Cat
- For alternative meanings see cat (disambiguation).
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The cat (also called domestic cat or house cat) is a small feline carnivorous mammal that has been domesticated for approximately 7000 years. Its scientific name is Felis silvestris catus or Felis silvestris domesticus, but the species is sometimes referred to as Felis domesticus or Felis catus. Felis catus is the more current species name.
A male cat is usually called a tom cat; a female cat is called a queen. A young cat is called a kitten (as are baby rats, rabbits, hedgehogs, and squirrels). A cat whose ancestry is officially registered is called a purebred cat, a pedigreed cat, or a show cat. The owners and breeders of show cats compete to see whose animal bears the closest resemblance to the "ideal" definition of the breed (see selective breeding). Less than one percent of the total feline population are purebred cats—the remaining 99% have mixed ancestry, and are referred to as domestic longhairs and domestic shorthairs. In the UK, non-purebred cats are sometimes known as moggies. In the U.S., a non-purebred cat is often called an alley-cat, even if it is not a stray
Characteristics
Domestic cats have the capacity to be predators as deadly and effective as the big cats, but pose little danger to humans because of their small size. They ambush and dispatch prey using tactics similar to those of leopards and tigers -- by pouncing and delivering a neck bite with their long canine teeth that severs the victim's spinal cord. Despite its reputation as a solitary animal, the domestic cat is social enough to form colonies, but does not attack as a group as do lions. Unlike dogs, cats can thrive only on a carnivorous diet.
The wild cat ancestor of the domestic cat is believed to have evolved in a desert climate, as evident in the behavior common to both the domestic and wild forms. Cats enjoy heat and solar exposure, often sleeping in a warm area during the heat of the day. Their feces are usually dry, and cats prefer to bury them in sandy places. They are able to remain motionless 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.
Being closely related to desert animals, cats can withstand the heat and cold of a temperate climate, but not for long periods of time. They have little resistance against rain and snow, and struggle to maintain their 39°C (102°F) body temperature when wet.
Cats typically weigh 4 to 7 kg (9 to 15 pounds) and rarely exceed 10 kg (22 pounds). They have been known to reach weights in excess of 23 kg (50 pounds) when overfed. This is very unhealthy for the cat, and should be avoided. In captivity, cats typically live 15 to 20 years, though the oldest known cat lived to age 36. Domestic cats live longer if they are not permitted to go outdoors (thus avoiding fights and accidents) and if they are spayed or neutered. Indoor cats must be provided a litterbox containing sand or similar commercial material (litter). This arrangement serves the same purpose as a toilet for humans. A litterbox is recommended for indoor-outdoor cats as well. Indoor cats will also benefit from being provided with a scratching post.
Cats have a scent organ in the roof of their mouths called the vomeronasal, or Jacobson's organ. When a cat wrinkles its muzzle, lowers its chin, and lets its tongue hang a bit, it is opening the passage to the vomeronasal. This is called gaping. Gaping is the equivalent of the Flehmen response in other animals, such as dogs and horses.
Cats have excellent nocturnal and diurnal vision. In very bright light, the slit-like iris closes very narrowly over the eye, reducing the amount of light on the sensitive retina, but greatly limiting the cat's field of view. An organ called the tapetum lucidum is responsible for their strong low-light vision, as well as for the varied colours of cats' eyes in flash photographs. As with most predators their eyes are both forward-facing, affording depth perception at the expense of field of view. Cats are weakly trichromatic. A
Another standard feature of cats is that they have vibrissae (commonly called whiskers) to aid with navigation and sensation when light is poor. If it is compeletly dark, a cat cannot see. There must be some light, however dim, for vision.
Cats have a third eyelid, the nictitating membrane, which is a thin cover which closes from the side and appears when the cat's eyelid opens. This membrane partially closes if the cat is sick, although a very sleepy and happy cat can also show this membrane. If a cat chronically shows the third eyelid, it should be taken to a veterinarian.
