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Cat
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This article deals with the domestic feline. For other uses, see Cat (disambiguation) or Cats (disambiguation).
Domestic cat[1]
Cats
Conservation status
Domesticated
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Felidae
Genus: Felis
Species: F. catus
Binomial name
Felis catus
(Linnaeus, 1758)[2]
Synonyms
Felis catus domestica (invalid junior synonym)[3]
Felis silvestris catus[4]
The cat (Felis catus), also known as the domestic cat or housecat[5] to distinguish it from other felines and felids, is a small domesticated carnivorous mammal that is valued by humans for its companionship and ability to hunt vermin and household pests. Cats have been associated with humans for at least 9,500 years,[6] and are currently the most popular pet in the world.[7] Due to their close association with humans, cats are now found almost everywhere on Earth. Their adaptability, rapid breeding rate, and predatory instincts make them effective hunters. In some locations, cats have affected indigenous animal populations; this has led them to be classified as an invasive species in some areas. Many problems are caused by the large number of feral cats worldwide, with a population of up to 60 million of these animals in the United States alone.[8] Failure to control the breeding of pet cats by spaying and neutering and the abandonment of former household pets cause the development of such feral colonies.
Cats are similar in anatomy to the other felids, with strong, flexible bodies, quick reflexes, sharp retractable claws, and teeth adapted to killing small prey. As nocturnal predators, cats use their acute hearing and ability to see in near darkness to locate prey. Not only can cats hear sounds too faint for human ears, they can also hear sounds higher in frequency than humans can perceive. This is because cats' usual prey (particularly rodents such as mice) make high frequency noises. Cats' hearing has therefore evolved to pinpoint these faint high-pitched sounds. This is also helped by that fact that cats' ears are equipped with more than a dozen muscles that enable them to swivel 180 degrees toward the source of sounds. Cats rely more on smell than taste, and have a vastly better sense of smell than humans.
Despite being solitary hunters, cats are a social species and use a variety of vocalizations, pheromones and types of body language for communication. These include meowing, purring, trilling, hissing, growling, and grunting.[9] They are also bred and shown as registered pedigree pets. This hobby is known as cat fancy.
As The New York Times wrote in 2007, "Until recently the cat was commonly believed to have been domesticated in ancient Egypt, where it was a cult animal."[10] A study that year found that the lines of descent of all house cats probably run through as few as five self-domesticating African Wildcats (Felis silvestris lybica) circa 8000 BC, in the Near East.[4] The earliest direct evidence of cat domestication is a kitten that was buried with its owner 9,500 years ago in Cyprus.[11]
Contents
[hide]
* 1 Nomenclature and etymology
* 2 Taxonomy and evolution
* 3 Genetics
* 4 Anatomy
* 5 Physiology
* 6 Senses
* 7 Health
o 7.1 Diseases
o 7.2 Poisoning
* 8 Behavior
o 8.1 Sociability
o 8.2 Grooming
o 8.3 Fighting
o 8.4 Hunting and feeding
o 8.5 Play
o 8.6 Reproduction
* 9 Ecology
o 9.1 Habitats
o 9.2 Impact on prey species
o 9.3 Impact on birds
* 10 Domesticated cats
o 10.1 Domesticated varieties
+ 10.1.1 Coat patterns
+ 10.1.2 Body types
o 10.2 Effects on human health
o 10.3 Indoor scratching
o 10.4 Waste
* 11 Feral cats
* 12 History and mythology
* 13 See also
* 14 References
* 15 Further reading
* 16 External links
[edit] Nomenclature and etymology
The word cat derives from Old English catt, which belongs to a group of related words in European languages, including Welsh cath, Spanish gato, French chat (French pronunciation: [??]), Basque katu, Byzantine Greek ??t?a kátia, Old Irish cat, Frisian and Dutch kat, German Katze, Armenian katu, and Old Church Slavonic kotka. The ultimate source of all these terms is Late Latin catus, cattus, catta "domestic cat", as opposed to feles "European wildcat". It is unclear whether the Greek or the Latin came first, but they were undoubtedly borrowed from an Afro-Asiatic language akin to Nubian kadís and Berber kaddîska, both meaning "wildcat".[12] The term puss (as in pussycat) may come from Dutch poes or from Low German Puuskatte, dialectal Swedish kattepus, or Norwegian pus, pusekatt, all of which primarily denote a woman and, by extension, a female cat.[13] This name could be related to Turkish qadi. [14]
A group of cats is referred to as a "clowder", a male cat is called a "tom" (or a "gib", if neutered), and a female is called a "molly" or "queen". The male progenitor of a cat, especially a pedigreed cat, is its "sire", and its female progenitor is its "dam". An immature cat is called a "kitten" (which is also an alternative name for young rats, rabbits, hedgehogs, beavers, squirrels and skunks). In medieval Britain, the word kitten was interchangeable with the word catling. A cat whose ancestry is formally registered is called a pedigreed cat, purebred cat, or a show cat. In strict terms, a purebred cat is one whose ancestry contains only individuals of the same breed. A pedigreed cat is one whose ancestry is recorded, but may have ancestors of different breeds. Cats of unrecorded mixed ancestry are referred to as domestic longhairs and domestic shorthairs or commonly as random-bred, moggies, mongrels, or mutt-cats.
