Discussion
Personality structure and breed
differences
We used a subset of the personality adjectives selected by Litchfield et
al. (2017) to assess personality traits in domestic cats. As our
exploratory factor analysis revealed only four factors that were very
similar to the traits of Litchfield et al., we kept their labels:
extraversion (MR1), which reflects a high level of intelligence and
perseverance; dominance (MR2), which reflects aggressiveness toward
other cats; neuroticism (MR3), which reflects high levels of shyness and
fear of other cats; and agreeableness (MR4), which reflects friendliness
to people. However, we did not detect the impulsiveness factor of
Litchfield et al. (2017). Even when we tried performing exploratory
factor analysis with five factors, the additional factor did not
correspond to impulsiveness (Appendix Table 2). The impulsiveness factor
was expected to emerge from the adjectives impulsive, predictable
(negative loading), and distractible. However, in our dataset, impulsive
was strongly loaded on the dominance factor, whereas predictable and
distractible were moderately loaded on the agreeableness factor (Table
1). Litchfield et al. (2017) analyzed survey data from New Zealand and
Australian owners. When the two datasets were examined separately in the
initial analysis, the scree plot of both datasets supported retaining
only four factors as in the case of our dataset. Furthermore, in this
initial separate analysis of the two datasets, the impulsive adjective
was strongly and positively loaded on the impulsivity factor in the
Australian dataset but negatively in the New Zealand dataset. It is
therefore possible that cat impulsivity is perceived differently in
different countries.
Our analyses showed that cats from different breeds tend to have
different personality traits, with non-pedigree and Bengal cats showing
a higher tendency toward dominance (MR2) and extraversion (MR1) but a
lower tendency toward agreeableness (MR4) than other cats. Bengal and
Main Coon cats also demonstrate lower levels of neuroticism than other
cats. These findings are in agreement with organizations of cat owners
and breeders, which report that cat breeds differ not only in
morphological traits but also in behavior (Salonen et al., 2019). For
example, Bengal cats are described as intelligent and active, while
Birman cats are described as affectionate and gentle. Recently, Salonen
et al. (2019) examined behavioral differences between breeds in a sample
of over 5,700 Finnish cats from 19 different breeds and detected
differences between breeds in all traits relating to social and
non-social behavior. Even though our results are less detailed than
those of Salonen et al., because we examined fewer breeds with a smaller
number of behavioral dimensions, they nevertheless seem to be in good
agreement. For example, we observed that the Ragdoll, Persian, and
British Shorthair cats generally seem to be more agreeable, less
dominant, and less extraverted than other breeds of cats (Appendix
Figure 1). These breeds were previously shown to be closely related
genetically (Lipinski et al., 2008) and to have low levels of activity
and aggression (Salonen et al., 2019).
Factors influencing owner-reported
frequency of prey brought
home
It was previously shown that domestic cats have highly variable
predation rates: some cats frequently bring prey home, while a
significant proportion rarely does so (Baker et al., 2008; Tschanz et
al., 2011; Thomas et al., 2012; Kauhala et al., 2015). Given the high
local ecological impact of pet cat predation, understanding the causes
of this variation could potentially help identify ways of mitigating
this impact. Variations in hunting behavior among pet cats are related
to three main factors: (1) the availability of prey in the environment
(e.g., Barratt, 1997; Bonnaud et al., 2009); (2) the practices of
owners, who can influence the cats’ access to prey by regulating their
outdoor access and using deterrents and can affect the cats’ motivation
to hunt by providing a suitable diet or enriching the environment
(Cecchetti et al., 2021b); and (3) the intrinsic characteristics of the
cats themselves, which modulate their reactions to the previous factors.
In this study, we focused on the effect of cat characteristics
(personality traits in addition to sex, age, and breed) and included
several factors related to the cats’ environment (see Methods), which
were expected to play an important role.
Regarding the relationship between the individual characteristics and
the reported predation rate of cats, we observed a significant effect of
breed in addition to the four personality traits studied here. By
contrast, age and sex did not seem to play a significant role, as also
observed by Cordonnier et al. (2022). Note however that we excluded cats
younger than 1 year from the analyses, while their sexed and desexed
status was not recorded. The main finding of this study is that cat
personality has a major influence on the owner-reported frequency of
birds and small mammals brought home, which, to our knowledge, has not
previously been observed. For both birds and small mammals, cats with
high levels of extraversion (here, intelligence and perseverance) had
significantly higher frequencies of prey brought home, whereas cats with
high levels of neuroticism (shyness and fear of other cats) had
significantly lower frequencies. Thus, our findings clearly confirm the
hypothesis of Cecchetti et al. (2021a) that cats with low levels of
neuroticism or high levels of extraversion hunt wild prey more
frequently. Additionally, we observed that cats with low levels of
agreeableness (here, friendliness to people) and high levels of
dominance had higher frequencies of bringing home birds but not small
mammals.
The personality of cats can potentially influence their predation
activity at several different levels. First, it can modulate the time
that cats choose to spend outside. For example, cats with high
neuroticism could be more fearful of going outdoors than other cats, or
friendly cats with high agreeableness could be more motivated to stay
inside with their owners. Lowe et al. (2001) thus showed that “staying
indoors” is an important element of the behavioral styles recognizable
in young domestic cats. Second, personality can also influence the time
that the owners allow to their cats to spend outdoors (Tan et al. 2021).
In their large international study, Foreman-Worsley et al. (2021) showed
that “Some owners felt their cat’s temperament made them unsuitable to
go outdoors.” For example, owners of timid cats tended to keep them
indoors more to avoid their cat being “bullied.” Furthermore,
Foreman-Worsley et al. (2021) observed that the large majority of owners
who allowed their cat to go outside did so because they believed that
their cat wanted outdoor access, again suggesting a relationship between
cat personality and the amount of outdoor time allowed by the owners.
