Abstract

As we confront unprecedented socio-ecological challenges, cats —cherished pets, devastating predators and rural mousers—occupy a central place in tensions between biodiversity conservation and animal welfare, particularly acute on islands. Drawing on Human–Animal Studies, FELIMAC asks how outdoor cats mediate these conflicts amid rural–urban divides, environmental knowledge crises and ethical dilemmas. By addressing this question, it moves beyond the clash between environmental and animal care ethics through an ethnography of human–cat relations in Madeira and the Azores, while addressing these four objectives: (1) to theorize how human and nonhuman temporalities underpin cat–biodiversity conflicts and identity narratives through native/alien classifications; (2) to examine how the dual pet/pest framing of cats unsettles governance practices; (3) to develop a gender-aware analysis of feline colony management that challenges the cat lady stereotype; and (4) to design a participatory multispecies governance framework integrating endangered species protection with cat care ethics beyond one-size-fits-all solutions. FELIMAC advances a temporal turn in Human–Animal Studies by combining environmental anthropology, political ecology, anthropology of time and feminist studies. Using participatory methods such as deep mapping, it will also develop a governance model attentive to the temporalities, knowledge politics and care emotions shaping human–cat relations.

Team