Food habits and ranging behaviour of a group of farm cats (Felis catus) in a Swiss mountainous area

Domestic cats ( Felis catus ) living in rural areas – hereafter named ‘farm cats’ (Liberg & Sandell, 1988) – show a highly variable degree of dependence on man (Macdonald, 1991). They generally benefit from human presence by getting household food and shelter for resting and reproduction (Niewold, 1986). Nevertheless, despite regular food provisioning by man and as long as their movements are not controlled by their ‘owner’, most farm cats remain active hunters and still feed to a variable extent on wild prey, particularly lagomorphs, rodents and birds (Goldschmidt-Rothschild & Lups, 1976; Liberg, 1984; Carss, 1995, amongst others), having sometimes a significant impact on prey species (Fitzgerald, 1988).

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