A Michael Broad Blog
Years ago, I proposed that the feline Henry’s pocket, a small extra fold of cartilage and skin within the ear flaps (pinnae) of domestic cats, was to enhance the ability to hear high pitched sounds. I was corrected by a welcome visitor who proposed that this mysterious item of feline anatomy (which still troubles …
The latest wheeze by the Australian authorities to keep down the feral cat population on their continent is to blowup rabbits and their homes. Rabbits are a prey animal for feral cats and the argument is that if you destroy rabbits you destroy feral cats because they might starve to death which I think …
Yes, leopards eat zebras and lion cubs when possible. The leopard has a very wide range of prey animals and their diet is reflected in the list of prey animals available in the area where they are living. For example, ‘at least 92 prey species are recorded in the diet of sub-Saharan leopards’ (TN …
Who said (me!) that domestic cats are not very good at catching and killing rats? This video fatally undermines the statement but it is about individual cats’ temperaments and this one is full of courage. As you can see, the cat hears a rat under the hard standing in which there is a small …
NEWS AND COMMENT-SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA: The first point to make is that although huntsman spiders use venom to immobilise prey and can reach up to 5 inches across, based upon my careful research they do not cause harm to domestic cats who kill them and perhaps sometimes devour them. If a cat devours a huntsman …
There are 3 reasons why domestic cats apparently torture their prey by playing with them. I list and discuss them here. It is a form of feline behaviour which at best irritates their human caregiver and at worst disgusts them. It does, however, provide the cat’s owner with an opportunity to save the mouse. …
When a cat eats a bird, it will sometimes pluck the bird’s feathers beforehand. That, though, is a simplistic statement because it seems that it is more complicated than that. The same or very similar methods are employed by both domestic and wild cats. This is no surprise because a domestic cat behaves like …
The Andean Mountain cat lives in a similar area to the short-tail chinchilla and in the current range of the mountain vizcacha. These two animals are, therefore, its main prey. It’s diet overlaps with the Pampas cat. The mountain vizcacha in three studies was found to be the most frequent prey. This is a …
