domestic cat ( Felis silvestris catus or Felis catus ) is a small carnivorous mammal, usually hairy. They are often called home cats when kept as pets or cat cats when it is not necessary to distinguish them from felids and other felines. They are often valued by humans for their friendship and their ability to hunt for pests. There are more than seventy breeds of cats recognized by various cat registries.
The cat resembles anatomy with other felids, with a strong flexible body, quick reflexes, retractable claws and adjustable teeth to kill small prey. Cat senses fit niche ecological niche and predators. Cats can hear sounds that are too pale or too high in frequency for the human ear, as do mice and other small animals. They can see near the darkness. Like most other mammals, cats have worse color vision and better smell than humans. Cats, although sole hunters, are a social species, and cat communication includes the use of various vocalizations (mewing, snoring, crackling, hissing, snarling and sniffing) as well as cat pheromones and special cat body types.
Cats have a high breeding rate. Under controlled breeding, they can be raised and displayed as registered pedigree pets, a hobby known as fancy cats. Failure to control the breeding of pet cats by castration, as well as the abandonment of former domestic pets, has resulted in many wild cats worldwide, requiring population control. In certain areas beyond the original reach of cats, this has contributed, along with the destruction of habitats and other factors, to the extinction of many species of birds. Cats have been known to destroy bird species in certain areas and may have caused the extinction of remote island populations. Cats are considered responsible primarily for the extinction of 87 species of birds, and the presence of wild and scattered cats makes some unsuitable locations unsuitable for species reintroduction efforts.
Because cats are glorified in ancient Egypt, they are generally believed to have been domesticated there, but there may be examples of Neolithic early domestication of about 9,500 years ago (7500 BC). A genetic study in 2007 concluded that all domestic cats were from Near Eastern wildcat, after deviating around 8000 BC in the Middle East. A study of 2016 found that leopard cats undergo domestication independently in China around 5500 BC, although this line of some pet cats has left no trace in the pet population today. A 2017 study confirms that domestic cats are the first offspring to be domesticated by farmers in the Near East about 9,000 years ago.
In a 2007 study, the cat was the second most popular pet in the US with the number of pets owned, behind the freshwater fish. In the 2010 study, they were ranked the third most popular pet in the UK, after fish and dogs, with about 8 million owned.
Video Cat
Taxonomy and evolution
Domestic cats are believed to have evolved from the Near Eastern wildcat, whose reach covers the vast Middle East section westward to the African Atlantic coast. Between 70,000 and 100,000 years ago the animal generated a genetic lineage that eventually resulted in all pet cats, having diverged from the Near Eastern wildcat about 8,000 BC in the Middle East.
The felids are a rapidly growing mammalian family that shared a common ancestor only 10-15 million years ago and included lions, tigers, puma and many others. In this family, the domestic cat ( Felis catus ) is part of the Felis genus, which is a group of small cats containing about seven species (depending on the classification scheme). Members of the genus are found all over the world and include the forest cat ( Felis chaus ) from Southeast Asia, the European wildcat ( F. Silvestris silvestris ), African wildcat ( F lybica ), Chinese mountain cat ( F. bieti ), and Arabic sand cat ( F. margarita ), between other.
The first domestic cat was classified as Felis catus by Carl Linnaeus in its 10th edition Systema Naturae published in 1758. Due to modern phylogenetics, domestic cats are usually regarded as other cats. subspecies of stray cats, F. silvestris . This leads to the use of various terms, since domestic cats can be called by their subspecies name, Felis silvestris catus . Wildcats have also been referred to as various subspecies of F. catus , but in 2003, the International Commission on Zoological Nomenography set the name for wild cats as F. silvestris . The most common name used for domestic cats remains F. catus . Sometimes, domestic cats have been called Felis domesticus as proposed by German naturalist J. C. P. Erxleben in 1777, but this is not a valid taxonomy name and is rarely used in scientific literature. Black cat population Transcaucasia was once classified as Felis daemon (Satunin 1904) but now this population is considered part of a domestic cat.
All cats in this genus have the same ancestors believed to live about 6-7 million years ago in the Near East (Middle East). The exact relationship in Felidae is close but still uncertain, eg. Chinese mountain cats are sometimes classified (under the name Felis silvestris bieti ) as wild cat subspecies, such as North African varieties F.s. lybica .
Compared to dogs, cats did not undergo major changes during the domestication process, because the shape and behavior of domestic cats did not differ radically from stray cats and domestic cats were highly able to survive in the wild. Fully tamed house cats often mate with feral F. catus populations, producing hybrids such as the Kellas cat. This limited evolution during domestication means hybridization can occur with many other felids, especially Asian tiger cats. Some of the natural behavior and characteristics of stray cats may tend to their domestication as pets. These features include small size, social characteristics, clear body language, playfulness and a relatively high intelligence. Some small species may have an innate tendency towards discomfort.
Cats have mutualistic or commensal relationships with humans. Two main theories are given about how cats are domesticated. In one, people deliberately tame cats in the process of artificial selection because they are useful pest predators. This has been criticized as unreasonable, since the rewards for such an effort may be too small; cats do not generally run orders and although they eat rodents, other species such as weasels or terriers may be better at controlling these pests. The alternative idea is that cats are only tolerated by people and gradually deviate from their wild relatives through natural selection, as they adapt to hunt down pests found around humans in towns and villages.
