CATS: Is Fluffy wild?

We have an indoor cat who in his 12 years has only spent <20 minutes outdoors. His photo, and photos of other indoor pets should not be posted to iNaturalist. These animals are truly ‘captive’ and iNaturalist is where we are supposed to post photos of ‘wild’ plants/animals.

Our previous cats, however, were outdoor cats and although not officially ‘wild’ they certainly had an affect on the local rodent population. They were excellent predators and over the years there was an assortment of dead critters on our doorstep each morning.

One could argue that the presence of these felines is important to anyone who might wish to study the entire community – on the other hand we do not wish to encourage every cat owner to post a monthly photo of Fluffy. Perhaps one photo once a year of household cat(s) is sufficient.

Perhaps the City Nature Challenge can be treated as an annual census of felines – During our 2020 CNC lets propose/recommend the following: one photo per household with extra info added in the description box - number of cats per household, age, gender, etc. Please do not post separate photos of each cat!

Do not go around the neighbourhood taking photos of your neighbours’ cats. Instead consider knocking on their door and introduce them to iNaturalist and encourage them to participate in the CNC!

As in any set of recommendations there are always exceptions – if during the CNC you happen to catch your cat hunting then consider including a separate photo of Fluffy in predatory mode along with a photo of the prey (preferably alive). If the prey is indeed dead remember to include this attribute. Do not share photos of your cat chasing a leaf…

Of course, it is not necessary to catch the culprit responsible for a rodent kill – observations of dead animals are acceptable in iNaturalist – remember that it is not necessary to include closeups in order to identify the species! https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/14037303

NOTE: Many cities may have a large population of feral cats – these are truly wild and therefore it is appropriate to post their photos on iNaturalist. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/21559130

Posted on February 8, 2020 06:32 PM by mkkennedy