Five Female Wildcats Are the Ancestors of All Today's Domestic and Feral Cats

It seems extraordinary but based upon DNA research five female North African wildcats (felis silvestris lybica) are the ancestors of the entire world's approximate 500,000,000 house cats.  To reiterate; the research tells us is that all of today's domestic cats come from just these 5 female North African wildcats.  

The researchers concluded that five females of this species of wildcat made the transition from being wild to being semi-domesticated within settlements where they were safe from predators and where they had a ready supply of rodents as prey which infested the settlers' homes and granaries.

As all the feral cats in the world today come from domestic cats then we have to say that all of the domestic, stray and feral cats on the planet today are descended from five female cats of the species felis silvestris lybica.

The research was carried out by Carlos Driscoll of the US National Cancer Institute and colleagues including David MacDonald of Oxford University. They spent more than 6 years analysing the DNA of wildcats,  purebred cats and house cats.

They discovered that the DNA of all house cats (including of course purebred cats) fall within the DNA cluster of the Near Eastern wild cat.  This made this subspecies of wildcat the ancestor of the domestic cat.

Source: NY Times June 29th 2007. The photo is of my tabby cat in whom you can see the North African wildcat ancestor!

Eastern Cougar To Be Removed from the Endangered Species List

Camera trap photograph of cougar

The Fish and Wildlife Service propose removing the Eastern Cougar from the Endangered Species List because they say that it is “likely" to be extinct.  Therefore they are not completely sure.  The reason why they're not completely sure is because there are still cougar sightings in the east of the United States.  There are often seen in North Carolina for instance.  The Fish and Wildlife Service would say that these odd mountain lion sightings are cats that have wandered in from the west or escaped captive cougars.  They might also be from Florida where there is a small population of cougars and finally they may be incorrect sightings.

I have noticed that way back in 2011 the Fish and Wildlife Service made a similar pronouncement that the cougar was extinct in the East.  The difference this time is that they are proposing removing the species from the Endangered Species List.  Obviously if an animal is extinct there is no point in listing it as endangered.

Most cougars disappeared in the nineteenth century as they were killed by European immigrants or due to loss of their habitat when forests were cleared.  In addition, the cougar's main prey, white-tailed deer, was hunted by humans and almost became extinct in North America.

One formally reported sighting of a male cougar in the east of the USA was in 2011 when a solitary young male travelled 2000 miles from South Dakota through Minnesota, Wisconsin and New York.  It was killed on the highway in Connecticut. A motor vehicle killed this cougar.  In Florida, as I understand it, the Florida panther is most often killed by motor vehicles as highways criss-cross the state.  Highways also present natural barriers to wild cougars.

I wonder how may people consider this to be a sad day to declare the eastern cougar extinct.  There is one question mark for me and that is whether the eastern cougar is a distinct subspecies.

Why Cats Purr When Under Duress

The classic reason why cats purr is because they are content.  That is the image we have but since the age of the Internet most of us now know that cats purr at other times, when for example they are in great pain, injured or even dying.  Contentment is not only the reason for purring.  Dr Morris says that this can be explained if we decide that purring is a signal indicating a need for friendship.  It is signal which says to an owner “thank you for your friendship given".

Some people still consider that purring is a mystery.  They believe that we still don't know why cats purr because it occurs on so many occasions other than when they are content.  I wonder if we can look to ourselves for an explanation.  Often when people are under duress or stress they present to the world an image that they are unconcerned.  They do this by trying to look calm and sometimes they vocalise in a way which indicates that they are calm and content.  Some people whistle when they are under stress or they might become more talkative.  Some people might hum as a way of looking calm and also calming themselves.  These are survival instincts which are still present in humans. I wonder whether these human behaviours shed some light on why cats purr when they are under duress?

My instincts tell me that cats purr when they are under duress as a way of calming themselves and presenting to the world that they are less concerned than they really are, as a means of survival.  That is my personal assessment and it is different to that of Dr Morris.

"Vigilante" Traps Neighbour's Cat to Protect His Own

This is an interesting cat story.  It concerns the town of Bristol in the United Kingdom.  A man who says that he is an animal lover and who cares for quite an elderly cat says that he was forced to trap a neighbour's cat who he claims was being aggressive towards his cat.  After he had trapped the neighbour's cat he photographed the trap with the cat inside and attached to the photograph the words:

“If this is your cat please do the right thing and have him neutered.  No harm has come to this cat, however the cat trap will continue to be set to try and deter him."

The photograph and the text were made into a poster which he stuck up around the neighbourhood.  Antonio, the owner of the trapped cat ("Murray")  discovered the poster and was distressed to see his cat inside a trap. No doubt Murray was distressed too.  He had no idea how long his cat had been inside the cage.  He makes a good point that Murray could have ended up being in the cage during hot weather for quite a long time which could result in him becoming very ill.  He said that Murray is neutered and that he is not aggressive.

Murray the cat (SWNS)

Murray went missing last week for quite a while and when he returned he was scared of people.  This is unusual for Murray.  Murray then stop eating food and his owner thought he was unwell.

Murray's owner responded to the posters by replacing them with one of his own in which he asks the "vigilante" to come forward.

The police and the RSPCA were investigating.  Soon afterwards a man claimed responsibility for trapping Murray but he insisted that he was acting to protect his own cat.  He wishes to remain anonymous but said:

“I'm a cat lover, first and foremost.  It pains me more to see animal suffering than it does humans.  My cat in animal years is 78 years old...  My cat has befriended many cats over the years.  This new cat arrived and is doing what cats do, I understand that.  But it's particularly aggressive, I've never seen a cat like this.".

The "vigilante" consulted a local cat charity who advised him how to set the trap and provided one so that they could take the cat to a local vet and then discover who the owner was (through the microchip).  He has now decided to stop trapping cats.  He said that he will return the trap to the charity.

This is an entirely new form of human behaviour concerning the domestic cat.  It's the first time that I have read about somebody trapping a cat to try and protect their own cat.  It seems to be entirely inappropriate and quite possibly illegal.  What I mean is that it may be a crime depending upon the outcome.

My boyfriend doesn't like my new cat, so I have to give him away

What does the title mean to you?  Maybe your interpretation of the title tells us a bit about you.  It will be nice to gather some statistics about people's interpretation of the title.  You may guess that in this instance the girlfriend gave away her boyfriend and kept her cat.  Just for completeness of information, the lady's is cat is a ginger tabby-and-white and here is:

I have a sneaking suspicion that if a woman's boyfriend didn't like her new cat then 90% of the time they would keep their cat and get rid of their boyfriend.  However, there is a middle ground and that is to convert the boyfriend to like cats.  That can be done and it has been done.  For example, you can tell your boyfriend that your cat loves him.  This may at least make your boyfriend get to know your cat.  It may be better than that.  Your boyfriend might get to understand cats and when he does there is a very good chance that he will learn to like them.

A lot of the time, if a man dislikes cats it is because he does not know them.  He may have preconceived ideas about them. He may have unjustified prejudices gleaned from the Internet.  There is a lot of misrepresentation on the Internet about the domestic cat.  Then of course there is this macho culture.  But that said, a lot of women like men who like cats.  It's a bit of a turn on it seems to me.  So a man, even for that reason alone, should learn to like cats and he can do that by understanding them thoroughly.  If you understand cats you could argue that it is impossible to dislike them.

It is quite possible that on occasions a boyfriend will become jealous of his girlfriend's cat.