Maps Cat
Nomenclature and etymology
Originally the English word cat (Old English catt ) and his colleagues in Other Germanic languages ​​(such as German Katze ), are derived from Proto-Germanic * katt? n- , controversial. This is traditionally regarded as a loan of Latin End catta (used about 75 M by Martial), compare also Byzantine Greek ????? , Portuguese and Spanish gato , French chats , Maltese qattus , Lithuania kat? , and Old Church Slavonic ( kotka ), among others. The Latin word End is generally thought to be derived from Afro-Asian, but every word of the proposed source has presented the problem. Many references refer to "Berber" (Kabyle) kaddÃÆ'®ska , 'wild cat', and Nubian kad? s as a possible source or source, but M. Lionel Bender suggesets the Nubian term is a loan from Arabic ?????? qi ?? a . Jean-Paul Savignac suggests the Latin word is derived from the ancient Egyptian predecessor Coptic ??? ? au , 'tomcat', or its feminine form suffixed with -t , but John Huehnergard says "the source [...] obviously does not belong to Egypt itself, where no analogous form is proved." Huehnergard argues it is "the same possibility that the forms may have originated from the ancient Germanic word, imported into Latin and from there to Greek and to Syria and Arabia". Guus Kroonen also considers the word to be original from Germanic (due to morphological turnover) and Northern Europe, and suggests that it may eventually be borrowed from Uralic, cf. Northern Sami ga? Fe code: sme promoted to code: se , 'female stoat', and Hungarian hÃÆ'¶lgy , 'stoat'; from Proto-Uralic * kÃÆ'¤? wÃÆ'¤ , 'women (from furry animals)'. In any case, cat is a classic example of German Wanderwort .
The alternative word is English cat (extended as pus and cat ). Only proved since the 16th century, it may have been introduced from Dutch poes or from German Low < span lang = "nds" title = "Low German text"> puuskatte , is associated with Swedish kattepus , or Norwegian pus , pusekatt . Similar forms exist in Lithuania pui ?? and Irish puisÃÆ'n or puiscÃÆ'n . The etymology of this word is unknown, but it may only come from the sound used to attract cats.
A group of cats can be referred to as clowder or glaring ; male cats are called tom or tomcat (or gib , if castrated); an unpaid woman is called queen , especially in the context of cat breeding; and teenage cats are referred to as kittens . The male ancestor of the cat, especially the castrated cats, is sire , and his mother is the dam In Early Modern English, the word
A genealogical cat is a descendant noted by a more luxurious cat organization. A race cat (or wholly raised) is a cat whose ancestors contain only individuals of the same kind. Many pedigreed cats and especially cat races are featured as a cat show. Unrecorded cats, mixed ancestors referred to as domestic short-haired or long-haired cats (by mantle type), or generally as random moggies, mainly (English), or (using borrowed terms from pet dogs) bongrels or mutt cats.
While African wildcat is an ancestral subspecies from which domestic cats are lowered, and wild cats and domestic cats can actually cross-breed (into subspecies of the same species), several transitional stages occur between domestic pets and genealogies on one side and animals wildly entirely on the other. The semi-feral cat, the cat mostly outdoors, is not owned by an individual, but is generally friendly to people and can be fed by some households. Wild cats are actually associated with human habitation areas, looking for food and are sometimes fed intermittently by people, but are usually wary of human interaction.
Biology
Anatomy
Domestic cats are the same size as other members of the Felis genus, typically weighing between 4 and 5 kg (9 and 10 pounds). Some breeds, such as the Maine Coon, can sometimes exceed 11 kg (24 pounds). In contrast, very small cats, less than 2 kg (4 Ib), have been reported. The world record for the biggest cat is 21 kg (50 pounds). The smallest ever officially registered adult cat weighs about 1 kg (2 pounds). Wild cats tend to be lighter, because they have more limited access to food than domestic cats. Boston Cat Hospital weighed stray cats trapped, and found an average 4-kg (9-pound) wild adult male, and an average female adulthur 3 kg (7 pounds). The average cat has a height of 23-25 ​​â € <â € cm (9-10 inches) and a head height of 46 cm body (18 inches) (male is bigger than female), with an average tail length of 30 cm (12 inches); wild cats may be smaller on average.
Cats have seven cervical vertebrae, as do almost all mammals; 13 thoracic vertebrae (humans have 12); seven lumbar vertebrae (humans have five); three sacral vertebrae like most mammals (humans have five); and a variable number of caudal vertebrae in the tail (humans only have caval vestigial vertebrae, fused into internal tail bones). Extra lumbar and thoracic vertebrae for spinal mobility and cat flexibility. Attached to the spine are 13 ribs, shoulders, and pelvis. Unlike human arms, cat forelimbs are attached to the shoulders by free floating clavicle bones allowing them to pass through their body through the space where they can get into their heads.
Unusual cat skeletons among the inner mammals have very large eye sockets and powerful and specialized jaws. Inside the jaw, cats have teeth that are adapted to kill prey and tear the flesh. When defeating its prey, a cat gives a deadly neck bite with its two long canine teeth, inserting it between two prey vertebrae and cutting off the spinal cord, causing irreversible paralysis and death. Compared to other felines, domestic cats have narrow canine teeth, which are an adaptation to their prey of choice against small rodents, which have small vertebrae. The premolar and the first molars together form a carnassial pair on each side of the mouth, which efficiently cuts the meat into small pieces, such as scissors. This is very important in feeding, because the small molars of the cat can not chew food effectively, and most cats are unable to masticate. Although cats tend to have better teeth than most humans, with decay is generally less likely due to a thicker enamel protective layer, less destructive saliva, a lack of retention of food particles between teeth, and a diet that contains mostly sugar, not affected. tooth loss and occasional infection.
