On my way home from the gym this avo - unusually early, because I wanted to ensure I wasn't trapped in the ensuing blizzard - I caught the last 10mins of a programme on the Science of Cats. It intermingled a Just So story (I think) with bits of theorisation about why cats are cat-like, and why it might make sense to be a cat.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01pw5s8
It was, IMO, an excellent listen.
Some bits that I remember:
i) if you put a pigeon in a box with a food switch, it will learn to bat the food switch, and then it will bat the food switch and get food. If you put a cat in a box with a food switch, it will never learn that the food switch gives food, so it'll essentially die a very hungry cat. The cat scientist conjectured that this might be because cats hunt very intelligent prey. Therefore, if they did the same thing loads of times to try and catch (say) mice, then mice would learn the very basic cat behaviour in no time flat, and would stop being catchable. Therefore, being largely - if not entirely - unteachable / unconditionable is a very functional evolutionary behaviour.
ii) once a queen has bred, the tom will often return at a later date. He will check the kittens. If they are his, all well and good. If they are not, he may well eat them all up, and then have sexy time with their mother. This, the evolutionary cat psychologist suggested, is why cats move around a lot. And why your average cat will sleep in four different beds on four different days of the week.
iii) apparently, scientists have only properly worked out what cats need in cat diets in the last 50yrs or so. Prior to that, people weren't really aware that feeding cats on shit other than meat was a bit nutritionally catastrophic. So the prospect of an entirely domiciled cat - apart from the very small group of people who could afford endless cat meat - was unrealistic. And cats had a very large role as self-feeders, and / or chasers of birds, rats, squirrels and street urchins. This, the cat scientist argued, means that cats have only had 50yrs of even potentially being sedentary non-hunters. Which isn't very long, in cat evolutionary terms. As such, he reckoned that it'd be amazing if cats weren't still filled with gleeful slaughter (particularly given that, even a few years ago, bringing home dead mice presents might be met with a reward), and it's likely to be inordinately difficult to breed it out of them in the immediate future.
Anyway. Some possibly-bunk evolutionary cat psychology. And a damned good listen.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01pw5s8
It was, IMO, an excellent listen.
Some bits that I remember:
i) if you put a pigeon in a box with a food switch, it will learn to bat the food switch, and then it will bat the food switch and get food. If you put a cat in a box with a food switch, it will never learn that the food switch gives food, so it'll essentially die a very hungry cat. The cat scientist conjectured that this might be because cats hunt very intelligent prey. Therefore, if they did the same thing loads of times to try and catch (say) mice, then mice would learn the very basic cat behaviour in no time flat, and would stop being catchable. Therefore, being largely - if not entirely - unteachable / unconditionable is a very functional evolutionary behaviour.
ii) once a queen has bred, the tom will often return at a later date. He will check the kittens. If they are his, all well and good. If they are not, he may well eat them all up, and then have sexy time with their mother. This, the evolutionary cat psychologist suggested, is why cats move around a lot. And why your average cat will sleep in four different beds on four different days of the week.
iii) apparently, scientists have only properly worked out what cats need in cat diets in the last 50yrs or so. Prior to that, people weren't really aware that feeding cats on shit other than meat was a bit nutritionally catastrophic. So the prospect of an entirely domiciled cat - apart from the very small group of people who could afford endless cat meat - was unrealistic. And cats had a very large role as self-feeders, and / or chasers of birds, rats, squirrels and street urchins. This, the cat scientist argued, means that cats have only had 50yrs of even potentially being sedentary non-hunters. Which isn't very long, in cat evolutionary terms. As such, he reckoned that it'd be amazing if cats weren't still filled with gleeful slaughter (particularly given that, even a few years ago, bringing home dead mice presents might be met with a reward), and it's likely to be inordinately difficult to breed it out of them in the immediate future.
Anyway. Some possibly-bunk evolutionary cat psychology. And a damned good listen.
