A Michael Broad Blog
Scientists have looked into whether wild cats are smarter than domestic cat. Their study is entitled: “Are domesticated animals dumber than their wild relatives? A comprehensive review on the domestication effects on animal cognitive performance.” I discuss the study below and start off with a general discussion on the difficulties in making a comparison. …
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 …
We are referring to domestic cats. Perhaps wild cats do it as well. Some of them probably do and one species definitely does: the African wildcat, the ancestor of the domestic cat. I have just this minute watched my cat eat some dry cat food and immediately after eating he flicked or briefly shook …
Although, sometimes, domestic cats do walk behind their owners for a relatively short distance (a behaviour characteristic that I explain below), in general, it is fundamentally alien to domestic cats to walk with their owner on a lead like a dog on those nice country walks in the park. If you could talk to …
In the inimitable words of Dr. Desmond Morris in his excellent book on cat behaviour CATWATCHING the cat caregiver should be aware of the fact that their cat leads a double life. “The cat leads a double life. In the home it is an overgrown kitten gazing up at its human owners. Out on …
In the image below I have tried to present a feel for what the Fertile Crescent was like around 10,000 years ago when ‘at least five different females from the wildcat population’ befriended farmers and founded one of the greatest populations of domestic animal companions the world has seen: the domestic cat. Of course, …
A study has concluded that the brains of domestic cats have shrunk during the time that they have been domesticated. And having shrunk I have concluded that domestic cats are probably more stupid today than they were at the time of the Ancient Egyptians. And I suspect that they will go on becoming a …
Based on a mitochondrial DNA study the umbrella label of “African wildcat” can be broken down into the Near Eastern wildcat (North African wildcat), the Asian wildcat (Asiatic wildcat), and the Southern African wildcat. We should also include the domestic cat which is a domesticated North African wildcat. This is a complicated area because …
