Halmos Lecture Series Focuses Feral Cat Population Dynamics

On Friday, March 22, the Mathematics Colloquium Series will present Andrew Nevai, Ph.D. lecture, “Feral cat population dynamics”. Dr. Nevai is an associate professor of mathematics at the University of Central Florida. The talk will discuss a mathematical model for population dynamics of feral cats.

Feral cats are subject to various animal control measures including impounding, adoption, and euthanasia. The feral cat population also interacts with a fixed population of outdoor house cats, some of which experience abandonment. In some cases, the feral population becomes extinct while other parameter cases allow for the population to persist at a positive and globally asymptotically stable equilibrium. If only adult males can be abandoned then the model can exhibit up to two positive equilibrium points. When all three categories of cats can be abandoned then the model can exhibit up to four positive equilibrium points. The model can be extended to include the spatial movement of adult males and it can be used to describe the spread of feline leukemia within a feral cat population.

Hosted by Halmos College’s Department of Mathematics, this lecture will take place in Parker 203 from 12:05-12:55. For more information, please contact Colloquium organizer Fuzhen Zhang at zhang@nova.edu.