Third, during the time spent outdoors, personality can also influence
cat motivation to hunt. For example, fearful cats with high neuroticism
could be less likely to venture far from home and thus locate prey.
Although not demonstrated in domestic cats to our knowledge, the effects
of personality on space use have been shown in several species (e.g.,
Marmet et al., 2012; Schirmer et al., 2019; Wauters et al., 2021).
Finally, cats with personality traits such as high levels of
intelligence and perseverance could be more successful hunters. Our
dataset does not allow us to disentangle these four possibilities.
However, a survey with a larger sample, particularly a larger sample of
free-ranging cats, would make it possible to determine whether the
observed effect of personality traits on the frequency of prey brought
home is primarily mediated by the time spent outdoors or by a greater
motivation or hunting efficiency once outdoors.
Regarding the cats’ environment, we found that rural or suburban
settings as opposed to an urban environment and a high abundance of
vegetation around the home were associated with higher frequencies of
prey brought home as reported by the owners. As expected, we also found
that cats who spent a greater amount of time outdoors had higher
reported frequencies of prey brought home (though cats without outdoor
access were excluded from this analysis). Because pet cats usually
remain close to their home (~100 m radius in average;
Kays et al., 2020) and are opportunistic hunters, their predation should
reflect the fauna found in immediate proximity to their home (Barratt,
1997; Castañeda et al., 2019, 2020). Several studies on free-ranging pet
cats found significant differences between rural and urban areas in
terms of the amount and composition of prey brought home, probably
reflecting differences in local prey availability induced by differences
in land use (Kauhala et al., 2015; Krauze-Gryz et al., 2017; Piontek et
al., 2021). In our study, predation analysis was conducted on cats with
outdoor access ranging from less than 1 hour per day to free-ranging
cats. This has the advantage of being more representative of the pet cat
population as a whole, because not all pet cats are free ranging.
However, because owners living in urban settings are much more likely to
limit their cat’s time spent outdoors, often due to their fear of road
traffic accidents (Foreman-Worsley et al., 2021), this means that the
effects of urban and rural environments as well as the time spent
outdoors are difficult to separate in our dataset.
Limitations
In this study, we used online convenience sampling to survey cat owners
about their animals’ personality traits as well as the frequency of prey
brought home. This methodology allowed us to gather a large sample,
although it also has several limitations. First, we contacted
respondents through social media by disseminating the questionnaire in
user groups dedicated to cats. However, the sociodemographic
characteristics of these social media users probably differ from those
of the general population, for example, in terms of age and education
level (Mellon et al., 2017). Furthermore, it is likely that the
participants in the cat-dedicated groups present differences in terms of
their relationship to their cat (high interest in particular) compared
with cat owners who do not frequent such groups. It is therefore likely
that the respondents do not constitute a representative sample of French
cat owners. In addition, we estimated cat predatory activity using a
semi-quantitative measure of how often they bring prey home, as observed
by their owners. Although cat predation rates are frequently estimated
by the prey brought home method (e.g., Woods et al., 2003; Lepczyk et
al., 2004; Tschanz et al., 2011; Krauze-Gryz et al., 2017), this
approach has limitations. In particular, cats only bring home a fraction
of the prey that they capture. For example, Loyd et al. (2013) monitored
free-ranging pet cats in a suburban area of the southeastern USA for 1
year using KittyCam video cameras and showed that only 23% of the prey
captured by cats were brought home, while 49% were left behind and 28%
consumed. Furthermore, the proportion of prey brought home varies
between prey groups, especially in terms of how palatable they are
(Krauze‐Gryz et al., 2012). Similarly, Seymour et al. (2020) recently
showed that in Cape Town, South Africa, 82% of pet cats’ prey was not
returned home, again with very different proportions of prey returned by
taxa. For these reasons, owner surveys of prey brought home by their cat
markedly underestimate the amount of prey captured depending on the type
of prey. However, in this study, we were interested in determining which
personality factors contributed to the variations in predation rates
between cats as opposed to the absolute amount of prey captured by the
animals. These limitations are therefore not supposed to impact the
results of the present research.
Conclusion
The major influence of cat personality on the frequency of birds and
small mammals brought home could potentially help mitigate predation by
domestic cats. Pet cat predation rates are strongly associated with the
amount of time spent outdoors, although other factors are also important
(Cechetti et al., 2021a, 2021b). While the situation varies from country
to country, several authors have shown that owners’ decisions about
whether or not to allow their cats to go outside are rarely motivated by
a consideration of their cats’ impact on wildlife (Crowley et al., 2019;
Foreman-Worsley et al., 2021). Foreman-Worsley et al. (2021) showed that
in several countries, the main reason for owners keeping their cats
indoors was to protect them from traffic, especially in urban
environments, whereas the main reasons for allowing them to go outside
are the perceived mental health benefit or because the cats wanted to go
outside. Crowley et al. (2019) showed that British cat owners who wanted
to manage their cats’ predation were often concerned that it would
compromise their pets’ welfare. The same authors (Crowley et al., 2020b)
also recently observed that the majority of surveyed owners “valued
outdoor access for cats and opposed confinement to prevent hunting.”
Taking into account the personality of the cats having an outdoor
access, for instance by promoting the adoption of cats (or breeds) that
are by temperament less likely to hunt (cats with low extraversion and
dominance, but high neuroticism and high agreeableness), could therefore
potentially allow owners to reduce the impact of their cats on wildlife
in places where there are strong biodiversity preservation issues.