2 kittens

Cat Census in Washington D.C.

According to a famous Akbar – Birbal story, one day, Emperor Akbar asked Birbal to tell him the number of crows in Agra.

“1,41,786, Jahanpanah!” Birbal said confidently.

“What if we find them to be more than this number?”

“Well, then, Jahanpanah, they are visiting their relatives in the city. And if you find them fewer, why, they have gone to visit their relatives in Delhi!” the quick-witted Birbal replied.

But have you ever wondered how long it would really take to count the animals in a city?

The DC Cat Count, the first cat census of the US Capital city concluded on October 25th, 2021, after three years of counting the cats in the city.

Census is when we count all the people in a given area. We also note some important details about them like their date of birth, family size, etc. In India, the Census of India is held every 10 years. The last one was held in 2011.

The report states that there are roughly 2,00,000 Felis catus or cats in the city, out of which approximately 3,000 are feral (not owned) and half of the rest are indoors. The highly scientific
study took place in 1,530 strategic locations using motion sensor cameras. Each location was studied for 15 days. Population ecologists of the University of Maryland Centre for Environmental Sciences helped the city administration in the census.

Any guesses for the most common animal captured by the cat-counting cameras? Dogs, of course!

Question for you: How is an animal census different from a Census for humans? What are some challenges that you think the Census officers might face?

Respond in the comments section below please.