Cats, like dogs, are digitigrades. They walk directly on their toes, with their leg bones forming the bottom of the visible legs. Cats are able to walk very precisely because, like all cats, they immediately register; that is, they place each back leg (almost) directly in the appropriate front paw mold, minimizing the noise and visible trace. It also provides a sure footing for their back paws as they navigate rough terrain. Unlike most mammals, when cats run, they use a "pacing" style; that is, they move two legs on one side of the body before the feet on the other side. This property is divided by camels and giraffes. When walking, the speed becomes running, the cat's gait becomes a "diagonal" style, similar to most other mammals (and many other terrestrial animals, such as lizards): the back diagonal and the forefoot move simultaneously.
Like almost all Felidae members, cats have long, retractable claws. In a normal and relaxed position, claws are covered with leather and feathers around the foot pads. This keeps the claws sharp by preventing wear and tear from contact with the ground and allowing the silence of prey. The front paws are usually sharper than the claws on the hind legs. Cats can voluntarily expand their claws on one or more claws. They can expand their claws in hunting or defending, climbing, massaging, or for additional traction on soft surfaces. Most cats have five claws in their front paws, and four claws on the hind legs. The fifth front claw (dewclaw) is proximal to the other claws. More proximal is the bulge that seems to be the sixth "finger". The special feature of the front paws, on the inside of the wrist, is the carpal pad, also found on the claws of cats and large dogs. Does not have normal running function, but is considered as the anti-slip device used when jumping. Some races of cats are susceptible to polydactyly (extra toes and claws). This is very common along the northeastern coast of North America.
Physiology
Cats are animals that are familiar and easy to maintain, and their physiology has been studied very well; generally similar to other carnivorous mammals, but featuring some unusual features that may be caused by descendants of cats of a species living in the desert. For example, cats can tolerate high temperatures: Humans usually begin to feel uncomfortable when their skin temperature passes around 38 ° C (100 ° F), but cats show no discomfort until their skin reaches around 52 ° C (126 °, Â ° F), and can tolerate temperatures up to 56Ã, Â ° C (133Ã, Â ° F) if they have access to water.
Cats save heat by reducing blood flow to their skin and heat loss by evaporation through their mouth. Cats have minimal sweating ability, with glands located primarily in the cushions of their feet, and hot aid pants only at very high temperatures (but may also be panting when pressed). Cat's body temperature does not vary throughout the day; this is part of the lack of circadian rhythms in general and may reflect their tendency to be active both day and night. Cat manure is relatively dry and their urine is highly concentrated, both of which are adaptations to allow cats to retain as much water as possible. Their kidneys are very efficient, they can survive on a diet consisting only of meat, no additional water, and can even be rehydrated by drinking seawater. While domestic cats can swim, they are generally reluctant to enter the water because it quickly leads to fatigue.
Nutrition
Cats are carnivorous: their physiology has evolved to process meat efficiently, and they have trouble digesting plant matter. In contrast to omnivores such as mice, which only require about 4% protein in their diet, about 20% of the cat's diet should be protein. The cat's gastrointestinal tract is adapted to eating meat, much shorter than omnivorous and has some of the digestive enzymes necessary to digest carbohydrates. These characteristics greatly limit the ability of cats to digest and use plant-derived nutrients, as well as certain fatty acids. Despite meat-oriented meat physiology, some vegetarian or vegan cat food has been marketed that comes with chemically synthesized taurine and other nutrients, in an effort to produce a full meal. However, some of these products still fail to provide all the nutrients needed by cats, and diets that do not contain animal products pose a risk of causing severe nutritional deficiencies. However, veterinarians in the United States have expressed concern that many domestic cats eat too much.
Cats sometimes eat grass. The explanation put forward is that cats use grass as a source of folic acid. Another is that it is used to supply dietary fiber, helps cat defecate more easily and repel parasites and other harmful materials through dirt and vomit.
Cats rely heavily on the constant supply of amino acid arginine, and a diet that lacks arginine leads to marked weight loss and can be fatal. Arginine is an important additive in cat food because cats have a level of enzyme aminotransferase and pyrroline-5-carboxylate which is responsible for the synthesis of ornithine and citrulline in the small intestine. Citrulline usually goes to the kidneys to make arginine, but since cats have a deficiency in the enzyme that makes it, citrulline is not produced in sufficient quantities to make arginine. Arginine is essential in the urea cycle to convert the toxic components of ammonia into urea which can then be excreted in the urine. Due to its important role, arginine deficiency results in the buildup of toxic ammonia and causes hyperammonemia. The symptoms of hyperammonemia include lethargy, vomiting, ataxia, hyperesthesia and can be serious enough to cause death and coma in a matter of days if the cat is fed an arginine-free diet. The rapid onset of these symptoms is due to the fact that a diet containing no arginine will normally contain all the other amino acids, which will continue to be catabolized by the body, resulting in a very rapid amount of ammonia mass build up without being excreted.
Another unusual feature is that cats can not produce taurine, with this nutritional deficiency leading to macular degeneration, where the cat's retina is slowly damaged, causing irreversible blindness. This is due to the activity of liver decarboxylase of cystinesulfinic acid to be low in cats. This limits the ability of cats to synthesize the taurine they need from their precursors, the amino acid cysteine, which ultimately results in inadequate taurine production required for normal functioning. Lack of taurine produces compensatory function of the cardiovascular and reproductive systems of cats. This disorder can also be accompanied by developmental problems in the central nervous system along with retinal degeneration.
