午夜福利1000集合

What you need

To be in the UK and have a pet cat that goes outdoors

The ability to access the website

A diary for recording your observations in

NEXT time your cat brings you a gruesome gift from outdoors, why not capture the moment with a photo or diary entry? This could really help researchers who are investigating the impact that domestic cats have on wildlife.

These pets are notorious for their opportunistic hunting, but the extent to which their predatory activities influence prey populations, such as those of small mammals, birds and even reptiles and amphibians, is still controversial.

In New Zealand, there is some evidence that cats contributed to the decline of native species there. That country鈥檚 birds evolved without mammals around, other than a few bats. With no large land animals hunting them, nesting on the ground and being unable to fly were common. As a result, these birds are particularly vulnerable to predation by cats.

Since birds and small mammals in the UK evolved alongside wildcats and other carnivores, it isn鈥檛 clear how much of a threat domestic cats pose to their populations. To get more evidence, researcher Hannah Lockwood at the University of Derby in the UK set up What The Cat Dragged In.

If you live in the UK and have a pet cat that goes outdoors, you can take part by registering online at You will be asked to start a diary of all prey species brought home by your furry friend over a year.

Taking photos is optional, but it could help you to identify the prey using guides on the project鈥檚 website. Even if your cat doesn鈥檛 usually bring anything home, you can still provide valuable data by selecting the 鈥渘o prey鈥� option.

If your cat is lucky, it might be selected for the second part of the project. This time, GPS will track its movements so that researchers like Lockwood can learn more about how cats interact with the environment, and they will also be fitted with 鈥渃at-cams鈥� to get a clearer understanding of how much prey domestic cats kill, but don鈥檛 bring home.

Since the project launched in 2018, hundreds of cat owners have taken part and the data from 550 pets is already providing important insights into their hunting behaviour. This shows a seasonal pattern in hunting and suggests that a small number of pets may be responsible for most of the prey captured by the UK鈥檚 domestic cats every month.

There is a peak in hunting during summer, says Lockwood, when cats bring home an average of 2.5 prey each month. Most don鈥檛 bring anything home, but there are super predators that can return with 50 items a month, 鈥渨hich is unbelievable鈥�, she adds.

Lockwood hopes the project will inform interventions, such as keeping cats in at certain times, that help to limit their impact on animals like small birds, which are already facing other threats, including climate change.

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