This is a comparison of the size of home ranges (their territory) of the cat species which includes the domestic cat, feral cat and all the wild cat species. It answers the question as to how big the home ranges are. Although within the domestic cat population there will be huge variations due to circumstances as the lives of domestic cats are managed by humans. The same to a large extent applies to feral cats. For the wild cat species their home ranges are dictated by nature except when, once again, human behavior intervenes and their habitat is destroyed and/or altered which may put downward pressure on the size of their home range. There are also large variations in the home range size of wild cat species due to habitat variations over their distribution and prey availability.
The list is in the form of a table.
| Cat species | Home range size in square kilometers |
| Domestic cat | 0.0001-0.0002 (indoor cat) to 0.04 (indoor/outdoor cat). Females’ home range will typically be smaller than that of males. An indoor domestic cat in a multi-cat home may have a home range of the size of a room or less with lots over overlapping. Why do domestic cats still wish to maintain a home range? |
| Feral cat | Up to around 3 square kilometers (in central-western New South Wales, Australia) and Galapagos Islands for male cats. Females in Galapagos have home ranges of 0.82 square kilometers. Home range size of feral cats varies enormously depending of food sources. In Victoria, Australia, feral cat home ranges can vary between <1 km2 and 10km2. |
| Cheetah | Home ranges vary considerably between about 80 km² for females in Nairobi National Park to 1500 km² for males in Namibia. Cheetah Habitat |
| Caracal | Home range size of four females in the Western sector of Cape Province averaged 18.2 km² while for males it was 65 km². In farming areas outside Mountain Zebra National Park home ranges averaged 19.1 km². Outside the park it was 15.2 km². For females it was 5.5 km² inside the park |
| Bay cat | I don’t information for the home ranges of the Bay Cat. This is a medium-sized wildcat with I would expect a home range not dissimilar to that of the caracal above. |
| Asiatic golden cat | In one study the male’s home range was 48 km² which increased by about 15% during the rainy season while the female’s territory was 33 km². There is a dearth of information about the home range of the Asiatic Golden cat. |
| Chinese desert cat | There is no information that I can find about the home range of this wild cat species. It is a small to medium-sized wild cat with I would expect a home range not the similar to that of feral domestic cats which would depend upon food sources. I expect the home range in the order of up to 10 km² for males and smaller for females. |
| Jungle cat | Once again there is little information on the home range size of the jungle cat. This is also a small to medium-sized wild cat species and I would expect their home range to be similar to that of the typical feral cat depending upon environment and food sources. |
| Sand cat | Sand cat has a home range of up to 1,758 square kilometers! |
| Black-footed cat | A scientist, Sliwa, estimated that male black-footed cats have a home range in the order of 10.4-16.8 km² whereas females had a home range between 3.1-11.9 km². |
| European wildcat | In Hungary this cat species has home ranges measuring 1.5-8.7 km². In France their home ranges averaged 1.8 km². |
| African-Asian wildcat | In Kenya a study found that their home range was 1.6 km² and in a radio-tagged European study females had a home range of 2 km² while adult males had a home range of 12.7 km² |
| Jaguarundi | In Belize the home ranges of two radio-tag male jaguarundis measured 88-100 square kilometres (considered to be v. large). In Belize normally the adult female jaguarundi home range is 20 km². In Brazil a female had a home range of 6.8 km². In Mexico the mean home range sizes of males and females were 8.9 and 8.3 km² respectively. Jaguarundi – a comprehensive and fully illustrated page |
| Ocelot | Male ocelots have home ranges varying from 3.5-46 km² while breeding females have home ranges between 0.8-15 km². In Venezuela female home ranges varied from 2-4 km² well males at home ranges between 6-11 km². |
| Oncilla | I don’t have information about the home range size of this species. As it’s a small wild cat species I would expect similar home range sizes to the other small wild cat species such as the jaguarundi or European wildcat. |
| Margay | In Belize a young adult male had a home range of about 11 km². In Brazil an adult male’s home range measured 15.9 km² |
| Serval | Various studies tell us that female home ranges vary between about 9.5 km² to around 15.8 km² while for males it might range between 11.6 km² to 31.5 km² depending upon the area. |
| Canada lynx | Studies based on snow-tracking have estimated home range sizes of 11.1–49.5 km2 (4.3–19.1 sq mi), while those based on radio telemetry have given the area between 8 and 783 km2 (3.1 and 302.3 sq mi). |
| Eurasian lynx | There will be a huge variation as indicated by the Canada lynx. I don’t have hard data on this but they travel as much as 20 km in a day and in Russia they might travel vast distances of hundreds of kilometres. I would expect a very wide range of home ranges up to several hundred square kilometres. |
| Iberian lynx | Based on radio-tracking data, annual territory size averaged 10.3 km² for resident males and 8.7 km² for resident females. |