To produce vitamin niacin which is important for use in cats, tryptophan is needed for conversion purposes. However, because of the pathway that competes with acetyl coenzyme A (acetyl-CoA), niacin may become deficient and require supplementation. This process occurs when the overactive enzyme, picolinic carboxylase, converts the vitamin B precursor picolinic acid 6 to an acetyl-CoA alternative compound instead of converting the quinolinate to the nicotinic acid mononylucleotide (niacin). Niacin is needed in cats because it supports enzyme function. If niacin is deficient in diet, anorexia, weight loss and increased body temperature may occur.
Preformed vitamin A is needed in cats for retinal health and reproduction. Vitamin A is considered a fat-soluble vitamin and is considered essential in a cat's diet. Usually, the conversion of beta-carotene into vitamin A occurs in the gut (more specifically the mucosal layer) of the species, but the cat does not have the ability to undergo this process. Both the kidneys and liver are contributors to the use of vitamin A in the body of the majority of species while the cat liver does not produce the 15,15'-monooxygenase beta-carotene enzyme that converts beta-carotene into retinol (vitamin A). ). To summarize: cats do not have high levels of this enzyme leading to cleavage and oxidation of carotenoids does not occur.
Vitamin D3 is a dietary requirement for cats because they do not have the ability to synthesize vitamin D3 from sunlight. Cats get high levels of the 7-dehydrocholestrol delta 7 reductase enzyme that causes the immediate conversion of vitamin D3 from sunlight to 7-dehydrocholesterol. This fat soluble vitamin is required in cats for bone formation through the promotion of calcium retention, along with nerve and muscle control through calcium and phosphorus uptake.
Cats, like all mammals, need to get linoleic acid, essential fatty acids, from their diet. Most mammals can convert linoleic acid to arachidonic acid, as well as omega 3 fatty acids (eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid) through enzyme activity, but this process is very limited to cats. The 6-desaturase enzyme eventually converts linoleic acid, which in the form of linoleic salt, into arachidonate (a salt form of arachidonic acid) in the liver, but this enzyme has very little activity in cats. This means that arachidonic acid is an essential fatty acid for cats because they lack the ability to create the required amount of linoleic acid. The deficiency of arachidonic acid in cats is associated with problems in growth, may cause injury and inflammation of the skin (eg around the mouth) decreased platelet aggregation, liver fatty, increased birth defects of the kitten deficient queen during pregnancy, and reproductive failure in infants. Queen. Arachidonic acid can also be metabolized into eicosanoids that create the inflammatory response necessary to stimulate proper growth and repair mechanisms in cats.
Cat Food ç§ Nutrient Graph provides a list of many nutrients the cat needs as well as the use of nutrients in the body and the effects of deficiency.
Sense
Cats have excellent night vision and can see only one-sixth the level of light needed for human vision. This is partly the result of cat eyes that have tapetum lucidum, which reflects whatever light passes through the retina back into the eye, increasing the eye's sensitivity to dim light. Another adaptation to dim light is a large cat pupil. Unlike big cats, like tigers, domestic cats have slit pupils. Students of this gap can focus bright lights without chromatic aberrations, and are necessary because the domestic cat pupils are much larger, relative to their eyes, than large cat pupils. At low light levels, cat pupils will expand to cover most of the exposed surface of the eye. However, domestic cats have rather poor color vision and (like most nonprimate mammals) have only two cones, optimized for blue and yellowish sensitivity; they have a limited ability to distinguish between red and green. A 1993 paper reported a response to the intermediate wavelength of a system other than a rod that may be caused by a third cone type. However, this appears to be an adaptation to low light levels rather than representing a true trichromatic vision.
Cats have very good hearing and can detect a very wide frequency range. They can hear high-pitched sounds rather than dogs or humans, detecting frequencies from 55 Hz to 79,000 Hz, a range of 10.5 octaves, while humans and dogs both have a range of about 9 octaves. Cats can hear ultrasound, which is important in hunting because many species of rodents make ultrasonic calls. However, they do not communicate using ultrasound like rodents. Hearing cats is also sensitive and includes the best of any mammal, most acute in the range of 500 Hz to 32 kHz. This sensitivity is further strengthened by the large outer ears that the cat can move (pinnae), both of which amplify sound and help detect the direction of sound.
Cats have acute olfactory senses, in part because of well-developed olfactory bulbs and large olfactory mucosal surfaces, about 5.8 cm 2 (0.90 in 2 ) in the area , which is about two times that of a human. Cats are sensitive to pheromones such as 3-mercapto-3-methylbutan-1-ol, which they use to communicate by spraying urine and marking with the scent glands. Many cats are also very responsive to plants that contain nepetalactone, especially catnip, because they can detect it less than one part per billion. Approximately 70-80% of cats are affected by nepetalactone. This response is also generated by other plants, such as silver vine ( Actinidia polygama ) and herbal valerian; probably caused by the smell of this plant mimics pheromones and stimulates the social or sexual behavior of cats.
Cats have relatively few appetites compared to humans (470 or more versus more than 9,000 on the human tongue). Domestic and wild cats share a mutation of genes that keep their sweet tongues binding to sugar molecules, leaving them unable to taste sweetness. Their tastes actually respond to acids, amino acids such as proteins, and bitter taste. Cats and many other animals have Jacobson organs in their mouths that are used in the behavioral process of flehmening. This allows them to feel a certain aroma in a way that humans can not. Cats also have different temperature preferences for their food, preferring foods with temperatures around 38 ° C (100 ° F) that are similar to newly killed and routinely reject foods served cold or refrigerated (which will signal to cats that the item "prey" has long been dead and therefore may be poisonous or decaying).
