdoor cat population abundance from Flockhart et al [23] (medium green bars) are based on a spatially explicit estimate based upon count data of free-roaming cats in Guelph in 2014. The model outputs are the number of female cats so we assume a 1:1 sex ratio in the population to show total population abundance which is what is reported in [23, 26, 27].