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Hi, I'm George Page for Nature, and as much as I hate to think about it, my cat Clyde
may very well think I'm her mother.
At least that's one contemporary theory being offered to explain why cats like people and
occasionally even show them affection.
The theory goes something like this.
Wild cats are solitary animals once they leave their mother and siblings, with the single
exception of the lion.
But kittens, even wild kittens, are capable of sociability.
So according to the theory, we humans extend a growing kitten's period of social tolerance
into adulthood by providing food, shelter, physical closeness, and affection.
All this sustains the closest relationship the solitary cat is capable of, that between
kitten and mother.
And we therefore become surrogate mothers.
Well, the cat's always been a mysterious and fascinating figure.
And this time on Nature, we'll try to unravel at least some of those mysteries.
Independent, aloof, often mysterious.
It has lived with people for some 4,000 years.
It's one of the most familiar, yet least understood animals on the planet.
Their beauty so captivates us that it's easy to forget that they are one of nature's most
perfectly designed predators.
The domestic cat.
Although they share our homes as pets, cats are often seen as antisocial, finicky, indifferent
to our wishes, and practically uncontrollable.
With this reputation, it's surprising that the cat is vying with the dog to become America's
number one pet.
Man's traditional best friend is being upstaged by an animal that's only a whisker away from
its untamed ancestors.
The dog was the very first species domesticated by man.
The cat is the most recent.
By 12,000 years ago, the dog was already sharing the hearths and affection of early man.
Like all other domestic animals, dogs are by nature social creatures.
Their wild ancestors lived in highly cooperative packs.
Cats, though, led basically solitary lifestyles.
So while the dog's wild heritage prepared it for our domination and control, the elusive
nature of the cat has always kept it just beyond our reach.
Unable to survive almost any situation, it is adapted to all manner of lifestyles in
every part of the globe.
But to many, it remains the world's most inscrutable animal.
Although it's a member of the cat's spectacular family, the king of beasts is not really an
overgrown tappy.
For one thing, male and female lions look very different.
Like all their kind, they're beautifully adapted predators.
But lions are the only member of the cat family to live in large social groups, and they cooperate
when hunting, a job that falls to the females of a pride.
They depend on stealth to stalk their prey, then dash across open ground to seize it without
stretch claws.
The kill is quick and clean.
A bite at the nape of the neck severs the spinal cord.
Our house cats execute the coup de grace in exactly the same way.
The cheetah is the most dog-like of all the cats.
It's the only cat to catch its prey by a speedy, prolonged chase.
Its claws are not retractable, and it has only moderately sized canine teeth so that
it needs to choke its prey.
The leopard is a superb tree climber and tremendously powerful for its size.
This enables it to carry its prey out of the reach of competitors.
People who wish to draw parallels between a big cat and their pet might do well to choose
this one, the tiger, a solitary hunter whose behavior is fairly similar to our own cats.
And like all cats, they're specialists at blending in with their habitats, yet they're
worlds apart.
Today in every corner of America, so familiar we hardly notice them, you find domestic cats.
Their popularity is at an all-time high.
Fifty-six million now live in 30% of American households.
Cats have adapted to such a wide range of lifestyles that it's hard to find agreement,
even on their basic nature.
Are they dedicated, gentle, close companions?
Or just casual hangers-on around our homes and lives?
Whatever our feelings, they always seem, in essence, creatures of the wild.
We may never know whether man first chose the cat as a companion or as a way to control
rats and mice.
We do know it inspired our awe.
2500 B.C., ancient Egyptians worship at the feet of Bastet, a female cat seen as the fierce
protector of health and goddess of fertility.
Her form was depicted in all manner of statues in her temples.
The Egyptians believed that the male cat had a different role.
According to legend, his job was to kill the evil serpent, which was constantly trying
to stop the sun from traveling around the world.
Cats were so revered that when they died, they were embalmed, mummified, and placed
in caskets, with some model of the occupant displayed on the outside.
As many as 300,000 cat mummies have been found in one temple.
Behind the scenes in museums and universities, studies are going on to discover more about
the significance of these mysterious Egyptian temple cats.
X-ray pictures of these mummies clearly show the skeleton.
Its hind legs and tail have been folded against the belly.
The front legs are straight.
The shoulders and neck are distinct, and above that, the skull.
The neck of this one is broken.
The skeletons also reveal that many of these cats were less than a year old.
