Counting Cats: The integration of expert and citizen science data for unbiased inference of population abundance

Evaluation of a brief video intervention aimed at UK-based veterinary surgeons to encourage neutering cats at four months old: A randomised controlled trial

In the UK, it is currently recommended that owned cats be neutered from four months of age. However, its uptake is inconsistent across the veterinary profession. Here we assess the effect of a brief video intervention that aimed to encourage four month neutering, whilst preserving clinical autonomy. We compare this theory-driven approach with traditional information giving and a control group. Veterinary surgeons who regularly undertook feline neutering work in the UK but did not routinely neuter cats at four months and/or recommend four month neutering for client owned cats were randomised into three groups (n = 234). Participants received either no information, a written summary of evidence or the video. The primary behaviour outcomes were the recommending and carrying out of neutering cats at four months. Evaluative, belief and stages of change measures were also collected. Self-reported outcomes were assessed pre-intervention, immediately post-intervention, two months post-intervention and six months post-intervention. At two months, participants that had received the video intervention were significantly more likely to have started recommending neutering cats at four months. At six months, participants that had received the video intervention were significantly more likely to have started carrying out neutering cats at four months. There were no significant behaviour changes for the other groups. At two months, the video intervention was associated with a significant increase in thinking about, and speaking to colleagues about, four-month neutering, relative to the control group. The written summary of evidence had no similar effect on stages of change, despite it being perceived as a significantly more helpful resource relative to the video. To conclude, a brief one-off video intervention resulted in an increase in positive behaviours towards neutering cats at 4 months, likely mediated by the social influences of the intervention prompting the opportunity to reflect and discuss four-month neutering with colleagues.

Human influences shape the first spatially explicit national estimate of urban unowned cat abundance

Globally, unowned cats are a common element of urban landscapes, and the focus of diverse fields of study due to welfare, conservation and public health concerns. However, their abundance and distribution are poorly understood at large spatial scales. Here, we use an Integrated Abundance Model to counter biases that are inherent in public records of unowned cat sightings to assess important drivers of their abundance from 162 sites across five urban towns and cities in England. We demonstrate that deprivation indices and human population densities contribute to the number of unowned cats. We provide the first spatially explicit estimates of expected distributions and abundance of unowned cats across a national scale and estimate the total UK urban unowned cat population to be 247,429 (95% credible interval: 157,153 to 365,793). Our results provide a new baseline and approach for studies on unowned cats and links to the importance of human-mediated effects.