Quantifying prey return rates of domestic cats in the UK

Non‐native predators can cause great harm to natural ecosystems through competition for resources and by directly predating on native species. Domestic cats (Felis catus) predate on wild prey throughout the world and have been implicated in a number of species declines. However, in the UK, long‐term, widespread research is lacking.
The data provided here relate to prey returned home by pet cats in the UK over a total period of 3.5 years (ranging from one month to 3.5 years per cat). These data were collected by cat owners across the UK, noting details of the prey returned home by their cats monthly. Data were gathered upon registration regarding the age, sex, and body condition of participating cats, allowing for the analysis of the potential influence of such factors. 
While most cats returned 0–1 prey per month, a small minority (n = 3 cats) returned over 15 individuals monthly. It is important that true predation rates (in addition to the return rates found here) are further exp..., , , # Title of Dataset: Quantifying prey return rates of domestic cats in the UK

\[Access this dataset on Dryad](DOI: 10.5061/dryad.31zcrjdv9)

## Description of the data and file structure

Data are presented in two files: 'Data1_prey' and 'Data2_cats'.

Data1_prey.
This file contains details of all prey returned home by the cats monitored (n=553) over a total period of 3.5 years. Cat_ID is a unique identifier for each cat and Prey_ID is as given by owners or as verified by researchers thanks to photographs provided. Taxonomic group is then given, along with whether prey were dead or alive (or not recorded), what happened to the prey which were returned alive (for example, released), and whether returned whole, part-eaten, or witnessed by owners to be eaten. Age and sex were not required, but some participants gave this information in the related 'notes' section of the data return form. As such, there are many 'NA' datapoints for age and sex fields.

Data2_cats.
This file contains data re...,