Cats in the Wild and in the Home
by vremde kattan
http://www.strangecats.com
Cats were first kept as pets by the Egyptians about five
thousand years ago. The first cats that made it into
people's homes were probably African Wildcats, a breed
slightly larger than most of today's domestic cats. Though
domesticated, these cats had a job to do - they were to
protect grain stores from mice and other rodents.
The Egyptians were the first to realize that the task of
domesticating the cat was easy. They only had to raise a
kitten within the confines of their homes. As a result, the
kitten would have no fear of humans when it grew into an
adult cat. Thus evolution over thousands of years and its
domestication by man made the brain of the cat thirty
percent smaller than its wild counterpart.
All cats, dogs, bears, foxes and other similar predators
are believed to have a common ancestor. That was the Miacis
that lived about fifty million years ago on the trees. It
hunted other animals and became extinct long ago. Five
million years before the Miacis, predator called the
Dinicitis lived on the planet and it was very much like the
cat that we have today.
There are generally three sizes of cats in the wild- the
large, medium and small. The small cats are normally kept
as pets and are a breed of the African wildcat. The medium
cats are the Bobcat and the Asian Golden Cat.
The large cats are the most remarkable. People mistakenly
believe the lion to be the largest. The largest cat is the
tiger. The tiger often weighs more than 700 pounds and is a
man-eater. It is found in the swamps and the tropical
climate of Asia. This wonderful species is, however, an
endangered one.
Big cats also count amongst their number the fastest land
animal, the cheetah. Though they are strictly sprinters,
they can't be beat over the quarter mile and peak at sixty
miles an hour.
Lions are unusual in the cat world because they are very
sociable animals. They form prides of extended families
unlike any other cats, hunting and living together. Even
domestic cat mothers only look out for their offspring for
so long after birth...
Both domestic and wild cats love to sleep. Wild cats are in
majority nocturnal hunters and the big ones usually sit and
doze for long hours to digest their food. Hunting for food
usually comes second to sleeping most of the time. Domestic
cats even sleep for sixteen hours a day.
Submit An Article
|
|
