Kind: captions
Language: en
foreign
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of the world's most popular fairy pets
who's a good kid famously enigmatic and
totally unreadable we will often pretend
to know what they're thinking or we
write
maybe not
now biologists and archaeologists are
unraveling their secret histories
behavioral genes we have evolved a
little bit to make a domestic cat more
docile more friendly with humans
molecular genetics is throwing new light
on the cat's Journey from wild animal to
furry friend we can really drill down
and say definitively where domestic cats
come from
discoveries in Neuroscience are starting
to explain why we find cats so appealing
it's clear that these auditory sounds
are plugging straight into our emotions
Behavioral Science is giving us a hint
of what they think of us they are able
to differentiate between our different
expressions and why they aren't always
the ruthless Predator they sometimes
pretend to be the cat likes to hide it
likes to conceal itself it often likes
to be up high where it feels safe
what can science tell us about their
future
humans have hybridized the domestic cat
with a completely different species
we're on the prowl for cattails
right now on Nova
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they are as enigmatic today as when they
first came in from the wild
cats leave fantastic devil lives
they disappear for hours and we don't
know where they go
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so yes cats are mysterious they are
their best secret agents
so where do these strange house guests
come from
they were slightly larger in size lived
more in trees but otherwise they're
going to have very similar
characteristics that makes a cat a cat
how did they end up living with us
people have been speculating about it
for hundreds of years
and what about cat intelligence cats are
brilliant people really underestimate
the Brilliance of a cat
do they even like us the right
motivation for a lot of cats is not to
please us or are they just in it for the
treats
the great big motivator is going to be
food what is it about these strange
creatures that makes them irresistible
to so many of us
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thank you
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welcome to Las Vegas for the 40th Tikka
cat show one of the largest feline shows
in the USA
we have 447 cats and we have 247
exhibitors it is a testament to our
fascination with cats
poppy is a Canadian Sphinx they're a
very sweet breed they call them velcro
kitties because they like to be on your
lap all the time
a tiger I invented it he has a fantastic
temperament
cats are popular because they are simply
very charismatic they're independent and
they're considered easy Keepers it's
nice being able to come home relax have
your cat come up to you meow sit in your
lap and purr it just makes you feel
loved and welcome
there are over 70 breeds recognized by
the international cat Association
these are white Oriental short hair
which is a Siamese and a designer coat
yeah he's a sweet boy
then there are glamor cats like the
Persian with its thick luxurious coat
the Maine large smart and a deadly
Hunter
and the Exotic one of the most popular
breeds in the U.S and that's just a
start
you can get small cats you can't get
large cats you can get cats for
shortened legs you can get cats with
folded ears we estimate about one out of
five households in the U.S owns a cat
one thing is clear owners really love
their cats
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are perfect for me because I just love
their companionship they jump up on your
lap and that's all I need just a little
cup of tea and a cat
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why are so many people obsessed with
cats
the latest scientific research suggests
owners literally can't help themselves
Professor Morton kringlebach works at
the University of Oxford
he studies hedonia pleasure pleasure is
probably one of the most interesting
tricks that Evolution ever played on us
it's basically making us do what it is
that we need to do to survive
to understand how humans experience
pleasure kringlebach uses a
magnetoencephalograph or Meg to map and
measure electrical activity in our
brains in real time
what is really exciting about this
technique is that it allows us to
basically look at how the brain is
thinking how the brain is having
emotions
you can measure over milliseconds the
way that the electromagnetic signals in
your brain changes and we can start to
see how the brain is unfolding in real
time
the brain fires electrical signals
between neurons each tiny electric
current produces a minute magnetic field
but these magnetic fields are so small
they can be swamped by interference from
electronic equipment
even from the magnetic field of the
Earth
for the Meg to measure brain activity
test subjects must be locked away in a
heavily shielded room
okay we're just about ready to start
just sit nice and still and just listen
to The Sounds in previous trials
kringlebox team tracked the brain's
responses to the sound of a newborn baby
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so what we're seeing here is how the
signal gets into the auditory cortex