The unique sound a small cat makes is written "meow" in American English, "miaow" in British English, and various ways in other languages. Cats can also produce a purring noise that many humans find pleasurable. Some cats growl or hiss when they see other cats in their territory. The hiss resembles the sound of a snake, which may invoke more fear than would a cat.
Virtually all cats have straight upward ears. Unlike dogs, flap-eared breeds are very rare. Scottish Folds is one such exceptional genetic mutation. When angry or frightened, a cat will often fold down its ears, to accompany the growl or hiss sounds it makes.
Cats are also very clean, as they groom themselves by licking their fur. Their saliva is a powerful cleaning agent, but it can provoke allergic reactions in humans. They also occasionally vomit up hair balls of fur that have collected in their stomachs.
History and mythology
The earliest written records of cat domestication date to ancient Egypt circa 4000 BC, where cats were kept to keep mice and rats away from grain stores. However, a recently discovered gravesite in Shillourokambos, Cyprus, dating to 7500 BC, contains the skeletons of a ceremonially buried human and a young cat. Since cats are not native to Cyprus, this suggests that cats were domesticated (or just tamed) at least this early. [1][2] The cat found in the Cyprus grave was more similar to the ancestral wildcat species than to modern housecats.
Ancient Egyptians regarded cats as embodiments of the goddess Bast, also known as Bastet or Thet. The penalty for killing a cat was death, and when a cat died it was sometimes mummified in the same way as a human. In the Middle Ages, cats were often thought to be witches' familiars, and during festivities were sometimes burnt alive or thrown off tall buildings. Today some people believe that white cats are unlucky, or that it is unlucky if a black cat crosses ones path, while others believe that black cats are lucky.
The cat is one of the animals in the 12-year cycle of the Vietnamese zodiac. It does not however appear in the Chinese zodiac. Legend holds that the rat, who invited the animals to the Jade Emperor's palace to be chosen for the zodiac, forgot to invite the cat, so the cat declared the rat its natural enemy.
Domestication
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.
Feral cats may live alone, but most are found in large groups called feral colonies with communal nurseries, depending on resource availability. Many abandoned pet cats join these colonies out of desperation. The average lifespan of these feral cats is less than two years, while an average domestic housecat lives an average of sixteen years or more. Cityscapes, farms and much of the world are not native environments to the cat; the domestic cat comes from a desert climate and was distributed throughout the world by humans. Although cats are somewhat adaptable, feral felines are unable to thrive in extreme cold and heat, and with a protein requirement of about 90%, few ferals find adequate nutrition on their own. In addition, they have no defense or understanding of such predators as dogs, coyotes, and even automobiles. However, throughout the United States, there are thousands of volunteers and organizations that trap these unadoptable feral felines, spay or neuter them, inoculate the cats against rabies and feline leukemia, and treat them with long-lasting flea products. Before release back into their feral colonies, the attending veterinarian nips the tip off one ear to mark the feral as spayed/neutered and inoculated, as these cats will more than likely find themselves trapped again. Volunteers continue to feed and give care to these cats throughout their lives, and not only is their lifespan greatly increased, but behavior and nuisance problems, due to competition for food, are also greatly reduced. In time, if an entire colony is successfully spayed and neutered, no additional kittens are born and the feral colony disappears. Many hope to see an end to the harsh and unnatural world of urban feral cat colonies through these efforts.
Low cost spay and neuter clinicsare available throughout the United States.
Like many other domesticated animals, cats live in a mutualistic arrangement with humans, but have done so 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 harmful to the environment, and that 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 created many pockets of excessive 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 environments can be observed and appreciated.
For more information on the care of domestic cats, see How to choose your pet and take care of it, which has a section on cats.
Varieties of domestic cat
Breeds
The list of cat breeds lists the many cat breeds. Each breed has distinct features and heritage. Due to common cross-breeding in populated areas, many cats are simply identified as belonging to the homogeneous breeds of domestic longhair and domestic shorthair, depending on their type of fur.