Perhaps the priests sacrificed these emblems of their god in large numbers and sold them
to the public as offerings.
The Romans were probably the first to introduce cats from Egypt into Europe.
During the Middle Ages, cats suffered a terrible turn of fortune.
Once gods, they were now seen as demons, the embodiment of the devil, familiars to witches,
fiendish servants to do their bidding.
The church's persecution of witches and the animals associated with them lasted for more
than 400 years.
During much of this time, rats and mice actually symbolized good and are shown here hanging
the demon cat.
But to some during the 14th century, the cat's unpopular image began to change.
When the Black Death sentenced a third of Europe to die, cats were man's natural ally
against the black rat, which spread the plague.
But witch hunts persisted through the 17th century.
It wasn't until the brown rat swept through Europe, feeding on man's food supply, that
the cat once again became a welcomed household pet.
Finally, in a total turnaround, we see rats surrendering to the cat.
As soon as man mastered the seas, cats became part of ships companies, and sea routes, normally
a barrier to the migration of land animals, became a highway system for cats.
Here in the Galapagos Island, 600 miles from the nearest mainland, Darwin discovered a
unique fauna that had no fear of man.
Bizarre creatures evolved in complete isolation.
Never having known any land predators, they're incredibly tame.
Their total lack of fear has left them entirely defenseless against predation.
And the land iguana is only one of the species that has been endangered by our seemingly
innocent companion.
Cats left behind by visiting ships long ago have returned to a totally wild existence.
They're lean and wary, and have gone back to holding territories, feeding on whatever
they can catch.
Scientists have found that surprisingly over half their diet is grasshoppers.
But cats are renowned opportunists, and they found the defenseless wildlife here to be
easy prey.
Young iguanas and ground nesting birds are especially vulnerable.
Feral cats are considered perhaps the greatest threat to the native wildlife of these and
many other oceanic islands.
To this day, domestic cats easily adapt to a life at sea.
They've made themselves at home wherever man has migrated.
The first cats to reach America were rat catchers on commercial vessels that brought them from
Europe around 1620.
They thrived in the cities of the northeast, and gradually spread from there throughout
the country.
Feral cats also occur in the American countryside.
They feed on small mammals and birds.
Wildlife here evolved along with land predators, and they're not entirely defenseless.
Sadly though, the growing number of feral cats has begun to take its toll on birds and
small forest animals.
Come on, kitties.
Other rural cats have the best of both worlds.
They continue to live around humans and depend on us in part for their food, but they do
go off hunting on their own.
All outdoor cats have home ranges from a half to 40 acres in size.
Males have larger ranges than females, and they often overlap.
Both males and females mark their home areas.
It's one way of telling others of their presence.
Cats that follow may stop to sniff the mark, but they don't respond with a mark of their
own.
Cats live in a whole landscape of odors of which we are totally unaware.
Different cats may hold dominance over a particular area at different times of the day.
Scent marking reinforces their awareness of who has the right of way now, but it doesn't
act as a repellent, and confrontations are bound to occur.
Body postures convey moods precisely.
Ears flatten back in a defensive threat.
Its scent helps identify the combatant.
The fur begins to bristle to increase the threat.
Ears erect in an offensive display, one cautiously exercises its dominance, while the other recognizes
that it's time to back off.
Yet even solitary animals have to come together for mating.
This feral female Manx cat is in heat.
Her body is producing scents that tell the local males she's ready for mating.
The male picks up her scent and follows her.
He stays around the female until she's receptive.
In more crowded urban locations, he would have to fight off other males at this time
to hold on to his position.
The female begins to adopt a special crouching posture, back curved and rump held high.
The male continues the pursuit until he judges that she's ready.
Males are often repelled on their first approach.
Feral cats exercise considerable choice.
Finally, with her back held high, she signals to the male that she's ready.
The male restrains her by a tight grip on her neck and holds her firmly just behind
her front legs.
They will keep this position for about two minutes, but the actual mating only occurs
in the final few seconds.
She gives a loud cry and throws him off.
This curious behavior is explained by the tiny spines on the male's penis.
Although it's evidently somewhat painful, it's necessary to stimulate ovulation in the
female.
Then, she indulges in a bout of rolling, rubbing, and licking.
The male waits close by.
Over a three-hour period, he may repeat the process as many as 16 times.
male.
Once away from human influences, domestic cats reveal a repertoire of behavior patterns
that closely resemble those of their more awesome cousins.
