Study reveals surprising navigation styles of wild cats, dogs

Researchers have investigated the navigation styles of 1,200 wild predators and have discovered that canids such as wolves, foxes and coyotes repeatedly traverse the same routes in their territories but members of the cat family such as bobcats, lions and leopards tend to roam freely. The scientists used GPS collars on 34 different species across six continents over the course of a decade to conduct the largest comprehensive study of carnivore movement ever. A paper describing the findings has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 

The research challenges the conventional understanding of the movement of mammalian predators. Historically, researchers have assumed that predators move more or less randomly through their territories, an assumption that is widespread and baked into mathematical models of predator movements. The new research indicates that many canid carnivores create invisible highway systems that they repeated move through. The researchers suspect that this navigation style may be related to the strong sense of smell of canids. The researchers were surprised by the magnitude and consistency between the two predator groups on a global scale with such a varied dataset. 

In environments occupied by both canids and felids, the differences in the navigation style actually grew stronger. Lead author of the paper, William Fagan says, "We found that carnivore species use space in fundamentally different ways. Members of the dog family appear much more structured in their uses of space. On average, they rely more heavily on favored travel routes compared to members of the cat family." The research has implications for finetuning conservations strategies. The research also highlights the value of using technology to unravel the secret lives of wild animals, and paves the way for sophisticated new approaches to study animal movement and ecology.