this bit here and here so it's basically
just near to your ears and you can see
that after about 130 milliseconds you
get the maximal response now when you're
listening to an infant crying you also
get activity in the orbital frontal
cortex and that's happening at exactly
the same time as when you are actually
trying to make sense of what it is that
you're hearing
the orbital frontal cortex is Central to
processing emotions and the experiments
suggested that the sound of a baby
crying triggered a response there before
the subjects had consciously identified
the sound
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it seems to be an instinctive emotional
reaction that may not even require
rational thought
this may be because the need to care for
infants is an essential species survival
skill it's clear that these auditory
sounds are plugging straight into our
emotions
in tests where subjects listen to the
sound of an adult crying a much weaker
response arose in the orbital frontal
cortex suggesting only certain sounds
trigger a strong emotional response
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but there was another sound that
produced the same reaction as a baby's
cry
a cat's meow
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there seems to be striking similarities
between the way that we process a cat
meowing and that of baby crying
we get activity in the auditory cortices
looks like we do with anything else but
before we become conscious of it we get
activity in the orbital frontal cortex
suggesting that this is something that
we need to take care of the fact that a
newborn's cry and a cat's meow initiated
the same emotional response could have
been a coincidence except for one thing
yowing in adult cats is really
interesting because it turns out that
they only really do it to humans
when cats meow to us it's as if they are
hijacking our emotional responses to
make us love and care for them
but are they doing it on purpose it's
not necessarily something that is
conscious it's just that they know that
this works just like we know that
smiling and our parents worked when we
were kids
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monster they probably don't mean to
manipulate us but they do so we have
some idea of what's going on in our
heads about cats but will we ever know
what's going on in their heads I
definitely think cats are more aloof
than dogs I do think that they can be
very emotionally distant we will often
pretend to know what they're thinking or
we write maybe not but it's fun to
imagine
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cats are famously enigmatic so it's
tough to figure out what they're feeling
by looking at their faces happy cat
angry cat
or is that the sad cat
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we may not be able to figure out what
our cats are feeling but can science
shed any light on it
historically cats aren't seen as very
expressive so there is that idea that
they are particularly cold when it comes
to interacting with us
compare that to a dog whose face seems
full of expression empathy happiness
sadness guilt
why aren't cats as communicative
they're not really able to frown or have
that sad sort of puppy dog eye
expression they don't seem to have the
right musculature for that
both dogs and humans have a muscle that
is responsible for raising the inner
eyebrow which we use for showing things
like sadness and concern
cats don't have this muscle
so cats are physically incapable of
having faces as expressive as dogs
however finka's research suggests that
cats can communicate some emotion on
their faces
it's just we don't speak their language
so we know that the muscles of the cat's
face are quite different from other
species and certainly from humans they
use the muscles in different ways and
they also have different types of
muscles and different collections of
muscles will do different things finger
studies how cats faces change when
illness or injury produces pain this is
the only feeling she can currently say
with confidence that a cat is
experiencing we are looking at cats when
they come into the Vets with a painful
condition and we do know that they're
actually changing their expressions in
relation to how they're feeling and if
they're in pain
she has identified a set of incredibly
subtle markers to help track their
feelings we have a series of 48 facial
coordinates and we can actually look to
see how these coordinates are altering
based on what the cat's experiencing so
whether they're in pain or not in pain
or whether they're relaxed and
comfortable or perhaps fearful or
frustrated finger has identified some
telltale signs such as a cat's ears
turning very slightly outwards and down
or a tiny reduction in the distance
between the cheeks mouth and nose region
these are all signs that the cat is not
happy and in pain
but if you think this is going to usher
in a new age of cat human communication
think again it's very very subtle so
statistically it's significant but in
terms of the average cat owner trying to
look at their cat's face it might be a
little bit more problematic
our struggle to read cats feelings isn't
going to get much easier anytime soon
but can cats read our emotions any