A tiger in the wilderness of India, scent-marking by rubbing with the side of its head, just
like our own cats.
Then, to complete the picture, it sprays on a well-used landmark in its territory.
The rubbing records its own identity and condition for all that follow it.
The spray message seems to serve as a more general advertisement.
As it rubs, it senses which others have rubbed there recently.
A tiger learns where to find prey, then waits and ambush.
Males and females hunt alone and pounce to make a capture.
A male looks on while a female, which also operates in this territory, cuts the carcass
into pieces with her shearing side teeth before swallowing it in chunks, just like our pets
are equipped to do.
This male has been busy spray-marking his territory.
When a muddy female approaches, they briefly investigate the sides of each other's faces,
probably to confirm identities or to match the particular scent with that on the rubbed
landmarks.
The encounter apparently over, she continues on her way.
Then she suddenly reverses her tracks and lies down provocatively near the male.
Mating involves the identical neck biting by the male and the subsequent batting off
by the female.
In such ways, our domestic cats apparently carry with them much of their behavior from
the wild, even to the female indulging in a bout of rolling, and the male staying close
by waiting for another chance to mate.
And then there are cats in other jungles.
These animals also depend on using the same basic instincts to survive, but here their
habitat is a far cry from the wilderness.
There are an estimated 15 to 25 million strays in America.
This represents about a quarter of the total cat population.
These unwanted street cats are often unhealthy and lead short, miserable lives.
Every year, more than 3 million cats have to be killed by animal welfare organizations.
At the other extreme, we spend almost 2 billion dollars on cat food each year and many more
millions on vet care and special products and services.
Those that have been rejected by human society survive by scavenging for any leftovers, an
all too common sight.
In the other world of cats, owners come together with pride to display their pets.
A top purebred cat may cost as much as $3,000.
There's close attention to detail.
At a typical cat show, you can see more than 30 breeds that are recognized by the Cat Fanciers
Association.
When compared to all the extremely different looking breeds of dogs, different breeds of
cats have stayed much closer in appearance.
It may be something about their genetics that has made cats resistant to breeding into widely
different body forms.
More likely, since they have little potential as working animals, cats have not been subjected
to the same intensive selective breeding.
But at this cat show, the title of queen is awarded to a non-pedigree house cat, presumably
on the grounds that with cats, everyone is equally entitled to the description of regal.
If this seems a bit excessive, it may be little more than our pets are used to receiving in
their daily lives.
Cats have their own ways of demanding and getting attention and manipulating our behavior
to match their wishes.
But when a cat rubs you, it may not be showing affection.
It's said that only when it rubs you with its forehead and nose is it recognizing you
as a member of its cat family.
All the other places that a cat normally uses to rub with, like the sides of its head and
mouth, its flank, or even with its tail, are simply to mark you with one of its personalized
sense.
As well as demanding attention, it's probably claiming you as part of its territory, even
though it may not always be the most convenient time.
When this cat rubs on the edge of a table, it's clearly not passionate about the wooden
legs but is simply marking it with its odors.
Since most cat owners have more than one cat, each will stake its claim to share the territory.
The other cat in the household will commonly go over and sniff the rubbed area before adding
its own personalized scent to the same spot.
This house cat is sharpening its claws, or so it appears, but this animal had its claws
removed as a kitten.
The fact that it continues to rub may give us a clue to the significance of this behavior.
When a cat scratches a tree, not only is it keeping its retractable claws in top condition,
but it's almost certainly putting scent marks from its pads on the roughened surface, as
well as leaving a visual marker of its presence.
The cat experiences a sensory world that's totally different from our own.
It's easy to misjudge precisely what messages cats are picking up from their environment.
As they carry out their familiar lives around our homes, they are responding to a world
of which humans have little awareness.
Their seemingly psychic abilities, such as being able to sense the vibrations of coming
earthquakes, may be achieved simply by using sensory information we cannot experience.
All of it adds to their mysterious image.
The hearing of cats is considerably better than humans.
They have greater sensitivity and can detect high frequencies several octaves above the
limit of our hearing.
The cat's outer ear is very flexible and can scan and localize sounds with great precision.
It's moved by an elaborate complex of tiny muscles.
A cat's keen sense of smell provides a wealth of information, information that is intensified
by the special organ in the roof of the mouth.
A cat's pupil can occupy the whole of the eye or can contract into a vertical slit,
allowing it to see in almost any light condition.
They've sacrificed color vision for extra sensitivity in low light.
