Cat Census: Using 6 Million Photos to Peek Into the Hidden Lives of Stray Cats
Richard the Cat Passes the Mic to the Cat
My name is Richard Lee. I’m a cat journalist.
Today we’re talking about a cat census.
It’s been raining in Shanghai for a few days and it’s getting very cold. This morning the train (my human’s best friend) said that the little cow that had been barking in front of her house all night had froze to death.
How many cats are out there? How do they live when no one is feeding them?
After receiving the soap with my aunt’s body temperature from the neighborhood association last week, I started to think about the question: do people have censuses, and do cats? So I swished and searched and found that someone had actually done this!
This cat census is called DC cat count, which began in the spring of 2018, was led by the Humane Society of the United States, with contributions from several animal research organizations and animal protection groups, and cost about $1.5 million (9.87 million RMB) over three years.
The census was conducted in Washington, D.C., the main city inhabited by the cat population, but the survey also covered the countryside, forests, and even some nature reserves in China (the exact locations of which have not yet been revealed).
The researchers set up a total of 1,530 observation sites in human communities and in the wild (whether they were homes, stores, coffee shops, bars, etc., you can apply to join the observation program on the website), and placed motion-capture cameras on them, which took five photos of the animals after they were detected.
Each photo has a time, temperature and number.
The researchers, in the spirit of “Give me a camera and I’ll recreate the cat’s life of debauchery,” have humanely sifted through 6 million photos and even correlated them with a large number of photos of domestic cats provided by residents.
These are clearly domestic cats out picking wildflowers.
The protest of many non-preservationists: why spend so much time and money investigating the living conditions of feral cats? In addition to the purpose of collecting environmental data and understanding the current status of the species, the real reason is that humans know nothing about the lives of wild cats that live so close to us.
How do wild cats live in places that are invisible to humans? The camera gives us the answer.
In these photos, we can finally see the real side of stray cats, well …… each one looks meow silly tempered.
Legend has it that professional stray cats are one thing in front of people, but another behind their backs. They are very slutty in front of people, but they are even sluttier behind their backs.
Of course, there are also some very warm images when they are behind people’s backs!
In recent years, the argument that feral cats disturb the balance of urban species has been repeatedly mentioned, and bird lovers may hate stray cats the most, because they can catch and eat birds (what’s the hurry?). In order to safeguard the conditions for human habitation, various places tend to eventually dispose of stray animals without harm. (Euthanasia)
Next year, the data from the cat census will be collected, and eventually the researchers will be able to map out better ecological control strategies, and then the significance of the census will be revealed: to reduce the suffering and death of stray animals.
One thing that makes the researchers happy and sad is that only 20% of the photos left behind are cat films, the rest are small animals hiding in various corners of the city. Although this greatly increased their workload, they ended up putting them in an online photo album for everyone to see because the kids were so cute.
The following photos of animals will probably remind you of your parents' photos of yourself on your cell phone. Either the light is too bright, the person taking the photo pressed the button too fast, or the camera angle is too tricky …….
In the camera, you will see the very real (zhi) side of the animals, and the most wild of them are the Crispy Face brothers, whose brain is so clear that they try to remove the camera from other animals after they have a look at it. (What’s the big deal?) (Sell it in the junkyard?)
You don’t know what they are doing, but they seem to share the same world and the same dream. The atmosphere is very harmonious, and at first glance it may be hard to tell if he is a cat or a crispy noodle, but he is still the same crispy noodle.
At first glance, it’s hard to tell if he’s a civet or a cat, but he’s still the same Crispy Noodles. ……
After the smash and grab, this guy is going through the trash cans at …… (a real junk collector).
Ah my kitty guess you’re probably expecting some kind of restricted shot too, isn’t that right? If not, then I’ve posted the wrong picture. (Yes, it’s the wrong picture.)
I’ve gone through thousands of photos of cats in the wild, thinking that everything would be cute and lovable, but I was surprised to find that these shots can record both life and death.
This is the footage of a forest fire. We don’t know how many animals were killed, but what we do know is that in the end the camera “survived” like a black box, leaving behind the unheard groans of the forest.
These more than 1530 shots are like the third eye of mankind, seeing the dark corners of the world, the interesting, the bleak, and the obscure, the way “they” really live.
At the end of the article, you are left with the inaccessible beauty and emotion witnessed by the camera.
The photos taken by these machines are so beautiful that they could be featured in National Geographic!
Maybe someday we can all remember that it is not the Earth that belongs to mankind, but mankind that belongs to the Earth.
Good night, Earth.
Say “good night” to your loved ones with this kitten!
I wish you the cat’s help - happiness!
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Original title: “Cat Census: Using 6 million photos to explore the hidden life of stray cats.
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