better
to find out researchers conducted a
series of Behavioral tests
doesn't mean that they don't necessarily
have the same level of skills and
abilities it just means that it's much
harder for us to find the right context
to test them in and get them to play
ball in the way that we need them to
pepper the cat has been placed in a room
with her Handler who makes various faces
at her
first up scowling
can pepper detect this is a negative
emotion
it appears cats are less likely to react
positively to someone they know if they
have an angry expression
next a positive smiling face
by running the test multiple times
scientists gathered results suggesting
that a cat may be more likely to
approach someone they recognize if they
are smiling at it what the research
suggests is that they are able to
differentiate between our different
expressions and they're using this
information to change the way that they
are responding The Limited study also
suggested that cats react more strongly
to both the positive and negative
emotions of their owners than to those
of strangers the behavior of owners is
much more important to the cats
because we're the ones that feed the
cats and we look after them so maybe
they're more interested in paying
attention to us for that reason
we may struggle to read cat faces but
we're probably less inscrutable to them
so what led to this unlikely partnership
between human and Cat
to answer that it helps to understand
their Origins
domestic cats are part of a much larger
and Wilder family a family with some
very big Footprints to fill
the lion the tiger the leopard
Predators at the top of their food
chains
but whatever the apparent similarity
these are not our cats direct ancestors
all felines or felids evolved from the
pro-illurus an animal living in Eurasia
roughly 25 million years ago these
felids were probably slightly larger in
size lived more in trees than our
domestic cats do but otherwise it's
going to have the same teeth and Claws
just like a domestic cat does so all
cats whether you're a lion a tiger or a
little domestic cat sitting on your lap
they're going to have very similar
characteristics that makes a cat a cat
DNA and fossil evidence tells us that
big cats the lion the tiger the Jaguar
separated from the common ancestor
around 10.8 million years ago large
American cats like the lynx and Bobcat
separated 7.2 million years ago the
domestic cats ancestor the most recent
branch of the felid tree established
itself 3.4 million years ago felis
sylvestress the Wildcat
it's a much smaller subspecies of feline
that relies more on surprise and stealth
than Brute Force
this explains the origins of some of the
Strange Behaviors owners see in their
pets
there are several clues in cat's
behavior that they're perhaps not the
apex predators and in fact are prey as
well as Predators for example the cat
likes to hide it likes to conceal itself
it often likes to be up high where it
feels safe and where it can be very
vigilant
according to genetic research Felix
Sylvester split into five distinct
subspecies
the European Wildcat the Chinese
Mountain Cat the Southern and North
African Wildcats and the Central Asian
Wildcat
but which one is the actual ancestor of
our domestic cat
people have been speculating about it
for hundreds of years where they came
from whether or not they came from many
different species or many different
subspecies of one species
in 2007 geneticist Carlos Driscoll
started a groundbreaking study
collecting DNA samples from Wildcats and
comparing their DNA to domestic cats
with the Advent of molecular genetic
techniques we can really drill down and
say definitively where domestic cats
come from
subset of Felix sylvestress has a
distinct DNA signature made up by
different combinations of the four
chemical bases
A T C and G by comparing these to the
domestic cat Driscoll was able to
pinpoint which subspecies was its
ancestor
domestic cats are derived from one
single group of felous Sylvester's in
the wild Felix Sylvester's libica
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the North African wildcat
a solitary animal found throughout
Northern Africa and the Middle East
longer legged than our domestic cats
with a coat that ranges from reddish to
gray to camouflage in different habitats
but when did this Wildcat become our
domestic companion
in 2004 on the small Mediterranean
island of Cyprus
archaeologists found evidence of the
earliest known encounter between cat and
human
a team led by Jean deniving was
Excavating a 9 500 year old human
settlement
during the excavation they discovered a
grave a grave that had two occupants the
skeletal remains of a man and a cat a
felis Sylvester stallivica it was
amazing to find a complete animal and
especially a cat
beside a human and it was so early that
it was really surprising to have such an
Evidence of connection between one cat
and one human
the way the bones were laid out
suggested that the cat had been
intentionally placed next to the man
they were facing each other in death in
the afterlife and this is a scene which
has been arranged by people
but what really caught scientists
interest was the fact that Cyprus is an
island
and no Trace has ever been found of
native Wildcats
so how did this cat get here
