Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program: Florida
Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources

Florida Project


Birdsbesafe: Is a novel cat collar more effective at stopping domestic cats from killing birds at higher latitudes?

February 2019 - February 2022


Personnel

Participating Agencies

  • Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission

Up to 4 billion birds are killed annually in the US alone by domestic cats. We examine a novel conservation tool that has the potential to be effective at keeping domestic cats from killing songbirds: the Birdsbesafe® cat collar cover. We are testing whether the BCC is differentially effective at various latitudes. Because birds at higher latitude birds have a shorter breeding season and a concurrent higher spike in testosterone then birds at lower latitudes, we predict that the more "distracted" breeding birds in the northern latitudes will show a higher magnitude difference in predation by cats with and without the BCC.

Research Publications Publication Date
Jensen, M.B., S. K. Willson and A.N. Powell. 2022. How effective is the Birdsbesafet cat collar at reducing bird mortality by domestic cats? Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management 13(1)182–191; e1944-687X. https://doi.org/10.3996/JFWM- 21-055 June 2022