Cat
The cat, also called domestic cat and house cat, is a small carnivorous mammal. It is an obligate carnivore, requiring a predominantly meat-based diet. Its retractable claws are adapted to killing small prey species such as mice and rats. It has a strong, flexible body, quick reflexes, and sharp teeth, and its night vision and sense of smell are well developed. It is a social species, but a solitary hunter and a crepuscular predator.
Cat communication includes meowing, purring, trilling, hissing, growling, grunting, and body language. It can hear sounds too faint or too high in frequency for human ears, such as those made by small mammals. It secretes and perceives pheromones. Cat intelligence is evident in its ability to adapt, learn through observation, and solve problems.
Female domestic cats can have kittens from spring to late autumn in temperate zones and throughout the year in equatorial regions, with litter sizes often ranging from two to five kittens.
The domestic cat is the only domesticated species of the family Felidae. Advances in archaeology and genetics have shown that the domestication of the cat started in the Near East around 7500 BCE. Today, the domestic cat occurs across the globe and is valued by humans for companionship and its ability to kill vermin. It is commonly kept as a pet, working cat, and pedigreed cat shown at cat fancy events. Out of the estimated 600 million domestic cats worldwide, 400 million reside in Asia, including 58 million in China. The United States leads in cat ownership with 73.8 million cats, followed by the United Kingdom with approximately 10.9 million cats. It also ranges freely as a feral cat, avoiding human contact. Pet abandonment contributes to increasing of the global feral cat population, which has driven the decline of bird, mammal, and reptile species. Population control includes spaying and neutering.
Etymology and naming
The origin of the English word cat, Old English catt, is thought to be the Late Latin word cattus, which was first used at the beginning of the 6th century. The Late Latin word may be derived from an unidentified African language. The Nubian word kaddîska 'wildcat' and Nobiin kadīs are possible sources or cognates.The forms might also have derived from an ancient Germanic word that was absorbed into Latin and then into Greek, Syriac, and Arabic. The word may be derived from Germanic and Northern European languages, and ultimately be borrowed from Uralic, Northern Sámi gáđfi 'female stoat', and Hungarian hölgy 'lady, female stoat'; from Proto-Uralic *käďwä 'female '.
The English puss, extended as pussy and pussycat, is attested from the 16th century and may have been introduced from Dutch poes or from Low German puuskatte, related to Swedish kattepus, or Norwegian pus, pusekatt. Similar forms exist in Lithuanian puižė and Irish puisín or puiscín. The etymology is unknown, but it may be an onomatopoeia from using a sound to attract a cat.
A male cat is called a tom, tommy or tomcat. A female is called a queen. Some sources write that queen refers solely to unspayed cats that are in an estrous cycle. A juvenile cat is referred to as a kitten, a term interchangeable with the now-obsolete word catling in Early Modern English. A group of cats can be referred to as a clowder, a glaring, or a colony.
Taxonomy
The scientific name Felis catus was proposed by Carl Linnaeus in 1758 for a domestic cat. Felis catus domesticus was proposed by Johann Christian Polycarp Erxleben in 1777. Felis daemon proposed by Konstantin Satunin in 1904 was a black cat from the Transcaucasus, later identified as a domestic cat.In 2003, the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature conserved the name silvestris Erxleben 1777 for the wildcat, but did not suppress catus Linnaeus 1758. In 2007, the modern domesticated subspecies F. silvestris catus was sampled worldwide and considered to have probably descended from the African wildcat, following results of phylogenetic research. In 2017, the IUCN Cat Classification Taskforce, following the recommendation of Gentry et al. that names based on domestic forms be used for domestic derivatives of wild species, regarded the domestic cat as a distinct species, Felis catus.
