Decoding your cat: translating tail twitches, pointed ears

The Cat Whisperer

Viviana Pernot

 

Posted: Saturday, January 30, 2016 

VINCENT JACKSON Staff Writer
 

Cats have a well-earned reputation for being mysterious.
 

But if you’re sharing your home with one, or more than one, it sure would help to know what’s going on inside those fur-covered heads.

It’s especially important in terms of keeping your cat healthy.

Cats hide their illnesses very well, said Dr. Mark Newkirk, an Egg Harbor Township veterinarian.

“If your cat is more aloof by nature, and a grazer with his food, it might be an extra day or two until you realize the cat is not behaving normally. Then many times, people wait to see if they are right, and another couple days go by. Then, they call the doctor. Those few days can make a critical difference sometimes, especially with internal disease,” Newkirk said.

Call your veterinarian if in doubt. Don’t wait, Newkirk said. Even healthy cats can be hard to figure out. While there may be as many as 20 different dog signals that people understand, there are far fewer universal cat behaviors that people understand. Some cats reveal their personalities immediately. For others, it may take a couple of weeks.

But you can get better at speaking cat. With the help of Newkirk; Terri Werner, a volunteer and a member of the board of Animal Outreach of Cape May County in West Cape May; the Humane Society of the United States; and Scientific American Mind magazine, we’ve put together a guide to help you figure out how your pet is feeling and what he or she wants from you.

Ears

When ears are back, it means “leave me alone.” When they are forward, your cat is alert, listening and interested.

Purring

Usually a sign of contentment and happiness, but there are instances when a cat will purr under distress or when in pain, perhaps as a self soother or to attract your attention so you will soothe them.

Meowing

Cats meow when they want attention, but they may want that attention for a variety of reasons. They may be hungry or want to sit in your lap. They may want to be petted, or go outside or come back in.

Kneading

This is leftover behavior from when cats were suckling as kittens. Young cats knead their mothers to release milk. It is a sign of affection from a cat to a human. The cat is harking back to a happy time, being nurtured by its mother.

Stretching

A sign of relaxation.

Tail

A tail that’s slashing back and forth is another “leave me alone” signal. A happy, contented cat often holds its tail straight up in the air.

Belly up

When a cat lies on its back with its belly exposed, this is the ultimate indicator of trust.

Licking

Cats groom themselves and each other with their tongues. A cat who licks his owner is saying, “You’re mine, and I love you.”

A soft nip

Overstimulation. If your cat nips you, she wants to be left alone.

Touching

When a cat reaches out a paw to touch a person’s face, it indicates affection for that person.

Whiskers

When whiskers are forward, it means a cat is friendly and curious.

Aggressive behavior

Cats signal aggression by growling, hissing or spitting. This can also mean a cat is angry, annoyed or frightened. Leave this cat alone.

Howling

A howl or yowl, sounding like a loud, drawn-out meow, means a cat is in some kind of distress. In an unneutered and unspayed cats, these sounds are part of mating behavior. If elderly, the cat may be suffering from a cognitive disorder, dementia, and may howl because of disorientation.

Miss (or Mr.) Independent

Some people wonder why cats are so independent. The simple answer is they were made that way, Newkirk said. “Dogs are pack animals, such as their wild cousins, the wolves, are. Cats in the wild are solitary. They have a territory to hunt and to live,” he said. “This is also why sometimes introducing another cat to the household is difficult. Domesticated cats have ‘learned’ from us that we are the source of food and shelter, and so, depending on the individual’s personality, the age at which they came into the home, and the attention and training received, they will develop their own traits,” Newkirk said.

Some cats love to be with people. Some cats acts as if they are just tolerating us. And they tend to like best the person who feeds them twice a day.

The introduction of a new cat into the home can be tricky. “I usually advise getting a kitten from the shelter for your new cat, as a kitten is less ‘threatening’ to the current cat, who has staked out your home as territory,” Newkirk said.

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Your Daily #Cat

 

Posing on the log and holding it! by Tambako The Jaguar

Your Daily #Cat

 

Louis posing with his daughter by Tambako The Jaguar

Kathmandu’s big cats

With the Capital rapidly expanding outwards, conflict with the wild animals of its outlying forests is rising

By- PRAGATI SHAH

01.30.2016 

The District Forest Office has already rescued seven leopards from different areas in Kathmandu this year

Jan 30, 2016- If leopard sightings in the bustling metropolis that is Kathmandu was once a rare event that sparked an elaborate media fanfare, the novelty is fading rather quickly. It’s no longer surprising to discover a wild cat prowling through the streets and alleys, and hiding in bathrooms and bedrooms in the Capital.

Recently, the residents of a New Baneshwor neighbourhood, one of the most densely populated areas in Kathmandu, received an early morning visit from a big cat. The animal is believed to have travelled during the night all the way from the Shivapuri forests following the Bagmati River; before ending up in a toilet--where it was found. “It is highly unlikely that the female leopard was being kept as pet by the residents, as it is not easy to keep a wild cat indoors for very long,” said a source at the Central Bureau of Investigation (CIB),who were involved in investigating the Baneshwor incident.

