Schools investigate cats!

How Safe is My Cat?

Have you ever wondered where your cat roams, and what happens in their world? What interactions occur throughout their day, what do they see and do?

Thanks to MBIEs “Unlocking Curious Minds” funding, a very exciting citizen science project is underway to answer these questions.

As a precursor to a planned large-scale pest control project, the Landscape Connections Trust and Orokonui Ecosanctuary are working with four schools – Purakaunui, Waitati, Port Chalmers and Karitane on the "How safe is my cat?" project. We are working with school children to analyse companion cat movements, discover their interactions with pest trap boxes, as well as uncovering what other mammalian predators may be present.

Using GPS collars and cutting edge mapping technology and assisted by three scientists from the University of Otago Zoology department, the school students are finding out exactly where their cats go, whether traps pose a hazard to them, and what life is like through a cat’s eyes.

Very soon members of the public will be able enter a competition through our Facebook pages and websites to make a distance estimate and guess which cat will roam the furthest. The person with the best guess will win a Free Family Pass to Orokonui Ecosanctuary.

https://www.facebook.com/beyondorokonui

https://www.facebook.com/OrokonuiEcosanctuary

www.orokonui.nz

www.beyondorokonui.org.nz

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