Cats 2019 4k
Alysa Guillama
The Maine Coon is the largest, with males reaching an average of 3.5 feet long. The smallest breed is the Singapura, native to Singapore, with adult females weighing as little as four pounds. One of the most unusual-looking cats is the Sphynx, a mostly hairless cat known for being robust and intelligent.
As mostly nocturnal animals, cats have excellent vision and hearing, with ears that can turn like satellite dishes. Their reputation for having nine lives stems in part from their ability to navigate difficult environments, for example using their tail to balance and mostly land their lean, muscular bodies on all fours. Cushioning discs between vertebrae also give cat bodies exceptional flexibility and speed.
When cats rub their faces on the furniture, other cats, or a person, it may be a behavior called bunting. Cats have scent glands in their face, and bunting allows them to mark their territory, bond with other cats, or show affection.
The cat (Felis catus), commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat, is a small domesticated carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species of the family Felidae. Recent advances in archaeology and genetics have shown that the domestication of the cat occurred in the Near East around 7500 BC. It is commonly kept as a house pet and farm cat, but also ranges freely as a feral cat avoiding human contact. Valued by humans for companionship and its ability to kill vermin, the cat's retractable claws are adapted to killing small prey like 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 vocalizations like meowing, purring, trilling, hissing, growling, and grunting as well as cat 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.
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. Domestic cats are bred and shown at events as registered pedigreed cats, a hobby known as cat fancy. Animal population control of cats may be achieved by spaying and neutering, but their proliferation and the abandonment of pets has resulted in large numbers of feral cats worldwide, contributing to the extinction of bird, mammal, and reptile species.
As of 2017,[update] the domestic cat was the second most popular pet in the United States, with 95.6 million cats owned and around 42 million households owning at least one cat. In the United Kingdom, 26% of adults have a cat, with an estimated population of 10.9 million pet cats as of 2020.[update] As of 2021,[update] there were an estimated 220 million owned and 480 million stray cats in the world.
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.[4] The Late Latin word may be derived from an unidentified African language.[5] The Nubian word kaddska 'wildcat' and Nobiin kadīs are possible sources or cognates.[6]
The forms might also have derived from an ancient Germanic word that was absorbed into Latin and then into Greek, Syriac, and Arabic.[7] The word may be derived from Germanic and Northern European languages, and ultimately be borrowed from Uralic, cf. Northern Smi gđfi, 'female stoat', and Hungarian hlgy, 'lady, female stoat'; from Proto-Uralic *kďw, 'female (of a furred animal)'.[8]
The scientific name Felis catus was proposed by Carl Linnaeus in 1758 for a domestic cat.[1][2] Felis catus domesticus was proposed by Johann Christian Polycarp Erxleben in 1777.[3] Felis daemon proposed by Konstantin Satunin in 1904 was a black cat from the Transcaucasus, later identified as a domestic cat.[18][19]
In 2003, the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature ruled that the domestic cat is a distinct species, namely Felis catus.[20][21] In 2007, the modern domesticated subspecies F. silvestris catus sampled worldwide was considered to have likely descended from the African wildcat (F. lybica), following results of phylogenetic research.[22][23][a] In 2017, the IUCN Cat Classification Taskforce followed the recommendation of the ICZN in regarding the domestic cat as a distinct species, Felis catus.[24]
The domestic cat is a member of the Felidae, a family that had a common ancestor about 10 to 15 million years ago.[25] The evolutionary radiation of the Felidae began in Asia during the Miocene around 8.38 to 14.45 million years ago.[26] Analysis of mitochondrial DNA of all Felidae species indicates a radiation at 6.46 to 16.76 million years ago.[27] The genus Felis genetically diverged from other Felidae around 6 to 7 million years ago.[26] 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.[28] The domestic cat and its closest wild ancestor are diploid and both possess 38 chromosomes[29] and roughly 20,000 genes.[30]
The earliest known evidence for the occurrence of the domestic cat in Greece dates to around 1200 BC. Greek, Phoenician, Carthaginian and Etruscan traders introduced domestic cats to southern Europe.[37] By the 5th century BC, they were familiar animals around settlements in Magna Graecia and Etruria.[38] During the Roman Empire, they were introduced to Corsica and Sardinia before the beginning of the 1st century AD.[39] 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.[36]
The leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis) was tamed independently in China around 5500 BC. This line of partially domesticated cats leaves no trace in the domestic cat populations of today.[40]
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. Since they practice rigorous grooming habits and have an instinctual drive to bury and hide their urine and feces, they are generally much less messy than other domesticated animals. Captive Leopardus cats may also display affectionate behavior toward humans but were not domesticated.[41] House cats often mate with feral cats.[42] Hybridisation between domestic and other Felinae species is also possible, producing hybrids such as the Kellas cat in Scotland.[43][44]
Development of cat breeds started in the mid 19th century.[45] 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.[46] 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.[47]
Cats have protractible and retractable claws.[55] 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.[56] Cats can voluntarily extend their claws on one or more paws. They may extend their claws in hunting or self-defense, climbing, kneading, or for extra traction on soft surfaces. Cats shed the outside layer of their claw sheaths when scratching rough surfaces.[57]
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 ("polydactyly").[58] Polydactylous cats occur along North America's northeast coast and in Great Britain.[59]
The cat is digitigrade. It walks on the toes, with the bones of the feet making up the lower part of the visible leg.[60] Unlike most mammals, it uses a "pacing" gait and moves both legs on one side of the body before the legs on the other side. It registers directly by placing each hind paw close to the track of the corresponding fore paw, minimizing noise and visible tracks. This also provides sure footing for hind paws when navigating rough terrain. As it speeds up from walking to trotting, its gait changes to a "diagonal" gait: The diagonally opposite hind and fore legs move simultaneously.[61]
Cats are generally fond of sitting in high places or perching. A higher place may serve as a concealed site from which to hunt; domestic cats strike prey by pouncing from a perch such as a tree branch. Another possible explanation is that height gives the cat a better observation point, allowing it to survey its territory. A cat falling from heights of up to 3 m (9.8 ft) can right itself and land on its paws.[62]
During a fall from a high place, a cat reflexively twists its body and rights itself to land on its feet using its acute sense of balance and flexibility. This reflex is known as the cat righting reflex.[63] A cat always rights itself in the same way during a fall, if it has enough time to do so, which is the case in falls of 90 cm (3.0 ft) or more.[64] How cats are able to right themselves when falling has been investigated as the "falling cat problem".[65]
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