Mountain lion Meets Himalayan Cat. What are they thinking?
The answer to the question is, No. I could leave it there but Google’s search engine won’t allow it. I think the question is anthropomorphising the domestic cat. It is humanising the domestic cat to put it another way. I don’t think domestic cats think like this at all. They don’t question those sorts of scientific issues. By and large the domestic cat acts instinctively although being domesticated they have adapted to their relationship with people and there is certainly some rational thought going on in this relationship, in my opinion.
Yes, domestic cats are very similar to their bigger wild cat relatives. However, they do not have any thoughts about their evolution which essentially is what the question is asking.
Occasionally I see a domestic cat meeting, for example, a bobcat or even a puma through a glass window pane (in America). It does cross my mind as to what is going on in the minds of both these cats at that moment. If there is a recognition from each cat, one a large wild cat if he’s a puma, and the other a much smaller domestic cat, then it’s probably a recognition that they’re both cats but not that one is wild and the other is domesticated.
In short, I think that the domestic cat does not have any concept about his or her domestication. This is well beyond the mental capacity of a domestic cat and I write that without any intention to denigrate the domestic cat. It’s just, as I see it, a fact.
Home→Cat Anatomy→brain→Is it possible that house cats know that they have big relatives?
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