They can detect blues and yellows, but can't really distinguish red.
With this array of senses, cats are well equipped for survival, but pampered pets cannot automatically
become accomplished hunters.
Only experience from early kittenhood can prepare them for life on their own.
Cats spend 80% of their time resting or at least catnapping.
By monitoring their brain waves, we know that they first enter a phase of light sleep lasting
20 to 40 minutes.
During this time, they will readily open their eyes at the slightest disturbance.
Then they finally go totally limp and their third eyelid closes in from the side as they
enter another world.
Like humans, their brain wave pattern suggests that cats dream.
Sometimes their muscles start to twitch as if hunting.
Perhaps they're dreaming of a situation like this.
The cat first twists the front end of its body downward, quickly followed by the rear.
It can right itself after falling from an upside down position in less than one second.
Cats drink in a very special way.
They have comb-like spikes on their tongues which are primarily designed to scrape off
meat from the bones of their prey.
But there are pockets behind these spikes which act like a sponge to soak up the milk.
Then the tongue is sucked dry in the mouth.
When a cat cleans itself, it uses that same rough surface to comb and lubricate its fur.
The saliva actually contains a cleansing deodorizing agent which helps keep the cat clean and healthy.
This
motel in Florida plays host to many guests.
But there's a resident here too, a calico cat that makes her home base in the store room.
She made it about 64 days ago and has produced a litter of five kittens in a cardboard box.
These youngsters are less than a day old.
Their eyes won't open for another six to eight days and their hearing doesn't function until
about another week after that.
Because they feed exclusively on their mother's milk for the first five weeks and also because
they must stay close to her for warmth, these young kittens are equipped with several powerful
instincts to help them survive.
Initially, their most important senses are smell and touch as well as temperature awareness.
If they move away in the wrong direction, they can recognize by smell where they should
be and take steps accordingly.
Its sense of smell also helps the kitten identify its own nipple.
It will suckle from that one exclusively.
Another of the kitten's most crucial skills is to recognize up from down so that it can
always keep its belly downward and be properly positioned to nurse.
To be lying on one side is a cause for frantic struggle.
In these early days, the muscles of the kitten's rear quarters are not yet under control, so
their mother licks them, not just to keep them clean but also to stimulate their bladder
and bowels.
Yet they will develop quickly from these feeble beginnings.
The onset of puberty is just four months away.
By five weeks of age, the kittens have become fully coordinated.
Now their mother begins to leave them for short periods while they explore more and
more of their immediate environment.
They're full of curiosity and learn by watching and imitating their mother and by playing
with each other.
The mother now has a new responsibility.
As dusk approaches, she leaves her offspring and goes out to hunt.
Initially, she kills the prey she catches and takes it back to eat in front of her youngsters.
This enables the kittens to recognize it as a food source, and soon they learn to eat
with her.
As her offspring get older, she changes to catching mice but not killing them so that
she can take them back alive to her kittens.
For domestic cats, about one pounds in three results in a capture.
She sets off back to the store room to deliver the hapless animal to her brood.
She knows that her kittens are ready to begin learning the skills they will need to survive.
This gives the youngsters a chance to learn how to handle a small rodent.
Kittens have no instinctive knowledge of how to kill their prey with a precise neck bite
that cuts the spinal cord.
They must learn from experience.
The mother looks on but does not interfere.
This may look cute, but it's actually a deadly game.
This time, the mouse gets away, but soon these kittens will need to perfect their killing
skills to survive.
In the center of this litter is convincing evidence that cats need experience to learn
to view mice as food.
This white mouse is a family pet that the mother cat came to know and accept when she
herself was a kitten.
Now it's treated almost as a member of her own litter.
Her own instincts are not triggered by the mouse, and it's allowed to be around without
provoking more than sleepy curiosity.
If a cat has not been exposed to opportunities to learn hunting as a kitten, it will be an
ineffective predator as an adult.
In order to survive in the wild, even big cats, such as lions and tigers, must be taught
by their parents to recognize that prey is food.
It's highly unlikely that these kittens will grow up to be efficient mousers.
Domestic cats offer innumerable opportunities for the study of animal behavior.
But surprisingly, very little research has been done, it's almost as if scientists have
felt that pets are not worthy of serious study.
Even obvious questions, such as the meaning of their different calls, have just begun
to be investigated.
Zoologist Patricia McKinley is in the first stage of work on a cat dictionary.