Evolution
The domestic cat is a member of the Felidae, a family that has a common ancestor from about. The evolutionary radiation of the Felidae began in Asia during the Miocene around. Analysis of mitochondrial DNA of all Felidae species indicates a radiation at. The genus Felis genetically diverged from other Felidae around. Results of phylogenetic research shows that the wild members of this genus evolved through sympatric or parapatric speciation, whereas the domestic cat evolved through artificial selection. The domestic cat and its closest wild ancestor are diploid and both possess 38 chromosomes and roughly 20,000 genes.Domestication
It was long thought that the domestication of the cat began in ancient Egypt, where cats were venerated from around 3100 BCE. However, the earliest known indication for the taming of an African wildcat was excavated close by a human Neolithic grave in Shillourokambos, southern Cyprus, dating to about 7500–7200 BCE. Since there is no evidence of native mammalian fauna on Cyprus, the inhabitants of this Neolithic village most likely brought the cat and other wild mammals to the island from the Middle Eastern mainland. Scientists therefore assume that African wildcats were attracted to early human settlements in the Fertile Crescent by rodents, in particular the house mouse, and were tamed by Neolithic farmers. This mutual relationship between early farmers and tamed cats lasted thousands of years. As agricultural practices spread, so did tame and domesticated cats. Wildcats of Egypt contributed to the maternal gene pool of the domestic cat at a later time.The earliest known evidence for the occurrence of the domestic cat in Greece dates to around 1200 BCE. Greek, Phoenician, Carthaginian and Etruscan traders introduced it to southern Europe. By the 5th century BCE, it was a familiar animal around settlements in Magna Graecia and Etruria. During the Roman Empire, it was introduced to Corsica and Sardinia. By the end of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century, the Egyptian domestic cat lineage had arrived in a Baltic Sea port in northern Germany.
The leopard cat was tamed independently in China around 5500 BCE. This line of a partially domesticated cat left no trace in the domestic cat populations of today.
During domestication, cats have undergone only minor changes in anatomy and behavior, and they are still capable of surviving in the wild. Several natural behaviors and characteristics of wildcats may have pre-adapted them for domestication as pets. These traits include their small size, social nature, obvious body language, love of play, and high intelligence. Their rigorous grooming habits and instinct to bury their bodily waste make them generally much less messy than other domesticated animals. Captive Leopardus cats may also display affectionate behavior toward humans but are not domesticated. House cats may mate with feral cats.
The development of cat breeds started in the mid 19th century. An analysis of the domestic cat genome revealed that the ancestral wildcat genome was significantly altered in the process of domestication, as specific mutations were selected to develop cat breeds. Most breeds are founded on random-bred domestic cats. Genetic diversity of these breeds varies between regions, and is lowest in purebred populations, which show more than 20 deleterious genetic disorders.
Hybridization between domestic and other Felinae species is also possible, producing hybrids such as the Kellas cat in Scotland.
Characteristics
Size
The domestic cat has a smaller skull and shorter bones than the European wildcat. It averages about in head-to-body length and in height, with about long tails. Males are larger than females. Adult domestic cats typically weigh.Skeleton
Cats have seven cervical vertebrae ; 13 thoracic vertebrae ; seven lumbar vertebrae ; three sacral vertebrae ; and a variable number of caudal vertebrae in the tail. The extra lumbar and thoracic vertebrae account for the cat's spinal mobility and flexibility. Attached to the spine are 13 ribs, the shoulder, and the pelvis. Unlike human arms, cat forelimbs are attached to the shoulder by free-floating clavicle bones which allow them to pass their body through any space into which they can fit their head.Skull
The cat skull is unusual among mammals in having very large eye sockets and a powerful specialized jaw. Two long canine teeth for killing and tearing prey can stab between two of the prey's vertebrae and sever its spinal cord, causing paralysis and death. Compared to other felines, domestic cats have narrowly spaced canine teeth relative to the size of their jaw, which is an adaptation to their preferred prey of small rodents, which have small vertebrae.The premolar and first molar together compose the carnassial pair on each side of the mouth, which efficiently shears meat into small pieces, like a pair of scissors. These are vital in feeding, because cats' small molars cannot chew food effectively, and cats are largely incapable of mastication. Cats tend to have better dental health than most humans, with decay generally less likely because of a thicker protective layer of enamel, a less damaging saliva, less retention of food particles between teeth, and a diet mostly devoid of sugar. Nonetheless, they are subject to occasional tooth loss and infection.
Claws
Cats have protractible and retractable claws. In their normal, relaxed position, the claws are sheathed with the skin and fur around the paw's toe pads. This keeps the claws sharp by preventing wear from contact with the ground and allows for the silent stalking of prey. The claws on the forefeet are typically sharper than those on the hindfeet. Cats can voluntarily extend their claws, such as in hunting, fighting, climbing, kneading, or for extra traction on soft surfaces. Cats shed the outside layer of their claw sheaths when scratching rough surfaces.Most cats have five claws on their front paws and four on their rear paws. The dewclaw is proximal to the other claws. More proximally is a protrusion which appears to be a sixth "finger". This special feature of the front paws on the inside of the wrists has no function in normal walking but is thought to be an antiskidding device used while jumping. Some cat breeds are prone to having extra digits.