In recent years, leopard encounters in the Valley have become increasingly frequent, especially in areas that share boundaries with national parks and community forests. There have also been incidences where the leopards entering human settlements have attacked, injured and even killed people or vice-versa.

Once densely forested and with sparse settlements, Kathmandu Valley’s outskirts served as a prime habitat for leopards. But now, with the Capital rapidly expanding outwards, conflict with these animal residents of the outlying forests was only but inevitable. The District Forest Office has already rescued seven leopards from different areas in Kathmandu this Nepali-calendar year alone. Data from the past five years suggest that around 10- 15 leopards are rescued from Kathmandu settlements on average every year. And with other cities in the country continuing to expand as well, the human-wildlife conflict is fast becoming a contested issue. In one such incident, last year in Kaski, five leopards were killed in the span of a week by locals.

Indra Sapkota, Kathmandu’s District Forest Officer (DFO), says it is almost certain that animal habitats have been encroached and fragmented by human activities; this has forced wild cats, and other animals, to adapt in new ways.” There are two scenarios that could help us understand why these wild catsare coming out of their habitats and into contact with human settlements more than ever before,” says Sapkota. The first, according to him, is the improvement of the natural habitat, including those of predator species. The relative growth of community forests might have led to the increase in the leopard population.

But are there really more leopards in Kathmandu’s outlying jungles today? Sapkota maintains that there is yet to be a study that could tell us precisely the distribution of leopards in the jungles surrounding the Valley. “But given the increasing number of rescues in recent years and reports of increasing sightings by authorities and locals in and around wooded areas, it is likely that the population is thriving,” said Sapkota.

There also have been suggestions that the increase in population of other species in community forests adjoining prime leopard habitats, including Shivapuri-Nagarjun National Park and the Chandragiri forests, may have attracted leopards to migrate to community forests near human settlements. “Leopards are the dominant carnivores in the forests surrounding Kathmandu and neighbouring districts and are highly territorial,” Sapkota explains, “The intra-species competition for food and territory causes the displaced, particularly the older and weaker leopards, to come out into human settlements to search for prey.”

Likewise, the second scenario suggests that though the habitats have expanded--linking dense jungles with nearby community forests and providing a better connecting route-- it also has led to the increase of human activities in forests, disturbing the natural habitat.

How-ever, without proper scientific rese-arch, these scenarios are only based on assumptions. “Science-based research on leopards, their distribution, behaviour and co-existence with humans is the need of the hour,” says Sarita Jnawali, Project Manager at the Central Zoo, which serves as a refuge for rescued wild animals, including leopards.

Jack Kinross, a conservationist at the Wild Tiger Conservation Research and Development, said,  “Based on my research so far I feel leopard behaviour is changing for a number of reasons, all human related. But the major and most serious change is they are changing their prey base because their natural prey is decreasing and ‘urban prey’ such as dogs is readily available. Unfortunately human fatalities can be linked to this change as well.”

Human-wildlife conflict is increasingly becoming a serious challenge for wildlife conservationists in the country. The reports from Mustang where a snow leopard killed a herd of goats, to an elephant rampage in Jhapa destroying houses and agricultural land, to tigers and rhinos killing people in Chitwan, the aggressive encounters between humans and wild animals have been on the rise. “One of the most daunting challenges we are facing right now is the mitigation of the increasing human-wildlife conflict in areas that are close to protected areas, wildlife reserves and forests,” says Siddhartha Bajracharya, programme director at the National Trust for Nature Conservation.

According to him, Nepal has had an unprecedented success in protecting rhinos and tigers and the efforts have been recognised around the world. The success, however, has been a double-edged sword. “Proper measures to mitigate the risks related with human-wildlife altercations and improvement of the habitats should be prioritised while developing policies and programmes in the conservation sector,” Bajracharya said.

If not, he says, big cats in bathrooms, in all likeliness, will continue to remain a problem for the foreseeable future.

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Cubs playing on the log by Tambako The Jaguar

5 Big Cats Removed Overnight from 'Tiger Temple'

29 January 2016

Monks and volunteers in April 2015 block government vehicles from leaving the Tiger Temple in Kanchanaburi province.

 
By Teeranai Charuvastra
Staff Reporter

KANCHANABURI — After years of frustrated attempts, wildlife officials last night removed five tigers from the infamous Tiger Temple, a religious site that also operates an illegal commercial tourism business that has won the ire of animal rights activists.
 
The operation, in which officials from the Department of Wildlife spirited away five tigers during the night, was either long-delayed intervention by committed officials or a temporary measure approved by temple administrators, depending on who tells the story.

“We kept the news secret because we didn’t want reporters to be there,” temple lawyer Saiyood Pengboonchoo said Friday. “Otherwise, people would come out to protest, and officials would have a hard time working. They removed five tigers, as negotiated … We kept it a big secret. We didn’t even tell our own staff. Only five people in the temple knew about it.”

