What is a cat
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Who’s cat ? A cat is any member of the family Felidae. We humans admire the sleek, lithe, quick, muscular body of the cat. The enigmatic stare of felines mesmerizes us, and we are intrigued by their casual aloofness. Cats live with us at their discretion and most of us welcome them. In fact, many of us are held captive by the felines that have chosen to keep us company, and there is no doubt that we love every moment of our bondage. The cat (Felis catus), also known as the domestic cat or housecat to distinguish it from other felids and felines, is a small, furry, domesticated, carnivorous mammal that is valued by humans for its companionship and for its ability to hunt vermin and household pests. Cats have been associated with humans for at least 9,500 years, and are currently the most popular pet in the world. Owing to their close association with humans, cats are now found almost everywhere in the world.
Cats are similar in anatomy to the other felids, with strong, flexible bodies, quick reflexes, sharp retractable claws, and teeth adapted to killing small prey. As nocturnal predators, cats use their acute hearing and ability to see in near darkness to locate prey. Not only can cats hear sounds too faint for human ears, they can also hear sounds higher in frequency than humans can perceive. This is because the usual prey of cats (particularly rodents such as mice) make high frequency noises, so the hearing of the cat has evolved to pinpoint these faint high-pitched sounds. Cats also have a much better sense of smell than humans. Despite being solitary hunters, cats are a social species and use a variety of vocalizations, pheromones and types of body language for communication. These include meowing, purring, trilling, hissing, growling, and grunting. Cats have a rapid breeding rate. Under controlled breeding, they can be bred and shown as registered pedigree pets, a hobby known as cat fancy. Failure to control the breeding of pet cats
by spaying and neutering and the abandonment of former household pets has resulted in large numbers of feral cats worldwide, with a population of up to 60 million of these animals in the United States alone. As The New York Times wrote in 2007, "Until recently the cat was commonly believed to have been domesticated in ancient Egypt, where it was a cult animal", but a study that year revealed that the lines of descent of all house cats probably run through as few as five self-domesticating African Wildcats (Felis silvestris lybica) c. 8000 BC, in the Near East. The earliest direct evidence of cat domestication is a kitten that was buried alongside a human 9,500 years ago in Cyprus. - Let’s talk answers about questions with the
Question: How is this different from the domestication of dogs? Answer: Dogs were domesticated much longer ago when we were hunter-gatherers. Unlike cats, we actively domesticated them. Probably we took
wolf cubs and tried to tame them, raised them to be companions and to use for protection. Horses are like that too, we had to go out and capture and tame them before we could use them. Question: Cats are now found in every corner of the globe: Feline experts estimate that there are 600 million cats in households on six continents. Where did cats first come from? Who were the first people to enjoy them as pets? Answer: There is archaeological and genetic evidence to show that cats first originated in the fertile crescent. We took genetic samples in Egypt, Turkey, Lebanon and Iran and they are all tied together because that was the seat of cat domestication. Most people know a little about the link between cats and ancient Egyptians; cats weren't exactly worshipped but they were very important to the society and the religion. There are many early Egyptian accounts of cats living in households, and this is seen in paintings as well. And for ancient Egyptians who worshipped Bast, the goddess of family and fertility who has the head of a cat, mummified cats became like an
offering to Bast — like if you were Catholic you might go into church and light a candle, so people would buy cat mummies and offer them to the goddess. Question: From there, where did cats go? How did they get to the United States? Answer: Cats spread through Asia, where they also became important to societies there: An allwhite cat is considered good luck, for example. They came here, to North America, with the Pilgrims, on the boats to help with the rodent populations. There are no domesticated cats that are indigenous to America or Australia, they all came over on boats. Question: Where did superstitions about cats — that black ones are unlucky, for example — come from? Answer: I think most superstitions about cats came from people's fear of them. They're uncanny animals. They're aloof, but then they suddenly appear and startle people. They're also great climbers and can jump three or four or five
times their own heights. It's surprising and maybe frightening for people to see them on the ground and then suddenly up on the wall. Also their eye shine is interesting and strange — their eyes have a reflective layer that is dramatic in darkness. Question: And at least in western societies they became associated with witches, right? Answer: Right. Actually their association with witches might have had a dramatic impact on society. During the time of the bubonic plague, cats were persecuted along with witches. But the plague was carried by fleas that are on rats, and a dense cat population would kill rats. As we persecuted the cats, there were fewer cats and more rats, which meant more fleas carrying plague. The lack of cats contributed to the spread of the plague. Question: Are there any remnants of wild behavior in the cats we keep as pets today, or did cats completely change when they became domesticated?
