A Michael Broad Blog
Google Scholar must be embarrassed by news that two guys managed to submit nonsense academic papers ostensibly written by a cat called Larry which was cited by others and which led to Larry being ranked higher academically than real academics! The guys who organised this have exposed, they believe, a flaw in the highly …
This is a cross post. I feel obliged to try and make sure that cat owners understand the conclusions of a study referred to by many online newspapers. The study comes from Australia where arguably there is a strained relationship between domestic and feral cats and the population. Particularly feral cats which are denigrated …
Late last year there were many articles on the Internet which stated that domestic cats eat more than 2000 species. In other words, domestic cats across the world preyed upon 2000+ different species of animal. It caused a lot of consternation in conservationists. I have read one or two of the articles based on …
The Science Daily website has an article which infers that elderly people who have unknowingly been infected with the Toxoplasma gondii protozoan tend to be frailer in old age than those who haven’t. Essentially, the scientists found a connection with a higher level of antibodies to Toxoplasma gondii in a person and increased frailty. …
A domestic cat’s personality influences how keen they are to go hunting and it will also affect how effective they are and therefore how many prey animals they kill and/or bring back home. And, secondly, owners’ perceptions of cat personality can influence cats’ access to the outside which also has an impact on the …
A recent study has once again looked at the concerning situation regarding the extinction of the Scottish wildcat which is actually a European wildcat living in Scotland. About 15 years ago scientists knew that the Scottish wildcat was near extinction because of hybridisation with domestic and feral cats in Scotland. Acceleration of wildcats mating …
Criminals should take note of this research. The advice is that criminals should not live with a cat because DNA testing on cat hairs might lead to a cat owning criminal being convicted for a crime at a property or other place where they leave behind cat/dog hairs. Scenario I can think of one …
Cat purring is like people talking with a vocal fry. Researchers of a new study – read on. There have been lots of theories about how domestic cats purr. At one time some experts thought that it was caused by turbulent blood! And Dr. Desmond Morris gets close to understanding how the purr sound …