Variety
Cats come in a variety of colors and patterns. These are physical properties and should not be confused with a breed of cat. The Calico is white with distinct black or red (or blue and cream in the dilute variant) spots. The Japanese refer to this pattern as mi-ke. The tortoiseshell pattern is black with red and white mottled throughout the coat. The dilute of this pattern is referred to as blue-cream. Bicolor cats are partly white with areas of color. A tabby cat is striped, with a variety of patterns. The classic pattern is the most common and consists of butterflies and bullseyes. The mackeral tabby is a series of vertical stripes down the cat's side (resembling the fish). This pattern broken into spots is referred to as spotted tabby. (See also cat coat genetics).
Household cats are grouped into a smaller number of types according to basic physical appearance:
- domestic longhaired cat
- domestic shorthaired cat
- Oriental cat (not a specific breed, but any cat with an elongated slender build, almond-shaped eyes, large ears and very short sleek fur)
Some of the basic feline coloration patterns also have names:
- Maltese cat
- Tabby cat
- Tortoiseshell cat (also known as 'calico cat' or 'tortie with white' (regular Torties are only black and orange (no white) or gray/cream (diluted tortie) and are not called calicos; calicos are mostly white with orange and black spots or blue/cream spots)
- Torbies (also known as a patched tabby or tortie tabby -- black/gray(and often brownish -- i.e. brown tabbies)/orange with tabby patterns and may also have white - usually chest/paws/legs/belly, facial marks (then called Torbie with white -- often mistaken for a calico, but less white and with tabby pattern; gray(brown)/black/orange pattern covers most of their back, neck, and top of head))
- Tuxedo cat or 'Jellicle cat' (tuxedos are mostly black with white paws/legs, bellies, chests, and possible markings on face)
When Cats Are Prey
In desperate times, people have been known to resort to cooking and eating cats, as occurred in Argentina in 1996. Cats are also rumored to occasionally be prepared in Cantonese cuisine, but this culture is also well known to prize long haired cats as pets. People also kill cats to produce "medicinal" potions such as Korean "liquid cat", a remedy for joint pain, and for pelts that will be mislabeled as expensive or restricted furs. Cat potions can be harmful to people. An Australian veterinarian gives his account here.
Inhumane treatment of cats is associated with many Asian exports; some traditional medicines sent to the United States are of unknown animal origin, and clothing and toys are frequently trimmed with cat fur. In 2001, thousands of fur-covered toy cats imported from China to the northeast United States were recalled and destroyed; ironically, they were actually covered with the pelts of slaughtered cats.
One Australian aboriginal desert tribe hunts the difficult-to-catch feral cat as their secondary source of meat, calling it "bush meat". Eating either cats or dogs is banned in Australia, but this may be difficult to enforce. The aboriginal people believe this cat to be either indigenous or of ancient, non-European origin; however, recent DNA analysis has shown that they are descendants of British shorthairs gone feral.
The term "roof-hare" applies to cat meat presented as that of a hare. Subtracting the skin, feet, head and tail, hares and cats are practically identical. The only way to distinguish them is by looking at the processus hamatus of the feline scapula, which should have a processus suprahamatus.
Cats are not an economical source of protein for humans, as they are predators themselves and are far more useful at keeping small rodent populations under control. Within nature, when predators suddenly become prey, a serious environmental imbalance is generally to blame.
Cats and the Black Death
The speed with which the Black Death spread through 14th century Europe led many religiously-oriented people to believe that the Devil was responsible for the disease. This belief led the Pope to declare that cats, who were known to roam freely, were in league with the devil. This declaration was aided by the belief that cats often acted as witches' familiars. Because of the declaration, a great many cats were killed in the very religious Europe. The sudden decrease in the cat population led to a massive increase in the number of rats, the number of plague-carrying fleas that fed upon them, and, ironically, the number of human plague victims, which is what the declaration had aimed to reduce.
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