Fellow Story
Forrester part of team that discovers cats don't roam where coyotes are present
In one of the largest studies of its kind, a volunteer-fueled camera trapping effort showed that where coyotes have moved in, cats are nowhere to be found.
Smithsonian research associate and North Carolina State University zoologist Roland Kays wanted to know more about the extent of domestic cat hunting in residential areas, urban forests and protected natural areas. So from 2012 to 2014, Kays and several other Smithsonian researchers, including conservation biologist Tavis Forrester, coordinated hundreds of volunteers to set up motion-triggered camera stations to look at where cats were actually hunting.
What they found, almost without exception, is that where coyotes are, cats aren’t.
