The Diversity and Abundance of Stray Cats in Johor Bahru, Johor

Abstract

Cats (Felis catus) are one of the world’s invasive species due to its close relations with human beings. Generally, stray cats are cats that were abandoned by their previous owners while feral cats are the ones that usually live in a colony away from human contact. The distribution and profile of the stray cats in Johor Bahru are unknown and needs to be investigated. Thus, this study was conducted for investigating the composition and abundance of stray cats in Taman Daya, Adda Heights, Taman Setia Indah, and Ulu Tiram. The data collected were compared between localities and the medical conditions of the stray cats were noted. In the present study, the stray cats’ data were collected by using the Trap-Collection Data-Release (TCR) approach and by counting and calculating the stray cats at the animal shelters visited. Next, the stray cats were examined by the vet to obtain their sex, breed, age, weight, temperature, reproduction status and medical conditions. A total of 42 stray cats were caught and 6 breeds were identified from sample collected with Domestic Short Hair having the highest number of individuals. Then, the data were analyzed by using PAST version 4.04 software. Moving on, the statistical analysis shows the diversity (H’) =1.504, richness (R’) =1.355 and evenness (E’) = 0.7500 of stray cats in Johor Bahru, respectively. The analyzed data indicated that Taman Daya has the highest diversity of stray cats with (H’=1.437) and breed richness with (R’=1.477) while Adda Heights has the highest evenness of stray cat breeds amongst the four locations with (E’=0.9806). This study may acknowledge society about the diversity and abundance of stray cats that has been recorded and contribute towards controlling the number of stray cats. However, further in-depth studies are required to record more data of stray cats within this area.

Keywords

• abundance
• control
• felis catus
• stray cats
• tnr approach.