How far might a cat stray from home?
ASK A RESEARCHER: The cat Frikke left home in Lofoten and was later found 1,400 kilometres away in Oslo. Is it possible that she walked the entire way?
Published
Frikke the cat left its home in Svolvær on the Lofoten archipelago in May 2022. Last year, she was found again in Oslo, Eastern Norway, according to Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation NRK.
Many are now curious about how the cat ended up so far from home.
Torbjørn Haugaasen, a professor at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU), believes the cat from Lofoten may have hitched a ride on a truck.
Car ride or long walk?
"It's also possible that someone found the cat friendly but assumed it was a stray and took it home as a pet. It could have escaped in Oslo, or the person might have changed their mind after arriving," Haugaasen tells sciencenorway.no.
The distance between Svolvær and Oslo, about 1,400 kilometres, is quite far for a cat to travel on foot. However, it is theoretically possible.
Though Haugaasen mainly researches tropical rainforests, he began a study during the pandemic on how cats move around.
Researchers GPS-tagged 100 cats in a residential area in Ås municipality. They then tracked the cats' outdoor movements and measured how far they wandered.
1.8 kilometres every day
Most cats did not wander far. On average, they stayed within 352 metres of their home.
However, some cats roamed farther, covering several kilometres when they were out exploring.
If a cat were to walk 1,400 kilometres over 26 months, as the cat from Svolvær has reportedly done, it would need to walk 1.8 kilometres every day.
"That's not very far for some cats. Our farm cat would sometimes disappear for a couple of weeks at a time. It was reportedly seen several kilometres from our home," says Haugaasen.
However, he is sceptical about the idea that a cat could deliberately head south in the right direction.
"My personal opinion is that the cat didn't walk that far south on its own. But this is less about science and more about what you want to believe," he says.
Cats that travelled far
There are several stories of cats that have travelled long distances.
Last summer, a cat named Rayne Beau joined its family on vacation to Yellowstone National Park. However, the cat disappeared shortly after they arrived, the Associated Press reported.
Two months later, Rayne Beau showed up in a city in California, 1,450 kilometres from where he went missing.
The owners believe he was trying to return to their home further south in California.
"I believe truly that he made that trek mostly on his own. His paws were really beat up. Lost 40 per cent of his body weight. So he was not cared for," the owner told AP.
Another famous traveller is Howie, a Persian cat that walked 1,600 kilometres through the Australian wilderness. He had been left with relatives but escaped and made his way home. It took a year. Howie was scruffy and emaciated when he finally showed up at his front door.
Howie remembered where he lived. He wanted to return to his family. How well do cats remember?
Unlikely to forget
"They have good memory and are unlikely to forget important people, both for better and worse," researcher Cecilie Mejdell from the Norwegian Veterinary Institute said in an interview on forskning.no (link in Norwegian).
"I wouldn't be surprised if animals remember you for life," she added.
How far a cat travels also depends on its personality.
"If the cat is young, energetic, and adventurous, it can travel far," says Torbjørn Haugaasen.
However, how a cat's personality influences its outdoor behaviour was beyond the scope of their study.
The study on tracking cats in Ås is the only one of its kind in Norway.
The results can also be applied to other animals.
"It can give us insights into how wild animals move and their behaviour. We hope to take this further and apply what we learn from cats to wildlife biology," says Haugaasen.
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Translated by Alette Bjordal Gjellesvik
Read the Norwegian version of this article on forskning.no
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