To help with navigation and sensation, cats have dozens of moving whiskers (vibrissae) on top of their bodies, especially their faces. It provides information about the width of the gap and the location of the object in the dark, either by touching the object directly and by sensing the air current; they also trigger a flickering reflex of protection to protect the eyes from damage.
Most breeds of cats have a fondness for settling in high places, or perches. In the wild, higher ground can serve as a hidden place for hunting; a domestic cat might attack its prey by pouncing from a perch like a branch of a tree, just like a leopard. Another possible explanation is the altitude giving the cat a better observation point, allowing it to survey its territory. During a fall from a high place, a cat can reflexively twist its body and immediately use its balance and acute flexibility. This is known as the cat's straightening reflex. An individual cat always has it's own right in the same way, as long as he has time to do it, during the fall. The required altitude for this to occur is about 90 cm (3.0 ft). Non-tailed cats (eg many specimens from Manx and Cymric breeds) also have this ability, since cats are largely dependent on foot movements and conservation of angular momentum to regulate landings, and little tails are used for this feat. Their wonderfully balanced feelings allow the cat to move with high stability. A cat that falls from a height of up to 3 meters can do it on its own and land on a claw.
Health
The average age of pet cats has increased in recent years. In the early 1980s, it was about seven years old, rising to 9.4 years in 1995 and 15 years now. However, cats have been reported to be safe until their 30s, with the oldest known cat, Creme Puff, dying at the verified age of 38 years.
Spay or neutering raises life expectancy: one study found castrated male cats twice as long as a whole male, while a spayed female cat lived 62 percent longer than a full female. Having a castrated cat provides health benefits, because neutered men can not develop testicular cancer, spayed women can not develop uterine or ovarian cancer, and both have a reduced risk of breast cancer.
Despite widespread concerns about the welfare of cats that are free to roam, the life span of castrated wild cats in a managed colony is better than that of a pet cat.
Disease
Various health problems can affect cats, including infectious diseases, parasites, injuries, and chronic diseases. Vaccinations are available for many of these diseases, and domestic cats are regularly given treatments to remove parasites such as worms and lice.
Genetics
The nearest pet cat and wild ancestor are diploid organisms that have 38 chromosomes and about 20,000 genes. Approximately 250 inherited genetic disorders have been identified in cats, much like the innate human error. The high level of similarity between mammalian metabolism allows many of these cat diseases to be diagnosed using genetic tests initially developed for use in humans, as well as the use of cats as animal models in the study of human diseases.
Behavior
Outdoor cats are active both day and night, although they tend to be a bit more active at night. Cat activity times are quite flexible and varied, meaning home cats may be more active in the morning and evening, in response to greater human activity at this time. Although they spend most of their time around their homes, housecats can range from hundreds of meters from this center, and are known to build areas of varying sizes, in one study ranging from 7 to 28 hectares (17 -69 acres).
Cats save energy by sleeping more than most animals, especially as they grow older. The daily sleep duration varies, usually between 12 and 16 hours, with 13 and 14 being an average. Some cats can sleep as much as 20 hours. The term "cat nap" for short break refers to the tendency of a cat to fall asleep (lightly) for a short time. Asleep, the cat experiences a short period of rapid eye movement that is often accompanied by twitch muscles, indicating they are dreaming.
Sociability
Although wild cats are solitary, domestic cats' social behavior is much more variable and ranges from widespread individuals to wild cat colonies gathered around food sources, based on groups of women working together. In such groups, one cat is usually dominant over the other. Each cat in the colony has a different area, with sexually active men having the largest area, which is about 10 times larger than that of a female cat and can overlap with some female territory. These areas are characterized by spraying urine, by rubbing head-high objects with fluid from the facial glands, and with bowel movements. Among these areas are the neutral areas where cats watch and greet each other without territorial conflicts. Outside this neutral territory, the holder of the territory usually expels the alien cats, at first by staring, hissing, and growling, and if that does not work, with a short but noisy and violent attack. Although some cats live together in the colony, they have no social survival strategy, or package mentality, and always hunt alone.
However, some pet cats are not well socialized. In particular, older cats may show aggresiveness to newly arrived kittens, which may include biting and scratching; this type of behavior is known as a cat's asocial aggression.
Although cats and dogs are often characterized as natural enemies, they can live together if properly disseminated.
Life close to humans and other domestic animals has led to the social adaptation of symbiosis in cats, and cats can express great affection towards humans or other animals. Ethologically, the guardian of cats can serve as a kind of substitute for cat mothers, and adult home cats live their lives in a kind of extended kittenhood, a form of neoteny behavior. The high crow's voice makes food to ask perhaps to mimic the cry of a hungry human baby, making them very difficult to ignore by humans.
The scrubbing behavior of a domestic cat's scent against other humans or cats is considered a means of cats for social bonding.
Communications
Domestic cats use a lot of vocalizations for communication, including purring, trilling, hissing, snarling/snarling, snorting, and some meowing. (In contrast, stray cats are generally silent.) Their body language types, including the position of the ears and tail, the relaxation of the whole body, and the massaging of the claws, are all mood indicators. Tails and ears are very important mechanisms of social signaling in cats; for example, a raised tail acts as a friendly greeting, and a flat ear indicates hostility. The tail-hoisting also shows the position of the cat in the social hierarchy of the group, with the dominant individual increasing its tail less frequently than the subordinate animals. A nose-to-nose touch is also a common greeting and may be followed by social care, prompted by one cat that lifts and tilts its head.
