| At present Barbara Kolar from the University of Duisburg-Essen is studying black-footed and sand cats in the Wuppertal Zoo for her PhD thesis. By video recording over several 24 hour-periods she documents their activity rhythms and investigates which factors influence their behaviour. | |
| Barbara is focusing on black-footed cats, since the captive population decreased substantially in European Zoos in the last years: at the beginning of 2007 only six cats were left. This decline is attributed to two main factors. Firstly, this cat species shows a high mortality rate due to a disease called AA-Amyloidosis, which is not yet well researched but could be precipitated by stress. The second factor applies to small wild cats in captivity in general: they are rarely seen active, and thus are perceived as less attractive for the public. Therefore fewer zoos maintain small cat species in their collections. | 
Tigger was born in Belfast Zoo in June 2004. |
Prince Charles was born in Houdspruit Endangered Species Centre, South Africa, in December 2002. Both photos by courtesy of Barbara Kolar |
By analyzing several individuals Barbara obtained first results of the cats activity rhythms. She observed nine different behavioural patterns: pacing, walking, playing, feeding, self-grooming, being alert, resting, sleeping, staying out of sight. The cats displayed predominantly nocturnal activity with two activity peaks, one from 3 am to 9 am and the other from 6 pm to 9 pm. Behaviour like feeding and self-grooming stayed relatively constant over the recorded time period, whereas walking, sleeping and being alert accounted for most of the variation in the cats activity patterns. |