the fact that this burial was found on
Cyprus means that somebody brought these
cats to the island by boat
the Cypress settlement closely matches
sites found in Turkey so archaeologists
believe that's where the settlers
originated
and where we know that Felix Sylvester's
libika was common
it suggests these people or their
ancestors must have brought a cat with
them
but the Cypress cat was different from
Mainland Wildcats in one very
significant respect
this cat was very big
this meant that probably it has been fed
so maybe it was more or less a pet
a larger skeleton indicates that the cat
is domesticated because he's getting
enough nutrition that he can devote all
that energy obtained from food into
growth
cats in the wild are less able to spare
the energy to grow big
there's a Time cost to hunting so you
would have energy diverted into fueling
your hunts then therefore you'll be
smaller
on its own the evidence of the Cypress
cat is not enough to confirm that this
nine and a half thousand year old cat
was domesticated but there's now
evidence from genetic research that
supports this Theory
to date the split between Wildcats and
domestic cats scientists use
mitochondrial DNA
unlike other DNA mitochondrial material
comes almost exclusively from the mother
so it's passed down the generations
unaltered except for random mutations
that happen at a known rate by
calculating that rate of mutation we can
actually calculate the age of a specimen
that we're studying so we use the
mitochondrial clock a lot with different
organisms to try to figure out their age
in evolutionary time and it shows that
our domestic cats split from Wildcats
approximately 10 000 years ago very
close to the time of the Cypress cat
why did it happen then well at that
moment in history human societies were
also going through a big transformation
becoming farmers
this started in an area of the near East
archaeologists call the Fertile Crescent
turkey with the Cyprus cat originated
was part of it
the Fertile Crescent was so rich an area
for hunting and Gathering that people
could have little encampments that
eventually grew into towns so throughout
all seasons they could be in one spot
this new way of life relied not only on
the ability to grow food but also to
store it
what's the dawn of civilization got to
do with cat domestication
humans by this point were harvesting
grains and caching them putting big
stores of grains in baskets in holes in
the floors of their houses but the Grain
Stores were an easy target for Hungry
wild rodents they had the potential to
devour these new food stores luckily for
our ancestors this new concentration of
rodents attracted something else
something Wild
cats were likely drawn into these new
human settlements because they could
hear something we couldn't
cat hearing is really just truly amazing
so they can actually hear very low
frequencies and very high frequencies
and of course much of their prey is
squeaking at high frequencies
humans can't hear some rodent squeaks at
all as they vocalize at a frequency
beyond our hearing range
but cats have ultrasonic hearing when we
hear nothing they hear this
the pitch of these squeaks must be
lowered by 90 percent to make them
audible to humans
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cats also have unique anatomical gifts
that help them zero in on their next
meal
the outside of their ear has an amazing
amount of muscles in it so they can turn
their ear all the way around that allows
the cat to really hone in on where the
mice are rats are where they're
communicating and hence they're going to
capture them for their meals
this makes cats rodent Terminators
Unstoppable killers
the Allure of easy pickings in the first
human settlements
namely rodents would have been
irresistible
and you'd be forgiven for thinking that
cats still like to show off this prowess
ten thousand years later
she brings us gifts maybe once a month
we have a mouse appear in the house it
is a bit disgusting we get leaves leaves
yeah they brought a leaf in and Rita
brought a piece of stale toast in once
from the back Garden
so lots of people think that their pet
cats bring them gifts in the form of
small rodents or Birds but actual fact
the cat doesn't believe it as a gift the
cat will often bring home the prey that
it is caught because the home represents
the core territory to the cat the place
that it feels safe but ten thousand
years ago this would have been very
effective PR proving to our ancestors
that cats protected valuable food
resources this was a creature you'd want
to have hanging around maybe you set out
some food for a cat to keep it around
your house
you might have done that because you
thought it was eating mice and keeping
your Grain Stores clean
the domestic cats split around 10 000
years ago in the near East
but how much have they changed from
their wild ancestors the wildcat in the
wild feeds only on meat they're obligate
carnivores or hyper carnivores so they
can only process proteins they're
metabolically incapable of digesting
carbohydrates
house cats are different while wild cats
only eat meat their domestic cousins
have evolved the ability to digest some
plant matter
the domestic cat for thousands of years
now has been living off of scraps not