Snoring may have evolved as an evolutionary advantage as a mechanism of signaling a guarantee between mother and cat kittens. Post-nursing cats often snore as a sign of satisfaction: while being urinated, being relaxed, or eating. The mechanism of how a cat snores is a difficult thing to understand. Cats do not have a unique anatomical feature that is clearly responsible for the sound. That, to date, believes that only cats of the genus Felis can snore. However, the felids of the Panthera genus (tigers, lions, jaguars, and leopards) also produce a continuous sound, called chuffs , similar to purring, but only when exhaling.
Caring
Cats are known for spending a lot of time licking their coats to keep them clean. The cat's tongue has a rear-facing spine about 500 m long, called papillae. It contains keratin that makes it so stiff that the papilla acts like a hairbrush. Some cats, especially long-haired cats, occasionally spit out the circles of feathers that have accumulated in their stomachs from the treatment. This fur clump is usually a sausage-shaped and about 2-3 cm long (0.8-1.2 inches). Hairballs can be prevented with drugs that facilitate hair removal through the intestine, as well as regular treatment of the coat with a comb or a stiff brush.
Fight
Among domestic cats, men are more likely to fight than women. Among the stray cats, the most common reason for cat fights is competition between two men to mate with women. In such cases, most fights are won by heavier men. Another common reason for fighting in domestic cats is the difficulty of building a territory within a small house. Female cats are also fighting over territory or to defend their kittens. Neutering will decrease or eliminate this behavior in many cases, suggesting that the behavior is related to sex hormones.
When cats become aggressive, they try to make themselves appear bigger and more threatening by lifting their fur, arching their backs, spinning sideways and hissing or spitting. Often, the ears are directed down and backwards to avoid damage to the inner ear and potentially listen to any changes behind them as they focus forward. They can also voice aloud and bare their teeth in an attempt to further intimidate their opponents. Fights usually consist of grappling and give a strong blow to the face and body with forepaws as well as bites. Cats also flopped to the ground in a defensive position to bend their opponent's stomach with strong hind legs.
Serious damage is rare, since fights are usually short in duration, with losers running away with little more than a few scratches to the face and ears. However, fights for marriage rights are usually more severe and injuries may include deep puncture wounds and lacerations. Usually, serious injuries from fights are limited to scratch and bite infections, although this can sometimes kill a cat if left untreated. In addition, the bite may be the main route of transmission of cat immunodeficiency virus. Sexually active men are usually involved in many fights during their lifetime, and often clearly bruise faces with scars and clear cuts in their ears and noses.
Hunting and feeding
Cats hunt for small prey, especially birds and rodents, and are often used as a form of pest control. Domestic cats are the main predators of wildlife in the United States, killing around 1.4 to 3.7 billion birds and 6.9 to 20.7 billion mammals each year. Most of the predation in the United States is done by 80 million wild and wild cats. Effective measures to reduce this population are elusive, facing opposition from cat fans. In the case of free pets, equipping cats with bells and not letting them out at night will reduce wildlife predation.
Wild cats and free-eating home cats tend to consume lots of snacks in one day, although the frequency and size of food vary among individuals. Cats use two hunting strategies, either stalking prey actively, or waiting for an ambush until an animal is close enough to be caught. Although uncertain, the strategy used may depend on prey species in the area, with cats waiting in ambush outside the hole, but tending to actively stalk the birds.
Perhaps the most recognizable element of cat hunting behavior, which is often misunderstood and often makes appra cat owners because it looks like torture, is that cats are often seen "playing" with prey by releasing it after being caught. This behavior is caused by instinctive instinct to ensure that the prey is weak enough to be killed without harm to the cat. This behavior is called in the idiom of "game of cat and mouse" or simply "cat and mouse".
Another element of poorly understood cat hunting behavior is the presentation of prey to human guardians. The etologist Paul Leyhausen proposes that cats adopt humans into their social groups and share excessive killing with others in groups according to the hierarchy of dominance, in which humans react as if they were in, or near, the top. Anthropologist and zoologist Desmond Morris, in his 1986 Catwatching book, suggests, when cats carry mice or home birds, they try to teach their humans to hunt, or try to help their human beings as if feeding the " Å' old cat, or an unworthy cat. "Morris's hypothesis is inconsistent with the fact that male cats also carry prey, although men have a meaningless engagement by raising a kitten.
Domestic cats choose food based on temperature, odor and texture; they do not like cold foods and are very responsive to the wet foods rich in amino acids, which are similar to meat. Cats may resist new flavors (a response called neophobia) and learn quickly to avoid foods that have been unpleasant in the past. They can also avoid sweet foods and milk. Most adult cats are lactose intolerant; sugar in milk is not easy to digest and can cause soft stool or diarrhea. They can also develop strange eating habits. Some cats like to eat or chew other things, most often wool, but also plastic, cable, paper, strap, aluminum foil, or even coal. This condition, pica, can threaten their health, depending on the amount and toxicity of the items eaten.
Although cats typically prey on animals less than half their size, wild cats in Australia have been photographed killing adult pademelons around a cat's weight in 4 kg (8.8 pounds).
Because cats lack sufficient lips to make suction, they use lapping methods with tongue to draw fluid up into their mouths. Hitting four times in one second, the cat touches the tip of its smooth tongue to the surface of the water, and quickly retracts like a bottle opener, drawing water up.