She analyzes their calls with a machine that separates the different frequencies and displays
them on a chart.
She's found that cats produce about 15 basic calls, several of which can be combined to
give a total vocabulary of approximately 25 different vocalizations.
The meow is a composite call made of two different components.
The first part, the me sound, is often used alone, and it serves as a friendly greeting
call.
The ow sound on its own is normally a defensive call, meaning keep your distance.
So when a cat meows at you, it's really saying, I'm willing to be friendly, but beware, I've
got rights here too.
Cats almost always meow at people and very rarely at other cats.
Purring is the cat's way of trying to ensure the continuation of some contact.
They do it as they suckle their kittens and also when humans stroke them.
The purring was once thought to be an involuntary noise, like human snoring, but now we know
that it's a deliberate process.
And unlike other vocalizations, it continues as they breathe in and out.
All cats seem to purr at the same frequency, 25 vibrations per second.
The two clear components of the meow call.
The purr call is nonstop, only the tone changes.
All of the insistent calls that cats make have sound characteristics similar to the
cries of a human baby.
This might explain the contrasts of pleasure and annoyance they can generate in people.
Another unstudied aspect of cats is why women in general have a stronger preference for
them than men.
Most owners are couples, but if you look at single people with cats, you'll find that
there's a larger percentage of female owners.
Psychologists offer several possible explanations.
One is that women typically have less of a need to dominate their pet than men.
Anyone who wants a cat to do something on command is likely to be very frustrated.
However, there are ways of developing extraordinarily close relationships with your cat.
Just handling kittens for 20 minutes each day for the first 30 days of their lives actually
speeds their rates of development and intensifies the closeness of their bonding with humans.
In one study, kittens handled in this way open their eyes a day sooner and emerge from
the nest box three days earlier than usual.
Well handled kittens stand the best chance of being trained by their owners.
And when they become adult cats, they're more likely to develop close and affectionate relationships
with human beings.
This mother cat has been handled extensively since birth.
Her kittens have been experiencing the same affectionate daily handling and have developed
a close and trusting relationship with their handler, which in this case just happens to
be a baboon.
Appropriately called Boonie, she's a resident of a small zoo.
This mother cat was born here herself two years ago, and at that time the baboon decided
to share in her upbringing and to groom her as if she were a young baboon.
Boonie still enjoys grooming sunshine, the ever patient mother.
Boonie also shows a strong attraction to the kittens.
Given the slightest chance, she'll pick one up and carry it around.
With the daily handling they're getting from birth, it's highly likely these kittens will
develop their own attachment to baboons, which will remain with them throughout their lives.
Perhaps in a year or two, this one might return to repeat the process.
But for now, it seems to be in good hands.
Contrary to popular belief, cats are trainable.
This is how a professional goes about it, starting with four week old kittens.
The aim here is not to let the kitten use its
front paws, so it will learn to sit upright, unaided.
As in all animal training, the most important thing is the bond of kindness and consistency
on the part of the trainer.
From small, uncertain beginnings, progress is made one step at a time.
Stimulated only by rewards and encouragement, this tiny kitten is beginning a long process.
This will eventually enable it to reliably go through its paces on command, and in totally
strange surroundings.
The trainer, Dominique Lacour, is a professional clown who entertains with his cats in a miniature
circus act.
In the
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And although we can see that cats are trainable, many cat owners would admit they are the ones
who have been trained by the subtle influences of their pets.
In the end, it's the companionship and affection cats offer that makes them such a fulfilling
part of our lives.
Many people also admire their independence, and cats give us something no other pet can
match.
They provide their owners with a deep-rooted spiritual pleasure that comes from living
with an animal that retains so many obvious links with the untamed world of nature.
Perhaps in that lies their greatest charm.
These kittens are orphans from a local adoption agency aptly called Forgotten Felines.
Nationwide, fewer than one out of three cats in shelters ever find a home with people who
will take care of them.
The rest will be either put to sleep, become experimental animals in some laboratory, live
out deprived lives in a shelter, or escape, go wild, and become both nuisances and health
hazards.
Anyone who thinks domesticated cats and dogs can take care of themselves in modern America
is dead wrong, believe me.
A couple of suggestions.
One, if you want a cat for a pet, please adopt an orphan like these fellows, unless you plan
to breed and show cats.
And two, please have any orphan kitten you take into your home neutered.
Neutering will definitely make a better pet, and we have enough orphans.
I'm George Page for Nature.