Edmonton Cat Fest

2022 Cat Festival Session Spotlight: What Do Cats Do Outside? Cat Research

Have you ever wondered what your cat is doing when no one is looking? At the 2022 virtual Edmonton Cat Festival, cat researcher Marlee Pyott will share about her ‘CatCam’ research, where she attached cameras to cats to see what they got up to when they were outside.

Pictured above: A cat named Philly proudly wearing one of the research cameras on one of his adventures / Marlee Pyott testing a Cam cam with a unicorn nicknamed Robo Kitty.

About the Research

By developing a better understanding of what cats do outside, we can learn about the pros and cons of outdoor access!

For this research, Marlee Pyott wanted to see what owned cats were doing when they were let outside, by using custom-built cameras.

They call them “Catcams”! They simply attach on to the cat’s collar so the camera (which is about the size and weight of a large egg) sits just below their chin. There is another side to cats that we don’t always like talking about – their wild side! Over the summer, Marlee’s team captured thousands of hours of footage showing the daily habits of cats as they wandered around their neighbourhoods.

Cat Research:
What do cats do outside?
Saturday, May 28, 2022
12:30 – 1 p.m. MST

See full festival schedule

Pictured above: the view of a cat laying underneath a car / A cat watching a car drive down the road. Once the car passed, the cat crossed the street.

About the Researcher

Marlee Pyott has always had a passion for the outdoors and helping animals. While completing a BSc in Zoology, she worked at a wildlife rehabilitation centre, rescuing injured and orphaned animals. She is now working toward completing an MSc in Integrative Biology with a collaborative specialization in One Health (check out the provided link for more information on One Health https://onehealth.uoguelph.ca/). Her current research investigates the pros and cons of allowing domestic cats to have outdoor access by using animal-borne cameras. These cameras will help us understand what cats are doing outside and where they are going. In her free time, Marlee loves to paint, cook, watch movies, and read books. But mostly, she enjoys spending her time outside, enjoying nature with her friends and family.