Play
Domestic cats, especially young kittens, are known for their love of play. This behavior mimics the hunt and is important in helping kittens learn to stalk, capture, and kill prey. Cats are also involved in fighting play, with each other and with humans. This behavior can be a way for cats to practice the skills necessary for real combat, and may also reduce the fear they associate with launching attacks on other animals.
Due to the close similarities between playing and hunting, cats prefer to play with objects that resemble prey, like fast-moving little toy, but quickly lose interest (they become habituated) in the toys they have played before. Cats also tend to play with more toys when they are hungry. The rope is often used as a toy, but if eaten, it can become caught in the bottom of the cat's tongue and then move into the intestine, a medical emergency that can cause serious illness, even death. Due to the risks posed by cats that eat the rope, sometimes it is replaced by a point laser pointer, which the cat may pursue.
Reproduction
Female cats are seasonal polyestrous, meaning they may have many hot periods for a year, the season begins in spring and ends in late autumn. The hot period occurs about every two weeks and lasts about 4 to 7 days. Some males will be attracted to women in the heat. The man will fight over him, and the winner wins the right to mate. At first, women rejected men, but eventually women allowed men to marry. The female uttered a loud cry as the man pulled out of her because the male cat's pen had a band about 120-150 back-up penis spine, which is about 1 mm in length; after the withdrawal of the penis, the thorn swept through the female vaginal wall, which acts to induce ovulation. This action also occurs to clean the vagina of other sperm in the context of the second (or more) marriage, thus providing greater opportunities for male males to conception.
After mating, women wash their vagina thoroughly. If a man tries to mate with her at this point, the female will attack her. After about 20 to 30 minutes, after the woman completes the treatment, the cycle will recur.
Since ovulation is not always triggered by a single marriage, women can not be infused by the first male partner. Next, the superfecund cat; that is, a female may mate with more than one man when she is hot, with the result that a different kitten in one litter may have a different father.
At 124 hours after conception, the form of morula. At 148 hours, the early form of blastocysts. At 10-12 days, implantation occurs.
The pregnancy period for cats is between 64 and 67 days, with an average of 66 days. The litter size is usually three to five kittens, with the first litter usually smaller than the next. Kittens are weaned between six and seven weeks, and cats usually reach sexual maturity at 5-10 months (female) and 5-7 months (male), although this may vary depending on the species. Women can have two to three liters per year, so they can produce up to 150 kittens in their breeding range of about ten years.
Cats are ready to go to new homes at about 12 weeks old, when they are ready to leave their mother. They can be sterilized by surgery (sterilized or castrated) as early as 7 weeks to limit unwanted reproduction. This surgery also prevents unwanted sex-related behaviors, such as aggression, urine marking (spraying of urine) in men and yowling (calling) in women. Traditionally, this operation is performed at about six to nine months of age, but more often before puberty, about three to six months. In the US, about 80% of household cats are castrated.
Ecology
Habitat
Cats are a cosmopolitan species and are found throughout the world. Geneticist Stephen James O'Brien, from the National Cancer Institute in Frederick, Maryland, says how successful the cat is in terms of evolution: "Cats are one of the most charismatic evolutionary creatures they can live in the highest mountains and in the hottest deserts." adaptable and now present in all continents except Antarctica, and in 118 of the island's 131 main groups - even on remote islands such as the Kerguelen Islands.
Wildcats can live in forests, grasslands, tundra, coastal areas, farmlands, shrubs, urban areas, and wetlands. Their habitat even includes small oceanic islands without human inhabitants. Furthermore, domestic close relatives of domestic cats, African wildcat (Felis silvestris lybica ) and Arabian sand cats ( Felis margarita) both inhabit the desert environment, and cats domestic still shows similar adaptation and behavior. The ability of cats to thrive in almost all terrestrial habitats has led to its appointment as one of the world's worst invasive species.
Because domestic cats are little changed from stray cats, they can easily interbreed. This hybridization poses a danger to the genetic peculiarities of some wild cat populations, particularly in Scotland and Hungary and possibly also the Iberian Peninsula.
Wildcat
Wild cats are domestic cats that are born or have returned to the wild. They do not know and be aware of humans and roam freely in urban and rural areas. The number of wild cats is unknown, but the US wild population estimates range from 25 to 60 million. Wild cats can live on their own, but most are found in large colonies, which occupy certain areas and are usually associated with food sources. The famous wild cat colony is found in Rome around the Colosseum and Forum Romanum, with cats on some of these sites being fed and given medical attention by volunteers.
Public attitudes toward wild cats vary greatly, ranging from seeing them as free pets, to regard them as pests. One common approach to reducing wild cat populations is called 'trap-neuter-return', in which cats are trapped, castrated, immunized against diseases such as rabies and the virus Panleukopenia and Leukemia, and then released. Before releasing them back to their wild colony, the attending vet often biting the tip of one ear to mark it as castrated and inoculated, as this cat may be trapped again. Volunteers continue to feed and pay attention to these cats throughout their lives. With this support, their life spans are increasing, and behavior and disturbance problems caused by competition for food are reduced.
Impact on prey species
To date, little scientific data are available to assess the impact of cat predation on prey populations outside the agricultural situation. Even a well-fed domestic cat can hunt and kill, especially catching small mammals, but also birds, amphibians, reptiles, fish, and invertebrates. Hunting by domestic cats may contribute to the decline in the number of birds in urban areas, although the significance of these effects is controversial. In the wild, the introduction of stray cats during human settlements can threaten native species with extinction. In many cases, controlling or removing non-native cat populations can result in rapid recovery in native animals. However, the ecological role of the introduced cat can be more complicated. For example, cats can control the number of mice, which also prey on birds and young eggs, so the cat population can protect endangered bird species by suppressing the mesopredator.
