Volume 11, January–February 2016, Pages 113–124
Abstract
The
domestic cat is the only member of the Felidae to form social
relationships with humans, and also, the only small felid to form
intraspecific social groups when free ranging. The latter are
matriarchies, and bear only a superficial similarity to those of the
lion and cheetah, which evolved separately and in response to very
different selection pressures. There is no evidence for intraspecific
social behavior in the ancestral species Felis silvestris, and
hence, the capacity for group formation almost certainly evolved
concurrently with the self-domestication of the cat during the period
10,000 to 5,000 years before present. Social groups of F. catus
are characterized by cooperation among related adult females in the
raising of kittens from parturition onward and competition between adult
males. Unlike more social Carnivora, cats lack ritualized submissive
signals, and although “peck-order” hierarchies can be constructed from
exchanges of aggressive and defensive behavior, these do not predict
reproductive success in females, or priority of access to key resources,
and thus do not illuminate the basis of normal cat society. Cohesion in
colonies of cats is expressed as, and probably maintained by,
allorubbing and allogrooming; transmission of scent signals may also
play a largely uninvestigated role. The advantages of group living over
the ancestral solitary territorial state have not been quantified
adequately but are likely to include defense of permanent food sources
and denning sites and protection against predators and possibly
infanticide by invading males. These presumably outweigh the
disadvantages of communal denning, enhanced transmission of parasites,
and diseases. Given the lack of archaeological evidence for cats kept as
pets until some 4,000 years before present, intraspecific social
behavior was most likely fully evolved before interspecific sociality
emerged. Signals directed by cats toward their owners fall into 3
categories: those derived from species-typical actions, such as jumping
up, that become signals by association; signals derived from
kitten-to-mother communication (kneading, meow); and those derived from
intraspecific cohesive signals. Social stress appears widespread among
pet cats, stemming from both agonistic relationships within households
and territorial disputes with neighborhood cats, but simple solutions
seem elusive, most likely because individual cats vary greatly in their
reaction to encounters with other cats.
Keywords
- felidae;
- domestic cat;
- social behavior;
- communication
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