What will be done during this study?
In this assessment, we will track where your cat goes when he or she leaves your house. We will show you how to place a lightweight tracking device on your cat’s collar to record their behavior. We also will show you how to download the data the device records to our website. You will be able to view where your cat goes by looking at the data on this website.
We will track your cat using lightweight tri-axial accelerometer-tracking tags to quantitatively characterize indoor-outdoor home and core range. Employ state-of-the-art tracking technology by collaborating with researchers who are highly experienced in tracking indoor-outdoor cats in the field (see CatTracker.org). Then, we will evaluate whether Toxoplasma gondii seropositive status affects these variables.
The tracker we use is an accelerometer-informed tracking tag that is able to deliver acceleration information to assess locomotor behavior in indoor-outdoor cats and quantitatively characterize behaviors that are associated with low risk-aversion. Then, evaluate whether Toxoplasma gondii seropositive status affects these variables.