In isolated islands, such as Australasia, there are often no other four-legged predators (including other cat species); this tends to exacerbate the impact of stray cats on small native animals. Indigenous species such as New Zealand kakapo and Australian bettong, for example, tend to be more ecologically vulnerable and "naive", when confronted with predation by cats. Wildcat has a major impact on this native species and has played a major role in endangering and destroying many animals.
Even in places with populations of ancient and numerous cats, such as Western Europe, cats appear to grow in number and regardless of their environmental carrying capacity (such as the number of prey available). This can be explained, at least in part, by the amount of food, from sources including provision by pet owners and scavengers. For example, research in the United Kingdom shows that the proportion of high cats only hunts "recreation", and in southern Sweden, where research in 1982 found that density of cat populations as high as 2,000 per square kilometer (5,200/sq.
In agricultural settings, cats can be effective in keeping the rats and mice populations low, but only if the location of rodent pruning remains under control. While cats are effective in preventing the explosion of rodent populations, cats are not effective at removing pre-existing heavy infestations.
Impact on birds
Domestic cat is a significant bird predator. The UK assessment suggests they may be responsible for about 64.8 million deaths each year. A 2012 study shows wild cats can kill several billion birds each year in the United States. Certain species appear to be more vulnerable than others; for example, 30% of home birds' deaths are attributed to domestic cats. In the recovery of ringed robins ( Erithacus rubecula ) and dunnocks ( Prunella modularis ), 31% of deaths are the result of cat predation. In some parts of North America, the presence of larger carnivores such as coyotes preying on cats and other small predators reduces predatory effects by cats and other small predators such as oposum and raccoon on bird numbers and varieties. The proposal that the cat population will increase when the number of predators up decreases is called the mesopredator release hypothesis.
On the islands, birds can contribute as much as 60% of the cat diet. In almost all cases, however, cats can not be identified as a single cause for reducing the number of island birds, and in some cases, cat eradication has led to a 'mesopredator release' effect; where the upper carnivorous suppression creates an abundance of smaller predators that cause a severe decline in their prey. Domestic cats, however, are known to be contributing factors to the decline of many species, a factor that ultimately leads, in some cases, to extinction. Piopio South Island, Chatham rail, New Zealand merganser, and general diving petrel are some of the long list, with the most extreme case being the non-flying Lyall midfielder, endangered just a few years after his discovery.
Several of the same factors that have promoted the adaptive radiation of the avifauna island during evolutionary time appear to promote susceptibility to non-native species in modern times. The vulnerability of island birds is undoubtedly due to evolution in the absence of predators of land, competitors, diseases, and parasites, in addition to lower reproductive rates and extended incubation periods. The loss of flight, or reduced flying ability also characterizes many endemic islands. This biological aspect has increased vulnerability to extinction in the presence of introduced species, such as domestic cats. Similarly, behavioral traits exhibited by island species, such as "innocence of predators" and nesting in the soil, also contribute to their vulnerability.
Interaction with humans
Cats are common pets all over the world, and their population worldwide exceeds 500 million. Although cat care is generally associated with women, the 2007 Gallup poll reported that men and women in the United States have the same possibility of having a cat.
Besides being kept as pets, cats are also used in the international fur and leather industry to make coats, hats, blankets, and stuffed toys; and shoes, gloves, and musical instruments respectively (about 24 cats needed to make a cat fur coat). This use has been banned in the United States, Australia and the European Union. Cat fur has been used for superstitious purposes as part of the practice of magic, and is still used as a blanket in Switzerland because traditional medicine is believed to help rheumatism. In the Western intellectual tradition, the idea of ​​a cat as a daily object has served to illustrate the problem of quantum mechanics in the experimental thought of the SchrÃÆ'¶dinger cat.
Some attempts to build a cat census have been carried out over the years, either through national or international associations or organizations (such as the Federation of Canadian Humanitarian Societies) and over the Internet, but such tasks do not seem to be easy to achieve. The general estimates for the global population of domestic cats range from about 200 million to 600 million.
Cat show
The cat show is a graded event in which cat owners compete to win titles at various cat registration organizations by including their cats to be assessed after the breed standard. Both cats mated or accompanied (or moggy) are acceptable, although the rules differ from organization to organization. Cats are compared to breed standards, and owners of those who are rated closest to them are rewarded. Moggies are judged on their temperament. Often, at the end of the year, all the points collected at various events are added and more national and regional titles are given.
Cat Cafe
Cafe cat is a theme cafe whose appeal is a cat that can be watched and played. The coach pays an additional fee, usually every hour and thus cat cafà © s can be seen as a form of a supervised indoor pet lease. Ailurophobia
Ailurophobia is a human phobia of cats; However, this term is often associated with humans who have hatred towards cats.
Cat bites
Cats can bite humans when provoked, while playing or when aggressive. Complications of cat bites may develop. Cat bites are different from other pet bites. This is because sharp and pointed cats' teeth cause deep puncture. The skin usually closes quickly over bites and traps the microorganisms that cause the infection.
Infectious disease from cat to man
Cats can be infected or infected with viruses, bacteria, fungi, protozoa, arthropods or worms that can transmit disease to humans. In some cases, cats do not show symptoms of the disease, however, the same disease can become apparent in humans. The likelihood that a person will become ill depends on the person's age and immunity status. Humans who have cats living in their homes or in close relationships are more likely to become infected, however, the brand
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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