just scraps of meat but also scraps of
grains and vegetables
and the result of that is that domestic
cats have a slightly longer intestinal
length than their wild ancestor and
Darwin hypothesized that this is because
the cats are trying to squeeze as much
nutrients out of this poor food as they
can
this irresistible combination of rodents
and edible human refuse could explain
why the Wildcat decided to come in from
the wild and live alongside humans
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Wildcats genetically predisposed to find
humans less scary
would have hung around the settlements
anything that has to do with aggression
or boldness are probably genes that are
involved with the actual domestication
process because those had to change
between the wild progenitor and the
domestic cat in order for the cat to
cohabitate with humans
breeding between these animals would
have positively selected genes that
allowed them to live more closely with
humans certainly there have been some
genes that have changed between an
African wild cat and the domestic cat
itself because we know the behaviors are
different behavioral genes which are
genes that are involved with our brain
and our neurology those are genes that
have evolved a little bit to make a
domestic cat more docile more friendly
with humans
geneticists have found 13 genes that
have changed in the domestic cat
compared to its wild ancestor genes like
DCC and gria1 which are associated with
making cats friendlier and less afraid
of people
we may never know who initiated first
Contact but it's safe to assume that
cats determine the terms of the
relationship
so it's not a stretch to say that we
didn't domesticate the cat the cat
domesticated itself
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genetics has confirmed that domestic
cats originated in the Fertile Crescent
but it's also revealed something
genuinely surprising one country had
more influence on the genes of modern
cats than any other
and it was a long way from Turkey
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besser salima ikram is an expert in all
things Egyptian including their
obsession with cats
ancient Egyptians really loved animals
but they also revered them
cats were perhaps the most popular and
the most highly venerated because of
their utilitarian as well as
metaphysical values
in Egypt four thousand years ago the
first images of cats start appearing
wall carvings and paintings of cats
living with humans
Egyptians especially valued the cat's
Killer Instincts
ancient texts tell us that not only did
cats kill rodents but they also killed
snakes so of course Egyptians loved this
because they were much safer as a result
imagine if you're a mother and your
child is crawling around and then a
snake approaches and your pet cat kills
it also for them the idea that a cat was
killing a snake meant that the Sun God
Ra was killing the evil snake Apophis
so it was sort of doing double duty
this Mystic battle playing out in homes
across Egypt would have done wonders for
the cat's PR
the cat became so important to Egyptians
that they turned it into a goddess
The Cult of bastet the Cat Goddess had
always been popular in Egypt but it
really came to prominent 3000 years ago
about 500 600 BC bastet the daughter of
RA would often take the form of a cat
bastet was very much about
self-indulgence and beauty and love and
fertility which was very important
unfortunately for cats being worshiped
as a goddess had a very unfortunate
downside
we're about to go into the tomb of Raya
who is a new kingdom official
it's a really ancient tomb and it's not
been open to the public for ages
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nice
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they lived about three and a half
thousand years ago just at the beginning
of the time of Tutankhamun
but that's not the most interesting
thing for me about this too for me the
most exciting thing is actually that it
was reused to bury captain
this tomb is packed with cat mummies
the downside of being worshiped as a
goddess was that it led to cat's
sacrifice on a huge scale
pilgrims would buy these cats to give a
blood sacrifice and so for the Cat
Goddess bastet you would offer up a cat
which would then be killed and because
it was her titular animal it would
attract her attention in the afterlife
the demand for sacrificial cats became
so great Egyptians were breeding
hundreds of thousands of them people
were breeding these animals specifically
for sacrifice so we think that there
might have been catteries scattered all
over the country where purpose-bred cats
were being given to the temples for the
priests to sacrifice
this breeding program was so intensive
it may have changed the physical
appearance of some cats
yeah
yeah little poor it's part of the four
leg of the cat but what's extraordinary
is that you can still see some of the
fur here
and it's a ginger Kitty
and a lot of the cats and paintings are
ginger cats they were favored because
they brought out the idea of the sun
guard ra and you can see this color here
seeing a ginger or orange cat today
isn't unusual but four thousand years
ago before the Egyptian breeding program
nearly every cat in the world looked
