User:Acryan1/Feral cat

Behavior and ecology[edit]
Some behaviors of feral cats are commonly observed, although there is disagreement among veterinarians, rescuers and researchers on the prevalence of some. In a free-roaming environment, feral cats avoid humans. They do not allow themselves to be handled or touched by humans, and back away or run when they are able to do so. If trapped, they hiss, growl, bare their teeth, or strike out. They remain fairly hidden from humans and will not approach, although some feral cats gradually become more comfortable around humans who feed them regularly.

Most feral cats have small home ranges, although some are more transient and travel long distances. The home ranges of male feral cats, which are generally two or three times larger than those of female cats, are on average under 10 ha (25 acres), but can vary from almost 300 ha (740 acres) to under 1 ha (2.5 acres). This variance is often due to breeding season, access to females, whether the cat is neutered, age, time of day, and availability of prey.

Feral Cats rely on the presence of humans and human settlement, as feral colonies need refuse to subsist on. Colonies and stray feral cats will settle in urban, suburban, and rural developments like cities and farms, wherever they can find easy access to food or prey animals. interestingly, few to no Feral cats are found significantly distant from human settlements. While feral cats prey on other small mammals and reptiles, their home ranges don't change to reflect the seasonal availability of prey animals. This indicates that feral cats have a fairly consistent home range, and migration is more representative of mate availability, consistency in human related food sources, or other less transient stimuli.

Colonies[edit]
Feral cats often live in groups called colonies, which are located close to food sources and shelter. Researchers disagree on the existence, extent, and structure of dominance hierarchies among feral cats in colonies. Different types of hierarchies have been observed in colonies, including despotic and linear hierarchies. Some colonies are organized in more complex structures, such as relative hierarchies, where social status of individual cats varies, depending on location, time of day, or the activity the cats are engaged in, particularly feeding and mating.

A 'managed colony' is taken care of by humans who supply food and water to the cats, provide shelters and veterinary care, implement trap-neuter-return programs, find foster homes for cats that can be socialized for eventual adoption, and educate people in the neighborhood.

Feral cats are known to move from colony to colony when home ranges overlap. Additionally, colony populations fluctuate as cats leave family homes and some feral and semi-feral cats get socialized to home life and become family pets.'''. '''

 While TNR is a popular approach to resolving the over population problem, it is not a ubiquitously accepted method. Another perspective emphasizes the poor outdoor living conditions of feral cats, and advocates for rehoming, adoption, or euthanasia as a more ethical response. This perspective centers the pressure feral cats place on the ecosystem, which is alternative to the popular position that centers the value of each cat's life.

Management in Sensitive Environments
In the case of sensitive environments, such as delicate ecosystems that have been degraded by feral cats, population management can be quite difficult. On isolated Pacific islands, trapping and removing the feral population too quickly can have adverse effects- including booms in rodent and small reptile populations previously checked by the feral cat population. This new dynamic may prove to be more harmful, with further upstream effects on the ecosystem that were not predicted before removal of the feral cat population. With such a sensitive system to account for, solutions for population control will likely differ from case to case, and especially in different ecosystems where feral cats are to be controlled.