[edit] Taxonomy and evolution
The wildcat Felis silvestris is a close relative of the domestic cat.
The Felids are a rapidly evolving family of mammals that share a common ancestor only 10-15 million years ago,[15] and include in addition to the domestic cat, lions, tigers, cougars, and many others. Within this family, domestic cats (Felis catus) are part of the genus Felis, which is a group of small cats containing seven species.[1][16] Members of the genus are found worldwide and include the Jungle Cat (Felis chaus) of southeast Asia, the African Wildcat (Felis silvestris lybica), the Chinese Mountain Cat (Felis silvestris bieti) and the Arabian Sand Cat (Felis margarita).[17] All the cats in this genus share a common ancestor that probably lived around 6-7 million years ago in Asia.[18] Although the exact relationships within the Felidae are still uncertain,[19][20] both the Chinese Mountain Cat and the African Wildcat are close relations of the domestic cat and are both classed as subspecies of the Wildcat Felis silvestris.[4][19] As domestic cats are little altered from wildcats, they can readily interbreed. This hybridization may pose a danger to the genetic distinctiveness of wildcat populations, particularly in Scotland and Hungary.[21]
The domestic cat was first classified as Felis catus by Carolus Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae of 1758.[2][22] However, due to modern phylogenetics, domestic cats are now usually regarded as another subspecies of the Wildcat Felis silvestris.[4][22][23] This has resulted in mixed usage of the terms, as the domestic cat can be called by its subspecies name, Felis silvestris catus.[1][4] Wildcats have also been referred to as various subspecies of F. catus,[23] but in 2003 the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature fixed the name for Wildcats as F. silvestris.[24] The most common name in use for the domestic cat remains F. catus, following a convention for domesticated animals of using the earliest (the senior) synonym proposed.[24] Sometimes the domestic cat is called Felis domesticus[25] or Felis domestica,[22] the term coined by German naturalist Johann Christian Polycarp Erxleben in 1777. These are not valid taxonomic names, and Linnaeus' binomial takes precedence.[26]
Cats have either a mutualistic or commensal relationship with humans. However, in comparison to dogs, cats have not undergone major changes during the domestication process, as the form and behavior of the domestic cat are not radically different from those of wildcats, and domestic cats are perfectly capable of surviving in the wild.[27][28] Several natural behaviors and characteristics of Wildcats may have preadapted them for domestication as pets.[28] These traits include their small size, social nature, obvious body language, love of play and relatively high intelligence;[29] they may also have an inborn tendency towards tameness.[28]
There are two main models for how cats were domesticated. In one model, people deliberately tamed cats in a process of artificial selection, as they were useful predators of vermin.[30] However, this model has been criticized as implausible, because there may have been little reward for such an effort: cats do not carry out commands and, although they do eat rodents, other species such as ferrets or terriers may be better at controlling these pests.[4] The alternative idea is that cats were simply tolerated by people and gradually diverged from their 'wild' relatives through natural selection, as they adapted to hunting the vermin found around humans in towns and villages.[4]
[edit] Genetics
Main article: Cat genetics
Blue-eyed cats with white fur have a high incidence of genetic deafness.[31]  7/24/2010 1:50:02 AM
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