Cats would be better pets if they weren’t great predators

The domestic cat is a top predator. Should we live with them?

Many cat owners might say that their domestic cat companion is an excellent pet. I’m going to say something which is almost heretical and something which sounds anti-cat as if said by a cat hater. But I’m not; I am a cat lover and a realist. And with that character trait, I have to …

Read more

Living with companion animals has not worked out and it needs to be re-evaluated

Cat and dog domestication has not worked out as planned

Some people think that it is time to give up our cats and dogs as it is unethical and their domestication not worked out well. It’s time to end it. This would apply to other animals as well. It’s a whopping suggestion. It’s probably entirely impractical seeing as there are probably up to 500 …

Read more

The discovery that disproved that the Ancient Egyptians were the first to domesticate the wild cat

The discovery that disproved that the Ancient Egyptians were the first to domesticate the wild cat

Credits:

  • The picture is deemed to be in the public domain
  • The words at the base of the image are from The Taming of the Cat published on the PMC Pub Med Central website.
  • Citation: Driscoll CA, Clutton-Brock J, Kitchener AC, O’Brien SJ. The Taming of the cat. Genetic and archaeological findings hint that wildcats became housecats earlier–and in a different place–than previously thought. Sci Am. 2009 Jun;300(6):68-75. PMID: 19485091; PMCID: PMC5790555.
  • Link to study.

P.S. I have one comment. It is possible that the cat in the image was tame and not truly domesticated whereas the Ancient Egyptians domesticated the cat.

The reason why humans and their pets might never have existed

Early humans might have been wiped out by catastrophic climate change as their population had dwindled to less than 1300 adults of reproductive age because of droughts according to research.

There is an interesting article in The Times today, Friday, September 1, 2023 which I would like to discuss briefly. The title is “Early humans were on brink of extinction”. Remarkably the research that Kaya Burgess reports on found that the population of Homo sapiens’ ancestors dwindled to less than 1300 adults about 900,000 …

Read more

What is the difference between a pet cat and a wild cat?

African wildcat versus tabby domestic cat

The question seems innocuous and the answer obvious but the explanation is not quite as simple as people might expect. The comparison will be to the pet cat’s wild cat ancestor. Here is my answer for what it is worth. Please add yours in a comment. The difference between a pet cat and a …

Read more

Are dogs better than cats at killing rats?

Terriers and farmers go ratting and the dogs love it and are aggressively fearless in contrast to most domestic cats today.

My conclusion is that dogs are better than cats at killing rats; specifically, the Jack Russell terrier is better than any cat breed and even the moggie. One commentor (see base of page) said that dogs need to be trained to be efficient ratters but don’t find that very convincing as dogs are predators …

Read more

All of today’s 600 million domestic cats descend from at least 5 female wildcats

African wildcat compared with domestic cat

It is an astonishing thought. About ten thousand years ago at least five different individual female cats of the Near Eastern wildcat (aka North African wildcat) population living in the savannah had the courage to overcome their fear of humans to live in an agricultural settlement in the river-rich lands that form an arc …

Read more

The cat’s meow and talkative cat breeds

Female cat's meow is like music

This is a brief discussion on the well-known domestic cat’s meow and talkative cat breeds. You will see some websites proclaiming confidently that certain cat breeds are more talkative than others but I wouldn’t be so certain. Often it is an individual cat trait and it also depend a lot on the relationship between …

Read more

follow it link and logo