like this tabby
the striped pattern which is the
mackerel tabby was the original wild
type version of a cat's coat
the mackerel pattern helps it to have
better camouflage in the environment
that it has evolved in
orange coloring isn't good for
camouflage
these cats would have been less well
adapted to the wild
but in the categories of Egypt there was
no need for camouflage in the wild these
new coat color patterns wouldn't be
tolerated they don't provide any
advantage but when you're around humans
they become selected by humans because
they're odd and different it's called
novelty selection so when we see these
odd colorations showing up in a species
that is a clear sign of domestication
the orange mutation may not have
occurred first in Egypt but it was
certainly established and protected here
so if it wasn't for the Egyptians we may
not have orange cats at all
the Intensive Egyptian breeding program
didn't just change the way cats looked
it changed their behavior as well it's
absolutely changing the cat's
personality making it more domesticated
by putting these cats into large groups
after generations of selecting for cats
that go from a solitary animal to being
a group species now you're probably
changing the cat's Behavior to be a less
stressed animal a more bold and loving
animal with humans
so Egyptians produced cats that were
more attractive to humans
this could explain why the DNA of
Egyptian cats makes up so much of a
modern cat's DNA compared with cats from
Elsewhere for any given species not all
lineages are going to survive so for the
domestic cat the Egyptian lineage of
cats really dominated and was more
popular and so probably out-competed the
other different lineages that were from
different places of the world
but how did cats bred in Egypt spread
across the world
the same way many invading forces did at
the time by boat
Egypt was a major trading Hub in the
ancient world precious metals gems and
Timber came in Grain from the fertile
Nile went out and much of that trade
went by sea because the trade ships were
filled with grain primarily there were
so many rats about that of course cats
were really welcome because they not
only protected the grain but they also
protected the sailors from being bitten
and also their own food so cats were
really stars on these boats
cats began traveling the Known World on
ships for thousands of years Egyptian
and Roman then Viking ships transported
cats across the world
Vikings in particular seem to have
favored the unusual color mutation that
had originated in Egypt
you can almost map where Vikings were by
looking at the gene frequency of orange
in Europe
Vikings clearly couldn't get enough of
their orange Egyptian cats
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it was probably true in Viking society
as it is true in most other early
seafaring societies that having a cat on
board a ship was good luck and it could
be that the Vikings selected orange cats
to bring on their boats for some reason
that we don't know
Egyptian cat genes conquered the known
world
but it seems not everyone was happy
about that because by the Middle Ages in
Europe cats weren't being worshiped
they were being persecuted
mainly thanks to this man
Pope Gregory IX
this 13th century pope produced a Papal
anti-cat edict
it accused cats of being in League with
Satan
and because what the pope said was the
word of God
God hated cats
the solution to the satanic cat Menace
was simple and straightforward
Kill Them All
in late medieval Europe there were
festivals formed around the torturing
and killing of cats and of course when
tortured they made to sadists of a
satisfying amount of racket
[Applause]
so what was it about these relatively
harmless furry creatures that was so
alarming to Medieval Society
cats are creepy creatures to a lot of
human beings so there's always this
tension between an animal that actually
shouldn't be in your home and as a
predator of quite menacing and yet she
is affectionate and cuddly and Purry and
furry and warm another reason medieval
people could have found cats disturbing
was because of their serpent-like eyes
cats have unique adaptations in their
eyes that allow them to be superb
Hunters at night
one of these adaptations is the
reflective layer in the back of the eye
called the tapedum
light entering the eye is picked up by
the photoreceptors in the retina
it hits the tapedum lucidum reflects
back and gets picked up by the
photoreceptors again
this adaptation helps give a cat six
times greater night vision Acuity than a
human
however this membrane makes the cat's
eyes appear to glow in the dark
not ideal in the age of Witchcraft and
superstition
we are a diurnal species we're suited to
Daylight we can't see in the dark the
night for us is disempowering scary and
positively dangerous whereas to a cat it
is simply a natural environment
isn't it Moses
by the end of the Middle Ages cats had
colonized almost every continent on the
planet
and they had started to diverge further
and further from their near East Origins
one of the more famous and striking of
these new cats was the Siamese
Siamese cats are very interesting
because they're sort of a natural breed
that occurred in Thailand
the Siamese evolved in a different
direction from its Egyptian ancestors
