Probability of Synanthropic Feral House Cat Presence in the Western United States

This model is based on how house cats utilize wildlands near human habituation. These predators can have detrimental effects on wildlife populations (Alterio et al. 1998). We based our model on the data collected by Odell and Knight (2001) that investigated habitat utilization of these predators with regard to distance from housing and on the probability for a homeowner to possess a house cat. We buffered the populated areas distance layer in ARC/INFO using a probability function [P = 0.216 - 0.96 * Distance (km)] where any cell with distance less than 0.18km received a probability between 0.216 to 0. All distances greater than or equal to 0.18km from populated areas were assigned a probability of 0. The resulting dataset was then resampled to 180m using the bilinear interpolation option.