| Bobcat | There is a wide variation in home range size from 60 hectors (0.6 km²) for female bobcats in Southern California to 32,000 (320 km²) hectors for male bobcats in upstate New York. In Archbold Biological Station in south-central Florida, the average home range size for males was 25.5 km² and four females 14.5 km². In the Adirondacks male ranges averaged 32 5 km² whereas those of females averaged 86 km². |
| Pampas cat | I don’t have information about the home range size of the Pampas cat. This is a small wild cat species and I would expect home ranges up to about 10 km² |
| Geoffroy’s cat | One adult female’s home range measured 6.51 km² while another had a home range of 2.33 km². The two largest ranges of adult males measured 10.89 km² and 12.41 km² |
| Kodkod | In an area on Chiloe Island the home range of three coloured males did not overlap and the male’s range measured 2.5 km² while those of the two females measured 0.73 and 0.48 km². In another area the mean home range size of five kodkods was estimated at 1.5 km² with no significant differences between the sexes. |
| Andean mountain cat | The home range was 65.5 km² for a radio-tracked female in Bolivia and 58.5 km² for a male in Argentina. |
| Manul | In Mongolia, female territories ranged from 7.4-125 km², (average 23km²), while male ranges were 21-207 km² (average 98 km²). |
| Leopard cat | In one study the mean home range size for four adult males was 3.5 km² while the ranges of three adult females averaged 2.1 km². In a national park in southern Thailand an adult male had a home range of 5.4 km² while a female’s range was 2.5 km². |
| Flat-headed cat | There is little or no available data for the home range size of this small wild cat species but I would expect, once again, that it would be upwards of 10 km² depending upon availability of food sources and the environment generally. |
| Rusty-spotted cat | Little is known about the home range size of this, the smallest cat species of all. I can only speculate and suggest that it might be around the 1 km²-maximum of 10 km². |
| Fishing cat | In Chitwan National Park radio-tagged females had home ranges of 4-6 km² while males had ranges 3 to 4 times larger about 16-22 km² |
| African golden cat | Once again little information is available but I would suggest home ranges up to around 40 km² as a maximum. |
| Puma | As expected, home range size there is considerably across their geographic distribution. In south-eastern British Columbia female ranges measured 55 km² and those of males 15 1 km² in southern Utah the home ranges of females and males averaged 685 and 82 6 km² respectively. How many mountain lions in California (2022)? |
| Clouded leopard | Four individuals were radio-collared in Phu Khieo Wildlife Sanctuary from April 2000 to February 2003. Home ranges of two females were 25.7 km2 (9.9 sq mi) and 22.9 km2 (8.8 sq mi), and of two males 29.7 km2 (11.5 sq mi) and 49.1 km2 (19.0 sq mi). In the Khao Yai National Park, the home range of one female was 39.4 km2 (15.2 sq mi), of the one male 42 km2 (16 sq mi). Both individuals had a core area of 2.9 km2 (1.1 sq mi). |
| Lion | Home range size is set largely by the biomass of prey available during the lean times. Some examples are as follows. In the Serengeti lion prides have territories of about 65 km². That applies to the woodlands. In the planes they needed home ranges of 18 4 km² during the lean season. In it Etosha National Park seven prides and two adult males used home ranges between 150 km² to 2075 km². |
| Jaguar | Depending upon the region, home range size for this large wild cat species varied between around 28 km² to 140 km². For example, in a subtropical forest habitat an adult female range measured 70 km² while three adult Jaguars’ home range measured 110 km² |
| Leopard | In Northern Serengeti, Kenya, Kruger and Thailand female leopards had a home range varying from 6-18 km². Male ranges in these areas varied between 17-76 km².In the arid Israeli desert female home ranges averaged 84 km² whereas those of males measured 137 km². In the Russian far east to adult females had home ranges of 33 and 62 km² from whereas those of a male was at least 280 km². In north-eastern Namibia male ranges averaged 441 km² ranging between 210 and 1164 km² while females had home ranges between 183 and 194 km². |
| Tiger | In Chitwan NP, the average home range size of tigress is was a small 20 km². Females in Nagarahole with high prey densities had small home ranges between 15-20 km² in Chitwan NP male tigers had home ranges that were 2-15 times larger than those of females. In Russia in the Far East, the home range size of females and males were estimated at 200-400 km² and 800-1000 km² respectively. Bengal tiger travels 1300 km to find his home range and a mate |
| Marbled cat | This is a small wild cat species for which I have little or no data about home range size. I would expect home range size to be in the order of under 10 km². |
| Snow leopard | Home range size of radio tagged snow leopards in Mongolia varied between 14-142 km². However, using satellite locations one female’s home range increased from 58 km² to a minimum of 1,590 km². In a national park in Ladakh, one snow Leopard used a 19 km² area over a period of 2 1/2 months during winter. An adult female in the Nepal sustained herself and one or two cubs in a home range of 38.9 km². An independent sub adult daughter used an area of 19.7 km². A sub adult male in the same area used a home range of 22.7 km². |
| If you wish to see the sources of this information then please enquire in a comment. I will be pleased to assist. Primary source: Wild Cats of the World by the Sunquists and Wikipedia plus other sites. |