Answer: Pretty much all the behavior your house cats show today are variants of wild behaviors they've always had: play hunting, napping, how they eat and drink. For example, people complain that their cats wake them up early for breakfast. That's because cats like to hunt at dawn and dusk. They wake you up at dawn because that's when they're genetically programmed to want to eat. - Lovable -
Leonardus Andrian ^^*
Cats are similar in anatomy to the other felids, with strong, flexible bodies, quick reflexes, sharp retractable claws, and teeth adapted to killing small prey. As nocturnal predators, cats use their acute hearing and ability to see in near darkness to locate prey. Not only can cats hear sounds too faint for human ears, they can also hear sounds higher in frequency than humans can perceive. This is because the usual prey of cats (particularly rodents such as mice) make high frequency noises, so the hearing of the cat has evolved to pinpoint these faint high-pitched sounds. Cats also have a much better sense of smell than humans. Despite being solitary hunters, cats are a social species and use a variety of vocalizations, pheromones and types of body language for communication. These include meowing, purring, trilling, hissing, growling, and grunting. Cats have a rapid breeding rate. Under controlled breeding, they can be bred and shown as registered pedigree pets, a hobby known as cat fancy. Failure to control the breeding of pet cats
by spaying and neutering and the abandonment of former household pets has resulted in large numbers of feral cats worldwide, with a population of up to 60 million of these animals in the United States alone. As The New York Times wrote in 2007, "Until recently the cat was commonly believed to have been domesticated in ancient Egypt, where it was a cult animal", but a study that year revealed that the lines of descent of all house cats probably run through as few as five self-domesticating African Wildcats (Felis silvestris lybica) c. 8000 BC, in the Near East. The earliest direct evidence of cat domestication is a kitten that was buried alongside a human 9,500 years ago in Cyprus. - Let’s talk answers about questions with the
Question: How is this different from the domestication of dogs? Answer: Dogs were domesticated much longer ago when we were hunter-gatherers. Unlike cats, we actively domesticated them. Probably we took
wolf cubs and tried to tame them, raised them to be companions and to use for protection. Horses are like that too, we had to go out and capture and tame them before we could use them. Question: Cats are now found in every corner of the globe: Feline experts estimate that there are 600 million cats in households on six continents. Where did cats first come from? Who were the first people to enjoy them as pets? Answer: There is archaeological and genetic evidence to show that cats first originated in the fertile crescent. We took genetic samples in Egypt, Turkey, Lebanon and Iran and they are all tied together because that was the seat of cat domestication. Most people know a little about the link between cats and ancient Egyptians; cats weren't exactly worshipped but they were very important to the society and the religion. There are many early Egyptian accounts of cats living in households, and this is seen in paintings as well. And for ancient Egyptians who worshipped Bast, the goddess of family and fertility who has the head of a cat, mummified cats became like an
offering to Bast — like if you were Catholic you might go into church and light a candle, so people would buy cat mummies and offer them to the goddess. Question: From there, where did cats go? How did they get to the United States? Answer: Cats spread through Asia, where they also became important to societies there: An allwhite cat is considered good luck, for example. They came here, to North America, with the Pilgrims, on the boats to help with the rodent populations. There are no domesticated cats that are indigenous to America or Australia, they all came over on boats. Question: Where did superstitions about cats — that black ones are unlucky, for example — come from? Answer: I think most superstitions about cats came from people's fear of them. They're uncanny animals. They're aloof, but then they suddenly appear and startle people. They're also great climbers and can jump three or four or five
times their own heights. It's surprising and maybe frightening for people to see them on the ground and then suddenly up on the wall. Also their eye shine is interesting and strange — their eyes have a reflective layer that is dramatic in darkness. Question: And at least in western societies they became associated with witches, right? Answer: Right. Actually their association with witches might have had a dramatic impact on society. During the time of the bubonic plague, cats were persecuted along with witches. But the plague was carried by fleas that are on rats, and a dense cat population would kill rats. As we persecuted the cats, there were fewer cats and more rats, which meant more fleas carrying plague. The lack of cats contributed to the spread of the plague. Question: Are there any remnants of wild behavior in the cats we keep as pets today, or did cats completely change when they became domesticated?
Answer: Pretty much all the behavior your house cats show today are variants of wild behaviors they've always had: play hunting, napping, how they eat and drink. For example, people complain that their cats wake them up early for breakfast. That's because cats like to hunt at dawn and dusk. They wake you up at dawn because that's when they're genetically programmed to want to eat. - Lovable -
Leonardus Andrian ^^*
