Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 19 views

    Domestic Cat: Conservation Status

    Uploaded by

    Mónica Mendoza Escalante
    Felis catus, commonly known as the domestic cat or housecat, is a small carnivorous mammal valued by humans as companions and for hunting vermin. Cats have been associated with humans for at least 9,500 years and are currently the most popular pet worldwide. As nocturnal predators, cats rely on acute senses like hearing, smell, and vision to locate prey like mice and birds. Despite being solitary hunters, cats are social and use vocalizations and body language to communicate with other cats and humans.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Domestic Cat: Conservation Status

    Uploaded by

    Mónica Mendoza Escalante
    19 views3 pages
    Felis catus, commonly known as the domestic cat or housecat, is a small carnivorous mammal valued by humans as companions and for hunting vermin. Cats have been associated with humans for at least 9,500 years and are currently the most popular pet worldwide. As nocturnal predators, cats rely on acute senses like hearing, smell, and vision to locate prey like mice and birds. Despite being solitary hunters, cats are social and use vocalizations and body language to communicate with other cats and humans.

    Original Title

    Cats

    Copyright

    © Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)

    Available Formats

    DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    Felis catus, commonly known as the domestic cat or housecat, is a small carnivorous mammal valued by humans as companions and for hunting vermin. Cats have been associated with humans for at least 9,500 years and are currently the most popular pet worldwide. As nocturnal predators, cats rely on acute senses like hearing, smell, and vision to locate prey like mice and birds. Despite being solitary hunters, cats are social and use vocalizations and body language to communicate with other cats and humans.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    19 views3 pages

    Domestic Cat: Conservation Status

    Uploaded by

    Mónica Mendoza Escalante
    Felis catus, commonly known as the domestic cat or housecat, is a small carnivorous mammal valued by humans as companions and for hunting vermin. Cats have been associated with humans for at least 9,500 years and are currently the most popular pet worldwide. As nocturnal predators, cats rely on acute senses like hearing, smell, and vision to locate prey like mice and birds. Despite being solitary hunters, cats are social and use vocalizations and body language to communicate with other cats and humans.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    of 3

    Cat

    Domestic cat[1]

    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 furry domesticated carnivorous mammal that is valued by
    humans for its companionship and for its 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] Owing to their close association with humans, cats are now
    found almost everywhere in the world.

    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 the usual prey of cats (particularly rodents such as
    mice) make high frequency noises, so the hearing of the cat has evolved to pinpoint these
    faint high-pitched sounds. Cats rely more on smell than taste, and have a much 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.[8]

    Cats have a rapid breeding rate. Under controlled breeding, they can be bred and shown as
    registered pedigree pets, a hobby known as cat fancy. Failure to control the breeding of pet
    cats by spaying and neutering and the abandonment of former household pets has resulted
    in large numbers of feral cats worldwide, with a population of up to 60 million of these
    animals in the United States alone.[9]

    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] but a study that
    year revealed that the lines of descent of all house cats probably run through as few as five
    self-domesticating African Wildcats (Felis silvestris lybica) c. 8000 BC, in the Near East.[4]
    The earliest direct evidence of cat domestication is a kitten that was buried alongside a
    human 9,500 years ago in Cyprus.[11]

    You might also like