Lions ___1___ the savannah are a staple of nature documentaries. But the millions of little lions that live in our homes and neighborhoods also lead fascinating lives. We know more about those lives now, because a two-year-long study used radio-transmitters to track cats at the southern edge of the cities of Champaign and Urbana in Illinois. ___2___. The study is in the Journal of Wildlife Management. [Jeff Horn et al., "Home Range, Habitat Use, and Activity Patterns of Free-Roaming Domestic Cats"]

The entire kittie cohort included both housecats and feral cats, and ranged over almost 6,300 acres. One feral cat’s range ___3___ 1,351 acres. New York’s Central Park covers 843 acres.

Owned cats with homes roamed way less than their feral counterparts. But they still ___4___ just under five acres. The pets were highly active just 3 percent of the time, compared with 14 percent for the cats that need to find their own food. The work should ___5___ protecting species that the cats hunt, and inform the efforts to stop the spread of feline contagious diseases.
【视听版科学小组荣誉出品】
roaming It would have taken a dozen field researchers to collect the same data. topped out at averaged a range of shed light on
热带丛林里的狮子无疑是自然纪实的主要观察对象，但左邻右舍成千上万的小猫咪也有丰富多彩的生活。研究人员耗时两年，利用无线电发射机追踪伊利诺伊州的尚佩恩和厄本那南端的猫科动物。如果不是无线电发射机，要获取同样的数据大概得耗费众多研究人员的时间和精力了。这项研究成果刊登在《野生动物管理》杂志上。 整个研究对象包括家猫和野外生存的猫科动物，范围覆盖约6300英亩。一只野生猫科动物的活动范围最大可达1351英亩，而纽约中央公园也只占地843英亩…（果然很野。。。） 家猫的活动范围就小的多了，不过平均下来也有5英亩。家猫高度活跃的时间只有3％，而需要自行觅食的野生猫科动物则有14％的时间是保持高度兴奋状态的。因此，人们也该意识到保护猫科动物的猎食对象的重要性并采取行动防止猫科动物接触性传染病的传播。