Prioritizing cat-owner behaviors for a campaign to reduce wildlife depredation

Behavior prioritization is underutilized but critical to the success of conservation campaigns. It provides an understanding of the target audience's values, transcending conflict, and informing the design of achievable and effective advocacy campaigns. Depredation by domestic cats may depress wildlife populations, leading to conflict between cat owners and conservationists. We surveyed veterinarians and cat owners at veterinary clinics to prioritize a list of nine cat-management behaviors. Cat-owner behaviors were ranked by their (a) likelihood of implementation and (b) current adoption rate by cat owners, (c) perceived effectiveness at reducing predation on wildlife, and (d) veterinarians' opinions about their impact on cat welfare. Bringing cats in at night, from before dusk until after dawn, was revealed to be the behavior most suited to a campaign to reduce cats' hunting. Behaviors ranked as more effective for conservation (e.g., 24-hr cat confinement) were unlikely to be adopted by cat owners or not supported by veterinarians, whose expert and normative support may be critical to a campaign. Although more conservation-effective behaviors received a lower priority, we discuss the repeated use of behavior prioritization to achieve incremental reductions in cat depredation by engaging with cat owners.