UK domestic cats cover more than 5 million miles every day!
It is estimated that there are 8 million pet cats in the UK spread over 12 million pet-owning households. Most cat owners will have wondered at some point or another, “just where does my cat go exactly?”
Well GoCompare, wanted to do the hard work for us and collected some key facts about our furry friends. And they come up with some mind boggling figures!!!
The comparison websited conducted a survey of UK cat owners and sat down with Anita Kelsey, a cat behaviour specialist, to learn more about cat behaviour and get a better understanding of just why they do the things they do.
Their research tells us that a quarter of Brits confirmed their cat stays out all night every night of the week. Domestic cats are commonly known for their adventurous spirit – why exactly is that, Anita?
Anita: “Various reasons. They are free animals when outside and like to explore their territory. Female cats stay closer to home and male cats roam further. In fact, male cats will also be roaming to seek out females.”
The average distance for a domestic cat to wander is between 40-200 meters.
Cats roam a combined distance of over 5 million miles daily in the UK alone*
Humans have a very long history with our furry friends. Just why do cats make such purrfect pets?
Anita: “We love animals in general because they live in the moment, unlike humans. Cats also have large eyes like that of a baby, so we tend to see them as something we can nurture. They make us laugh which lifts our spirits, and the purr is very comforting to us. Being small and covered in fur also helps us to adore them.”
It might surprise some people to learn that cats don’t meow at each other, just at humans. Cats purr and hiss at each other.
60% of Brits have confirmed that their cat has brought prey home with a further 13% receiving general rubbish as a gift from their furry friend. Why exactly do cats sometimes bring back ‘gifts’ for their owners?
Anita: “There are various answers to this. It could be they are hunting for us, seeing us as a part of their social group or that they are bringing the prey home to eat or play with within the safety of their home territory.”
How do cats find their way home?
Anita: “There’s been research regarding this aspect of free roaming cats. The research explores the concept of cats and ‘homing’ like pigeons do. Cats that free-roam get to know the lay of the land as well as using scent marks to find their way home.”
More than a third of cat owners estimate their pet sleeps between 8-12 hours per day, 22% believe their cat spends 4-7 hours sleeping per day and 20% estimate more than 12 hours. When cats appear to be relaxing a lot, are they just reserving energy or just being ‘lazy’?
Anita: “Cats conserve energy during the day because their timings for hunting are dusk and dawn. All cats are hardwired for the action of hunting.”
A feline brain is thought to be up to 90% like that of a human and sometimes a cat can stare into your eyes and you can feel it in your soul. Is it at all possible that cats might believe they are like us?
Anita: “I certainly hope not and doubt they think in those terms for a second!”
It is thought that humans and cats have an identical region in the brain which is responsible for emotion.
30% of people admit to often feeding a cat that isn’t their own. Are cats loyal to their owners?
Anita: “Cats are loyal to whoever feeds them and are most loyal to territory.”
Nearly half of Brits estimate their cat spends between 1-5 hours in their company per day, 26% believe the number is more like 6-10 hours.
“But cats would walk 5 million miles
And cats would walk 5 million more
Just to be the cat who walks a thousand miles
To fall down at your door…”
21% of people say they have a cat that isn’t their own turn up on their doorstep every day and a further 17% say another cat will visit at least a few days a week. How many homes would you say the average household cat visits?
Anita: “Most free-roaming confident cats will definitely have more than one home it visits and gets food at.”
Over half of Brits estimate that their cats spend between 1-5 hours outside every day. How long do cats tend to spend outdoors per 24 hrs on average?
Anita: “This can vary depending on the cat’s individual personality, the territory and the weather! Some cats can spend the whole of the day outside in summer only returning at dinner-time whilst others may wander outside for the briefest of moment before running back in.”
* Domestic cats on average wander between 40-200 meters per day. 240 divided by 2 = 120. There are 8 million pet cats in the UK. 120 X 8,000,000 = 960, 000, 000 meters. 960,000,000 meters into miles is 596516.34 miles.
