Humans are entering a permanent phase of “reverse selection” making them thicker; and cats, taken as a whole, are less intelligent than they were 10,000 years ago because of domestication, which has eliminated the need for natural selection.
I’ll have to add some detail to that bold statement. A recent study, which I find very believable, indicates that Victorian era British were, smarter, quicker and more creative than the British of today. In our impregnable arrogance, we probably believed that we were steadily becoming ever more intelligent. Sadly not.
The reason is not clear, but Dr Woodley, who co-authored the study, postulates that the decline in intelligence in Britain is because the cleverer people are having less children. He describes this are “reverse selection”. You might add that the less intelligent are having more children, dramatically compounding the decline.
Clearly Britain does not represent all countries and places on the planet but in the Western world the same process is probably, or possibly, occurring.
As for cats, domestication removes the need for natural selection to take place. Natural selection is the process, described by Charles Darwin, in which the fittest survive the best, thereby gradually creating more smart and more fit animals (and humans). By fittest we must include superior intelligence.
It is accepted that the wild cats and wild cat hybrids are smarter than the average domestic cat and of all the domestic cats it is probably fair to argue that the purebred, pedigree cat is the least intelligent. This would be due to intense selective breeding for appearance and nothing else.
The feral cats should be smarter than the full-time indoor domestics because they have to survive the wild way – almost.
Where there is no requirement for the domestic cat to exercise his brain in order to survive, over time, he becomes slightly less intelligent. You can add to this process the rapid decline in the numbers of nearly all species of wild cat. The wild cats are a pool of cat intelligence. If there are less of them, the overall intelligence of the world cat population declines.
What to do about it? Well the cat breeders could start selecting cats for intelligence, for a start. The trend towards keeping cats indoors all the time is arguably bad for the domestic, over the long term, as it takes away the natural stimulations that the outdoors brings.
If the clock could be turned back to the era when domestic cats were barn cats and outdoor cats that would benefit the cat from the perspective of cat intelligence. The problem is that as the human continues to breed and fill up the planet, and as human activity makes the world more dangerous for outdoor cats, the direction the domestic cat is going in, is towards a safe indoor life lacking stimulation and challenges, together with the destruction of wild cats in their habitat. Without the need for the domestic cat to overcome survival challenges, he will become ever more stupid.
I’ll finish on humans. Why are the clever people in Britain having less children? The common sense answer is that the clever person feels uneasy about bringing a child into the world. This is sensible.
There is quite a lot of discussion about that subject too. Cat intelligence should not be gauged according to human intelligence methods. Even tests regarding human intelligence are considered limited in their worth as far as I am aware.
I believe people, in general, still greatly undervalue animal intelligence. It is due to the great human weakness: arrogance and the belief that we own the planet.
As a PS to my last comment. The general consensus in discussion about cat intelligence is that the wild cat has to use his brain a lot more to survive. It is a basic concept but makes sense. This brain exercise makes the cat sharper.
When you think that the domestic cat has been domesticated for 9,500 years, it is a short time. What will the domestic cat be like in 100,000 years and more?
I say the cat will be more stupid and there will no wild cats in their habitat to measure cat intelligence by.
Very good point, Ruth. By domestication we have taken intelligence from them. Well, I speculating and this not hard science, far from it, but there is some sense in the argument.
I have often wondered whether domestication is a good thing for the cat in the 21st century. It was a good idea back in the days when farmers wanted rodent catchers. That initial purpose has long gone.
I love having a cat and wouldn’t do without a cat but….questioning domestication of the cat in general is a worthwhile exercise. It takes us back to basics and makes us ask some difficult questions and by doing so it may make us more respectful of the cat.
If your argument is right Michael and cats ARE becoming less intelligent, then intelligence is something else the human race have taken from them.
https://pictures-of-cats.org/WHAT-MORE-CAN-WE-TAKE-FROM-CATS.html
We should maybe add it to that previous article
Your dumbed-down cats are already smarter than you are. This is why they can so easily escape from your required supervision. Every cat lover uses the phrase “my cat out-smarted me.” And you want cats that are even smarter than your present level of intelligence”? (i.e. you are already dumber than your cats if they can out-smart you) Look up the definition of the word “moron”. In short it means someone who is too stupid to even realize that they are stupid. In the case of cat-ownership this becomes a self-evident proof to show everyone just how far down the intellect scale that inbred Brits have slid. Surprising, especially in light of the fact that cats depend mostly on their reptilian brain-stems for survival and use very little cerebral gray-matter to begin with. Easily inferring that cat-owners’ minds are functioning on levels far lower than even their reptilian brain-stems.
Monty as cat Einstein. That’s a scary thought.