Physical features of domestic cats
Table Of Content
Cats communicate by marking trees, fence posts, or furniture (!) with their claws or their waste. House cats employ a vocal repertoire that extends from a purr to a screech. The most remarkable aspect of the 2004 find was the cat’s remains were buried next to a human. Although cats have had a troubled history, it seems like their earliest owners respected the creatures enough to keep them nearby in the afterlife. The cat’s new home in the Middle East is only one part of the domestication story.
Strange Places That Cats Hide: Olga’s Preferred Spots
The wide range of sizes, shapes and temperaments that is observed in dogs—consider the Chihuahua and the Great Dane—is absent in cats. Felines show much less variety because, unlike dogs—which were bred from prehistoric times for such tasks as guarding, hunting and herding—early cats were under no such selective breeding pressures. To enter our homes, they had only to evolve a people-friendly disposition. Today the Cat Fancier’s Association and the International Cat Association recognize nearly 60 breeds of domestic cat. Just a dozen or so genes account for the differences in coat color, fur length and texture, as well as other, subtler coat characteristics, such as shading and shimmer, among these breeds. Although the exact timeline of cat domestication remains uncertain, long-known archaeological evidence affords some insight into the process.
Cats Travel the World
The English legend of Dick Whittington details his journey from rags to riches due to his cat’s mousing prowess. Writers Théophile Gautier and Charles Baudelaire paid the cat homage, and in the 20th century Rudyard Kipling, Colette, and T.S. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Cats (1981) became one of the longest-running shows on Broadway.
Impact on wildlife
From 1517 to 1648, the Protestant Reformation weakened the Catholic Church’s dominance over people’s minds. The Church’s opinions on cats came into question, but some people still clung to outdated beliefs about cats like the naturalist Edward Topsel. In 1658, Topsel denounced cats as dangerous beasts and servants of witches. Persecution of cats continued during the Early Modern era until the late 17th century. The Age of Enlightenment in the 18th century convinced many Europeans that cats were not magical villains, and more people began keeping cats as pets without fear of persecution.
The International Cat Association recognizes 71 breeds from the ancient Abyssinian to newer breeds like the lykoi "werewolf" cat and the wild-looking chausie, which was derived from a wild jungle cat. Both organizations are based in the United States, host competitions, and maintain the breed standards for purebred cats. Effective January 1, 2020, a bobcat hunting ban took effect in California. Bobcats that are harassing or killing pets and livestock, may be taken by the landowner or agent under the authority of a depredation permit issued by CDFW. Below are some, but not all Fish and Game Code (FGC) laws and Title 14 California Code of Regulations (CCR) relevant to bobcats. The saber-toothed cat (Smilodon fatalis) is probably the most well-known species at the La Brea Tar Pits, and is also the California state fossil.
Color perception is not highly developed in cats, likely because it is unimportant to their survival; detecting a prey animal’s movements is more important than observing its colors. Cat (Felis catus), also called house cat or domestic cat, is a member of the family Felidae in the order Carnivora. It is also the smallest member of that family, which includes lions, tigers, and pumas.
How Many Cats Can You Own in Georgia? 2024 Update - Catster
How Many Cats Can You Own in Georgia? 2024 Update.
Posted: Fri, 16 Feb 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]
They are judged instead for their uniqueness, pleasing appearance, unusual markings, and sweet dispositions. This means that, despite not being purebred, your fur baby can have her chance in the spotlight after all. The Domestic Shorthair cat can trace its roots back to the early days of pioneer settlement in North America and were considered working cats because of their dedicated rat-catching. Healthy and rugged, it's easy to see why the Domestic became a favorite of early settlers.
Dominant and recessive genes
Although generally adult community cats—who are not socialized to people or indoor life—cannot become indoor pets, neutering and returning them to their outdoor home improves their lives. Researchers examined DNA belonging to nearly 1,000 wildcats and domestic cats from across the Old World to determine which subspecies of the wildcat, Felis silvestris, gave rise to the house cat. They found that the DNA clustered into five groups, based on similarity of sequence, and noted that the wildcats within each group came from the same region of the world (map). With the geography and an approximate age of the initial phases of cat domestication established, we could begin to revisit the old question of why cats and human beings ever developed a special relationship. The ancestors of most domesticated animals lived in herds or packs with clear dominance hierarchies.
Artificial selection, a term coined by biologist Charles Darwin, is a process used by humans to develop new organisms with desirable characteristics. Breeders select two parents that have beneficial traits to reproduce, yielding offspring with those desired traits.
You will find all the solid colors, plus combinations of all of them—purebred or not. All cats today descend from those original cats in Africa, the Mediterranean, and Middle East regions. All cats may be dubbed "domestic," without any regard for their breeding.
Breeds are either shorthaired (e.g., Siamese) or longhaired (e.g., Persian). Domestic cats are usually white, black, yellow, or gray and sometimes have markings of a different colour. A pattern of dark stripes or swirls on a lighter background is called tabby. Weights generally vary from 6 to 10 lb (2.5 to 4.5 kg), though nonpedigreed cats may weigh up to 28 lb (13 kg). The most closely related wild species are the North African wildcats (including Felix lybica).
It appears, then, that cats were being tamed just as humankind was establishing the first settlements in a part of the Middle East known as the Fertile Crescent—the Cradle of Civilization. National Geographic shares that these hunting skills are particularly effective at night, when their light-reflecting eyes allow them to see better than much of their prey. Because of this inherently strong pattern of behavior, your household kitty may be quite active at night, but try to keep in mind that it's just part of her nature to wake you up at 4 a.m.
Moreover, the bodies, abilities, and temperaments of dogs have changed radically in the more than 30,000 years since they were domesticated, while domestic cats are almost identical to their wild counterparts. Cats show little of the infantilization of facial features seen in dogs and have retained much of their independent nature. Consequently, cats have retained their independent nature and can thrive as predators in the wild today. This is why feral cats abound and why experts do not consider the cat to be a fully domesticated animal. The cat (Felis catus), commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat, is a small domesticated carnivorous mammal. Recent advances in archaeology and genetics have shown that the domestication of the cat occurred in the Near East around 7500 BC.
The Domestic Shorthair requires minimal care and is not predisposed to disease or other illnesses. However, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals emphasizes that they may be prone to overeating, which can lead to obesity and the constellation of health problems related to carrying extra pounds. Choose a healthy cat food that will provide her with the nutrition she needs to live a happy, energetic life. She'll need an outlet for all this energy, so provide her with a safe perch from which she can observe the great outdoors and practice her balance and agility skills. She'll want to keep an eye on the birds in the garden and on her pet parents in the living room at the same time. With her keen sense of surroundings, the Domestic also knows when it's a good time to curl up in the nearest available lap for an afternoon snooze.
Numerous individuals and organizations have adopted the mischievous black cat as a mascot, including L.A. Automobile dealer Winslow Felix, who opened Felix Chevrolet in 1921 at 12th Street and Grand Avenue. Felix was a friend of filmmaker Pat Sullivan, whose animation studio created the pop culture icon. Today Felix Chevrolet is located at Figueroa and Jefferson near the USC campus.
It has a strong, flexible body, quick reflexes, sharp teeth, and its night vision and sense of smell are well developed. It is a social species, but a solitary hunter and a crepuscular predator. Cat communication includes vocalizations like meowing, purring, trilling, hissing, growling, and grunting as well as cat body language. It can hear sounds too faint or too high in frequency for human ears, such as those made by small mammals. Domestic cat, or house cat, Domesticated carnivore (Felis catus) that retains many characteristics of the larger wild cats but differs in coat and size.
Comments
Post a Comment