Sources
- https://www.factretriever.com/cat-facts
- https://www.buzzfeed.com/chelseamarshall/meows?utm_term=.tveO11Nd2#.rs9xBBknL
- http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/sciencefacts/animals/cat.html
- https://www.pet-happy.com/how-far-from-home-do-domestic-cats-roam/
- https://www.petplan.co.uk/pet-information/cat/advice/roaming/
- https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/08/140807-cat-tracker-pets-animals-science-gps/
- https://pets.thenest.com/far-can-cat-wander-still-home-10290.html
I bet even as an average distance, 1/2 million is conservative. I am definitely in the 200+meter class, and my mate Shadow is probably near a thousand per day every day. Strangely we seldom get guests, once in fact in 30 years. Do you think it was something I said or just the large moat and kraken within?
Toodle pips and purrs
ERin
PS If you can tell me where you got such a plump mouse from for that picture I’ll nip over!
I would say your potential visitors are being put off by the moat and kraken 😉
Wow! that’s a lot of foot traffic. I wonder why they don’t have traffic jams like we do?
They are most likely better organised than us humans. ;o
Very cool! Crazy facts. Are the illustrations from one of the source links you’ve posted? THey are lovely!
The illustrations were produced on behalf of gocompare by an illustrator specifically for the campaign. 🙂
cc @Katzenschafe
Thank you ^^
Mine certainly is doing I miss him in this weather
<3
See, all those miles is why we nap so much!
Haha! I never thought about that as a reason for all the napping.
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I only just saw a British doco about how cats leasing to time-share space so as to avoid confrontation. Interesting. Cheers,H
Interesting! I’ll have to find that doco
I’m certain it was something along the lines of “The secret lives of cats”…..Cheers,H
Bad idea to let cats get across the street!
It depends on the area. A busy city you are probably right.
Cats are awesome. They travel far and nap a lot.
Have a fabulous day. ♥
Indeed :-). And thank you ^^
A domestic cat who has free access to the street, can be run over, stolen, tortured or killed, do you want that for your cat?
It really depends on where one lives. But in some areas you are sadly correct. :/
I know that a lot of ferals have a “route” that they take. Perhaps they have all the people that offer food mapped out and visit them as part of their routine.
I wonder if they do share little maps with each other as all the strays always seem to find their way to our block of flats. And there are plenty of people feeding them. ?
They are pretty smart.
After all they managed to wrap us around their little paws… why “work” if you can have human servants. ?
So true.
I’ve queried this “cats only meow to humans” thing before. The meow must come from somewhere, probably infantile noises. I have actually heard a cat meow when totally ignoring humans and searching for another cat with which it was playing and which had hidden; also when the other cat was “hiding” in a bag with its back end sticking out!
A lot seems to be developing in cat communication and habitat behaviour. Historically the wild cats our cats descended from were solitary which is why there are still many people that say there should only be one cat per household. But more and more wild cats are forming colonies, looking to live permanently with other cats as after all strength is often in numbers!
Yes. I’m really impressed at how quickly cats are adapting to group situations – long-lasting relationships with other cats, humans, dogs etc and how to behave in a group. Undoubtedly they learn some things about communication with humans – that to look a human in the eyes will not be interpreted as a threat, for instance, but may well bring strokes or food. However, there must have been lots of times in evolution when solitary animals became social or vice versa; it’s the speed of the thing with cats that’s remarkable.
As for the miaow, my guess is that like a dog’s bark, which is cub behaviour in wolves, it’s developed from some noise kittens made. Having developed to communicate with humans, an intelligent and adaptable animal like a cat might then reapply it to communication with other cats (dogs, etc). Or it might have been in cats’ armoury all along, just not used much. Between cats from what I’ve observed it seems to mean something like “Hello – are you there?”
There are also the cat breeds with short or no tail that wouldn’t have been able to use their tails for communication. So those must have used miaows for a long long time as means of communication.