What are the exceptions to when felines are not solitary and territorial?
2 pts
- Mating
- Kitten rearing
Which felines are the only ones with social behaviour?
3 pts
- Cheetahs
- Lions
- Wild cats -> domestic cats
What is social behaviour in cheetahs like?
6 pts
- Litters remain together until they become 6 month old when females disperse
- Males mostly remain with siblings for the rest of their lives
- Better defense of territory: better monopolization of females
- Increased survival
- Decrease predation by lions
- Larger prey size: team work
What is the social behaviour for female kinships in lions like?
4 pts
- All females breed, unlike other felines
- Cubs are kept hidden for 6 weeks before introducing them to the pride
- Highly cooperative: mothers take care of their cubs together
- Control of another’s reproductive success through aggression would most likely disadvantage both parties
What is the social behaviour for male groups in lions like?
5 pts
- Male siblings remain in groups and compete for females with other groups
- Offspring of previous groups are killed when former males are displaced
- Groups of males may associated with one or more groups of females
- Males displace females and younger animals when feeding (males eat first)
- Advantages: defense of territories with reliable and abundant supplies of prey
How does the social behaviour of lions differ from other felines?
1 pt
Lions are the most socially complex felines known: females and males live in group. Everyone breeds, reducing competition
What is the wild cat and what is the subspecies that is closest to the domestic cat?
2 pts
Wild cat - Felis silvestric
* mitochondrial DNA of F.s. catus (domestic cat) is almost identical to F.s. Lybica (Arabia or North Africa)
What is the history of domestication for the cat?
8 pts
- Wildcats and domestic cats split about 10,000 years ago
- Socialization might have started with the creation of man-made grain stores
- Expansion of house mouse - Introducation of cats into urban areas to control mice populations
- Reproductive isolation of cats associated with human settlements - Concentration of prey large enough to support more than a female and their offspring
- Intraspecific sociality became adaptive to secure good quality territories with a consistent food supply
- Social mechanisms developed for intraspecific communication allowed interspecific communication with humans
What does colony formation depend on for feral cats?
4 pts
- Population density
- Distribution of suitable territories
- Availability of suitable mates
- The cost-benefit relationship of assisting kin
What are colonies like for feral female cats and their female offspring?
8 pts
- Allonursing and prey sharing
- All adults are both breeders and helpers
- Mothers can recognize their offspring but won’t discriminate when it comes to care
- No aggression unless resources become limited
- Feeding priority is given to juveniles under 1 years old
- Dominance between females
- If dominant female dies, group gets unstables and divided, becomes stable in 1-2 wks when new female becomes dominant
- Culling and abandonment can disrupt female groups: aggression and abnormal behaviour
What is group living like for feral male cats?
4 pts
Males older than one year old disperse: association with a single or several female groups or become nomadic
* Females quite promiscuous
* Fight for mates
* Strong territoriality
What are the benefits for feral cats who are in group living?
7 pts
- Reduce competition with other females
- Protection from males
- Protection from predators
- Defense of good territories (food and shelter)
- Better use of resources
- Shared information
- Protection
- Protection against infanticide
What is a disadvantage to feral cats living in groups?
1 pt
transmission of viruses
What is feline calcivirus and felive immunodeficiency virus (FIV)?
7 pts
Feline calcivirus: mild to severe respriatory infection and oral disease in cats
Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV): related to human immunodeficiency virus
* enlarged lymph nodes
* Anemia
* Weight loss
* Poor appetite
* Abnormal appearance or inflammation of the eye (conjunctivitis)
What is one of the key requirements for socialization?
1 pt
Communication
What are the basics to communication?
3 pts
- Mating
- Mother-kitten relationships
- Play behaviour
What is mating behaviour?
6 pts
Highly stereotyped and conspicuous sequence of events
* Calling to attract males
* Rolling around on belly and back
* Holding her tail to the side to expose genitalia
* Excessive affection
* Excessive rubbing against inanimate objects: scent and pheromones
What is the mother-kitten relationship?
8 pts
- Prenatal phase: kitten’s preference for food that the mother ate during pregnancy
- 0-2wks: Early stage of development: dependent on mother. Touch, taste and smell: preference for specific nipple
- 3-8/9 wks: mobility and some independence. Critical period of socialization
- Mothers clean their kittens
- Call their mother
- Display the Tail Up signal when they see their mother
- Head rubbing - 12-13 wks: reduced aggression; 14-15 wks is even better = better welfare
What is play behaviour in cats?
4 pts
- Primarily a juvenile activity
- Social play increases from week 4 to week 12 after birth, and then it decreases
- In the absence of littermates a kitten will try to play with its mother
- Isolated kittens might not learn how to play, hindering their social communication skills
What are the different communication signals that cats use?
7 pts
- Except for agonistic or mother-kitten relationship, colonies are remarkably silent
- Cats territoriality and can be lethal
- Agonistic and affiliative signals developed to avoid fights
- Scent marking
- Scent and pheromone producing organs
- Highly sensitive nose
- Vomeronasal organ receptor: located at the rood of the mouth and connects both the nasal and oral cavities
What is agonistic behaviour?
6 pts
- Fight is the last resource
- Agonistic behaviour
- Staring, horizontal tail, lashing of the tail, assuming threatening postures to maximize body appearance, ritualized vocal duels, baring of canines, striking a paw, biting, non-sexual mount, chasing - Submissive signals:
- Not as variate due to solitary living
- Avoidance, elevation, crouching, retreat, rolling
What is affiliative behaviour in cats?
7 pts
- It is sexually dimorphic: nature of cats social groups
- Between adult females
- Males keep apart and roam by themselves from group to group - It likely originates from mother-kitten behaviour: ancestral state
- Allogrooming Hygiene
- Tail up and head rubbing: greeting or food solicitation - Colonies formation promoted the evolution of ritualized signals for affiliation among adults
What are affiliative behaviour signals in cats?
6 pts
- Tail Up posture: usually initiated by the younger, smaller cat, or females
- Precedes other affiliative signals - Allorub: exchange of odour
- Allogroom
- Social sniff
- There are at least 40 different chemical substances in facial secretion and only 13 are common among all cats
What is the relationship like between humans and cats?
3 pts
- evidence from 2000 - 4000 years ago
- Communication with humans includes visual, tactile, and auditory signals
- Cats show preferences for familiar persons, (more time spent with them) but they are able to generalize their interactions with others as well -> genuine attachment bond with specific humans
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