losing the Tabby coloration completely
opting for something totally unique
so this beautiful girl has got a classic
Siamese coat color with the the Browner
ears and nose and tail and feet and
that's the result of a thermosensitive
mutation in a tyrosine gene that
inhibits the production of melanin on
these cats and so the warm parts of her
body lose the color and the cooler parts
keep it
the DNA of the Siamese show they
separated from the Mediterranean breed
centuries ago and evolved independently
on the other side of the world
it's not believed that anybody set out
to breed these cats what happened is a
mutation occurred and it stayed in this
very small isolated population in
Thailand and from there it drifted into
fixation in a certain number of cats
this process is called genetic drift it
occurs when a particular mutation
becomes accidentally dominant in an
isolated population that doesn't mix
much with the rest of the world
if a mutation occurs in a small
population it's got a very good chance
of drifting to fixation which means that
a hundred percent of the cats in that
population will then have that mutation
the Siamese is an extremely unusual
breed because its looks result from a
natural genetic process
most cats in the world arose by more
artificial means a sudden and huge
expansion of cat breeding
during the late 1800s and into the 1900s
and on cats have become a status symbol
Europeans realized that there were
different variety of cats from all
around the world they then Incorporated
that into their breeding programs people
started selecting cats because they had
unique varieties the Angora cat came
from the near East the Abyssinian came
from Ethiopia the Manx cat which had no
tail came from the Isle of Man and this
new trend of cat breeding was
enthusiastically taken up in the U.S in
short order one on the first is the
Maine the natural long hair cat
that really actually came over with the
pilgrims but now was indigenous to the
United States another very interesting
cat breed that developed in the United
States is the Ragdoll this cat developed
from cats that were in California
breeding both natural and human assisted
has given cat owners an astonishing
level of choice
so you might think that after ten
thousand years and all this effort we've
bred out their Wild Side
apparently not
these are feral cats
they are not wild animals despite how it
may look
these cats or their close relatives were
once normal house pets
take a domestic cat out of the home and
they can turn a lot less loving Barrel
cats typically will start up with fight
or flight when people come into play
this suggests all domestic cats have
this wildness within them so why don't
they all turn feral the socialization
window for cats is very important if you
want a friendly cat a cat that is
accepting of people and new experiences
this is usually between two to seven or
eight weeks of age if they miss that
window it's more likely to have a cat
that's more sphereful and more what we
consider referral
U.S cities like Atlanta have a serious
problem with feral cats
we don't want to euthanize the cat
because you know what happens when you
remove cats from the outdoor environment
is that new cats come in so we actually
maintain a stable population so we don't
add more cats into that area
so veterinarians like Dr Ashley Randall
work on programs to try and control the
situation neutering and spaying is
really really important when it comes to
feral populations especially if we're
trying to control the numbers anytime a
population gets really really high you
run the risk for disease and that's for
people and for pets
helping Dr Randall with Atlanta's feral
cat problem are Lizzy and cassia from
the pets for Life program
we are out today doing some
cat trapping for what's called TNR trap
neuter release
a female cat will have kittens every two
months and she will be impregnable right
after she delivers so pretty much you
can assume that every female cat in the
wild out here is pregnant at all times
Lizzie and cassia are tracking a feral
cat active in the area
so they've left a series of traps filled
with food
it looks like somebody's in there yeah
hi there
see what we've got hi looks like the
right one we're gonna take you to the
vet let's get them in the van okay
on average they catch 15 cats a week
okay Buddy each one receives a welcome
health check vaccinations and neutering
or spaying
okay so his heart sounds good
and his gums are nice and pink very good
big guy all right so we are going to put
him on his side
and then we are going to give him his
sedative
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all right
all we're doing is taking away the
reproductive organs so we're taking away
organs that they can live without very
easily for males they're up within about
20 minutes of that procedure so he's
gonna go back outside and live out his
life all right big boy the whole
procedure takes less than 10 minutes
and a few hours later the cat is
released back onto the streets it's okay
buddy we're home
the reason we trap neuter and return
feral cats versus keeping them and
adopting them out is they're truly not
happy to live inside with people this
way
the vet said he was pretty healthy
