Research overview: domestic cats within urban mesopredator communities

Domestic cats occupy the urban carnivore community alongside native mesopredators and larger carnivores, and their abundance is shaped by interactions with these species. This overview synthesises research on how the presence of bobcats, coyotes and other predators suppresses free-ranging cat activity and survival, the mesopredator-release dynamic in which losing top carnivores allows cats to proliferate and harm wildlife, and spatial-temporal partitioning among urban predators. It examines the cascading biodiversity consequences first documented in fragmented California canyons. The synthesis frames the domestic cat not in isolation but as one node in a structured urban predator guild whose dynamics determine its ecological impact.