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Outstanding Questions • How do the domestic lives of companion animals interact with their wild lives and those of other animals?

• How do owned and unowned companion animals use different types of landscape?

• How do outdoor cats interact directly and indirectly with humans, wildlife, and other domestic animals, in a range of ecological and social contexts?

• How might interventions in their domestic husbandry affect the environmental impacts of abundant companion animal populations? Formulating a ‘companion animal ecology’ • How might multiple disciplines of veterinary, ecological, and social research be aligned around shared, or mutually compatible, concerns?

• How does animal husbandry (e.g., nutrition, enrichment, or healthcare) affect cat ecology and behaviour? This encompasses (i) roaming and hunting behaviour; and (ii) the epidemiology of companion species in animal and zoonotic infections, with significant feedbacks for companion animal health and welfare.

• How do environmental factors affect companion animal behaviour, health, and welfare? Building collaboration between disciplines • How might cat owners (and guardians of other companion animals) become research partners? Effective engagement of owners in developing, conducting, and communicating research could improve uptake of policy and practice recommendations.

• What are owners’ priorities and concerns when managing and caring for companion animals? Understanding people’s decision-making and practices will be key to identifying workable strategies and interventions.

• How can management best be negotiated between interest groups to achieve sustainable, mutually acceptable (or ideally beneficial) outcomes?

• What is the role of policy and regulation in ensuring sustainable management of companion animals?

• What constitutes (environmentally) responsible pet ownership, and how might societies determine their individual and collective responsibilities to other animals, both wild and domestic? Participatory research and deliberative decision-making

It is not only in public disputes about management that divisions persist. Scientific research on cats divides between veterinary and animal sciences that focus on largely clinical and behavioural aspects of health and welfare, and research in ecology and conservation biology that examines hunting behaviour and environmental impacts. There is, therefore, a need for these disparate strands of research to be drawn together through interdisciplinary collaboration and communication, particularly because there are areas of shared concern for those with both welfare and ecological interests (e.g., managing feral cat populations or zoonotic disease). There is also room for new research approaches (see Outstanding Questions ) that recognise and account for the continuum between wild and domestic, along which cats unavoidably live. Given that the ecology of cats is understudied, certainly relative to their global abundance and impacts, there is opportunity for formulating an interdisciplinary ‘companion animal ecology’ where anthropogenic factors are acknowledged as integral to ecological processes, as in agricultural and urban ecologies. Research in this area might take novel approaches to investigating the interactions of roaming cats with wildlife, other domestic animals, and human inhabitants; their exceptional population ecology and use of natural and anthropogenic spaces; and their roles as reservoirs and carriers of disease. The same principles apply to research addressing cat impacts and their management. Given that cat populations and behaviour are influenced, directly and indirectly, by human behaviour, integrating cat owners as research participants will be vital to improving our understanding of human–cat–environment relations, and to the development and application of effective, sustainable solutions to the environmental challenges created by the global abundance of people and their cats. Recent research has provided important insights into drivers of cat owner behaviour [] and the effectiveness of different techniques for communication and behaviour change []. However, beyond behaviour change initiatives, good-faith engagement between cat owners and advocates, wildlife conservationists, and scientists will be vital to understanding differing perspectives, concerns, and priorities, and to constructively deliberating on human responsibilities to and for domestic cats. Researchers, environmental advocates, cat owners, and policymakers must work collectively towards realistic, gradual changes to practices and cultures that will ensure the enduring relationship between people and cats becomes a sustainable one.