surgery went well so he might be a
little drowsy this evening and then
he'll be back to full energy tomorrow
ready to Take On The World there you go
so domestication may only be skin deep
and cats are essentially still wild
animals wild animals that now live with
us
this essential wildness may explain in
part why cats are not trainable in the
way dogs are
dogs want to please their owners they
are what is known as hypersocial
cats don't really care what their owners
want
it's a lot more difficult to train a cat
compared to a dog because dogs are
specifically selective for their
trainability whereas cats have shorter
attention spans and people also really
don't spend a lot of time training cats
but just because they aren't as
Cooperative as dogs doesn't mean they
aren't as smart or trainable you just
have to make it worth their while
Meet Samantha Martin
this is meowy Manor
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Samantha is the manager of a traveling
troop or more accurately pride of
Performing cats
most of the training happens in here
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cats are brilliant people really
underestimate their Brilliance of a cat
by training them they get to use their
brain they have to figure out what it is
that I want from them
to train her cats Samantha uses a method
called operant conditioning
also known as clicker training this is
the target stick so he was trying to
jump up to wherever I pointed the target
stick and once he had all four paws up
on the barrel I'd just click and treat
the clicker acts as a bridge or a marker
to let the cat know that they've just
done a behavior that's going to give
them a reward
God
once the behavior is learned I no longer
need the target stick or the clicker
just the prop itself
and they know what to do with the prop
foreign
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the question is are the cats training to
please their owner or are they just
there for the food
if you want to train a cat the great big
motivator is going to be food food is a
primary reinforcer it's something that
they can't live without so most cats can
be trained to work for that food
compared to dogs there hasn't been much
research into cat cognition and
intelligence but cats are clearly clever
when they choose to be
the acro cats played to full houses as
they tour the USA
audiences crammed with envious cat
owners wondering why their pet won't do
this
experience and hard work says reward
with food and you might have a little
more luck
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so where next for our wild feline
friends
well some people have plans to
completely reinvent the cat
all domestic cats up until the last 20
years have been purely Fearless
Sylvester's humans have very
interestingly now hybridized the
domestic cat with a completely different
species
Anthony Hutcherson has been breeding one
such hybrid the Bengal cat Bengals come
from a cross between domestic cats and a
wild cat species called the Asian
leopard cat
personality wise they are a little
different from other cats and they're
pretty active and interested and
intelligent so if you just want a cat to
sit on your lap this is not the gap for
you
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the difference between a domestic cat
and an Asian leopard cat is about six
million years of evolutionary time
that's on the same range as the
difference between a human and a
chimpanzee
with such a huge evolutionary difference
can these new hybrid cats still share
our homes
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everybody the challenge lies in getting
those physical traits that attract your
eye and have excited Humanity since the
beginning of time without those traits
you don't want on the inside getting
scared easily peeing in the corners you
know needing to eat a lot of raw bloody
meat the Bengal is not the only exotic
breed trying to inject a wild look into
cats
the chaucy is a cross between a domestic
cat and another non-felous Sylvester the
jungle cat
and the Savannah is a cross between a
domestic cat and a serval a cat that
broke away from the Wildcats line over
eight and a half million years ago
I think these cats are both the future
and the past of domestic cats they
represent the thing that people love and
want as a bit of the wild in their house
which is kind of the oldest reason
people love cats anyway
ten thousand years ago our first feline
furry house guests moved in
since then they've traveled the world
been feared by popes and worshiped like
Gods they've hijacked human instincts
for their benefit apparently learn to
read human emotions but kept their own
feelings Under Wraps
they can even entertain us as long as we
make it worth their while
and though they've gone through subtle
genetic changes their wild Nature has
endured despite our best efforts
what's more they've leveraged some of
those traits to become the ultimate
consumer pet bringing a little bit of
the wild into millions of homes and what
do cats make of all of this as usual
they're not saying
foreign
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thank you
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[Applause]
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thank you