|
|
|
|
Domestication of Cats
The Wild Cat ancestor of the cat is believed to have evolved in a desert climate, as evident in their behavior. Cats enjoy heat and solar exposure, often sleeping in a warm area during the heat of the day. Their feces are usually very dry and cats prefer to bury them in sandy places. They are able to stay, immobile, in one place for long periods of time, especially when observing prey and preparing to pounce. In North Africa there are still small wildcats that are probably closely related to the ancestors of today's domesticated breeds. Cats are kept for companionship as pets and to hunt mice and rats. Farms often have dozens of cats living semi-wild in the barns. Hunting in the barns and the fields, they kill and eat rodents that would otherwise eat large parts of the grain crop. Many pet cats successfully hunt and kill mice, rabbits, birds, lizards, fish, and large insects by instinct, but might not eat their prey. Like many other domesticated animals, cats lived in a mutualistic arrangement with humans, but for a much shorter time than almost all other domesticated animals. The benefit of removing rats and mice from humans' food stores outweighed the cost of allowing a formerly-wild animal to enjoy the relative safety of a human settlement; hence, the relationship between cat and human has continued. However, unlike other domesticated species, housecats' ancestors did not hunt socially or enjoy the safety of a herd, as other domesticated animals did. This evolutionary history may be the reason cats do not "understand" the desires of humans in the same way that dogs do; before humans, cats had fewer social relationships to benefit from. This may also contribute to a sense common among pet owners that cats are both more aloof and more self-sufficient than other pets. However, cats can be very affectionate towards their humans, especially if they imprint on them at a very young age and are treated with consistent affection. Some environmentalists claim that the domestication of cats is of harm to the environment, and excessive cat populations result in the overhunting of many small animals and birds in both urban and rural areas, possibly disrupting the food chain and limiting local species populations. Throughout the centuries, as humans took advantage of the domestic cat's hunting skills, few had regard for their habitat and care, and far fewer thought to practice good animal husbandry. This has created many pockets of feral populations and local imbalances; however, with intervention and management, most especially spay and neuter programs, the disruptions and chaos in both the feline's life cycle as well as its prey can easily be avoided, and the positive effects these small and vital predators have in the appropriate evironments can be observed and appreciated.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Cat" and from Cat-Purr.com
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Click on a book for more information and reviews [an error occurred while processing this directive] |
