Food Habits and Energetics of Feral House Cats in the Galápagos Islands

The food habits of feral cats (Felis catus) were assessed by visual observations and scats collected in two seasons and at two sites in the Galápagos Islands. Cats were seen to both scavenge and attack live prey with a capture efficiency of 32%. In seasonal comparisons significantly more food items...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Oikos 1987, Vol.50 (1), p.24-32
Main Author: Konecny, Michael J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal and plant ecology
Animal digestion
Animal feeding behavior
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Animals
Autoecology
Biological and medical sciences
Birds
Cats
Diet
Dry seasons
Energy value
Felis catus
Foraging
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Inlets
Mammalia
Reproduction
Vertebrata
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The food habits of feral cats (Felis catus) were assessed by visual observations and scats collected in two seasons and at two sites in the Galápagos Islands. Cats were seen to both scavenge and attack live prey with a capture efficiency of 32%. In seasonal comparisons significantly more food items were included in the dry season (7.4) than the wet (5.7). Significantly more items were included in the diet at Tagus Cove (7.8) which was less productive than Cerro Colorado (6.7). The diet included both vertebrate and invertebrate prey but vertebrates constituted 71.9% of each scat by weight and 93.4% of the energy. The estimated daily intake of energy was 170 kcal which is at the caloric break even point for non-pregnant females, slightly below that for adult males and pregnant females and well below that for lactating females. The food habit and energetic data were combined to make some predictions about food preferences, foraging decisions and the role of available water on feral cats.
ISSN:0030-1299
1600-0706
DOI:10.2307/3565398