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‘Tiger Temple’ to Sue NatGeo Over Damning Report

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However the move was hailed as a victory and turning point by Edwin Wiek, founder of Wildlife Friends of Thailand, one of several organizations that have long campaigned against the temple’s commercial use of the tigers.

“This is a good beginning. It’s a victory,” Wiek said upon hearing about the tigers’ removal. “But the important thing is that they have to stop the breeding of tigers, too. Otherwise, now they removed five tigers, but five or six more cubs will be born.”

He said the five big cats are likely being kept at a state-owned wildlife shelter in the neighboring province of Ratchaburi.

Wiek was doubtful the temple was party to the operation, or that it was part of an elaborate plan that would see the big cats eventually returned to the temple.

The operation was said to be led by Adisorn Noochdumrong, deputy director of the Department of Wildlife. He could not be reached for comment. His secretary, Somkid Kiteuawiriya, said Adisorn was attending a summit in northeastern Thailand.

“He’s not here, so we don’t have any clue about it,” Somkid said, adding that he only learned about what happened from media reports.

Since word spread 10 days ago that wildlife officials would again try to wrest away the temple’s approximately 150 tigers, wildlife officials have been reluctant to discuss the “sensitive” issue and have referred reporters to Wiek, with whom they have collaborated.

The department’s previous efforts under successive leadership have all ended in failure, most recently in April 2015, when monks and volunteers at the temple put up stiff resistance to attempts to enter, inspect or remove any animals. The temple was also found to be illegally keeping several protected species of birds and bears.

Those thwarted attempts have come amid allegations of animal abuse and trafficking. Most recently, National Geographic on Jan. 22 published a damning report detailing an alleged “tiger swap” in which the temple sold several animals to a Laos breeding center. The temple says the exchange happened but no money changed hands and plans to sue the magazine.

Attorney Saiyood recently admitted the temple operates outside the law, which forbids keeping tigers without a permit, but said it does so in the best interest of the animals.

Enforcement or Collusion?

Of its agreement with officials, Saiyood said the temple expects to eventually get the tigers back.

He said the temple is preparing to win approval to keep them legally in a commercial zoo. Once a permit is granted, Saiyood said, the temple administration will simply buy the tigers back from the state.

“In our application, we ask for a quota to keep 120 tigers,” Saiyood said. “The department will have to let us keep the tigers. As for the tigers that they already took away, we will buy them back at auction. They don’t want to keep the tigers anyway. It’s very expensive. But they have to do this because it’s the law.”

In the meantime, the department is welcome to remove the tigers – up to an agreed-upon number of 70, he said.

According to the lawyer, the department will evaluate and monitor the five tigers’ condition at their shelter over the next 30-to-45 days before removing more from the temple.

“If they are normal, they will move to remove more. But they won’t take more than 70,” he said. “The rest they let us keep while we file for the zoo permit.”

He said the temple will apply Feb. 5 for the zoo permit and expects it to take up to 60 days to process, Saiyood said.

Wildlife Friends founder Wiek doesn’t believe the temple’s version of events. He’s confident the department will not grant a zoo permit.

“It’s all lies. They won’t get it,” he said. According to Wiek, the land plot bought by the temple has legal issues that would disqualified it from operating a zoo. Plus, he said, the temple would need additional permits from the Department of Religious Affairs in order to turn the temple into a commercial zoo.

He sees nothing wrong with the department’s slow-paced effort to remove the tigers, and praised the temple and the department for keeping the operation a secret to avoid interference.

“They can’t possibly take 10 or 20 tigers at once. They have to be cautious,” Wiek said. “They have to take care of the tigers and tranquilize them. It’s good that they remove only 5 tigers each time, because if a tiger dies in the department’s custody, they would be in big trouble.”
He said he’d like to see removal of tigers continue, every day.

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‘Clockwork Lion’ in London Cries, “Time Is Running Out for Big Cats”

Posted by Andrew Howley of National Geographic Society in Cat Watch on January 28, 2016

 

 

“The Clockwork Lion, Commissioned by Nat Geo Wild in support of the Big Cats Initiative” reads a plaque on the base of a newly unveiled sculpture in Trafalgar Square. At the bottom it adds, “Time is running out for big cats.” (Photo by Mikael Buck/Nat Geo Wild)

Time is running out for big cats.

That’s the message of a new statue in London’s Trafalgar Square, commissioned by Nat Geo Wild and about to be auctioned to raise money for National Geographic’s Big Cats Initiative.
The gaunt frame, torn hide, and wide, harrowed eyes of the Clockwork Lion give a drastically different impression than the steady, powerful look of the famous Landseer Lions around him, dramatically illustrating the decline wild lions have experienced since the original statues were installed in 1867.

For those seeking more literal communication of the situation, a plaque on the front of the base provides viewers facts about lions and the Big Cats Initiative’s work to protect them in the wild.

The gaunt frame and harrowed clock-face eyes of the Clockwork Lion give a drastically different impression than the steady, powerful look of the Landseer Lions around him, dramatically illustrating the decline wild lions have experienced since the original statues were cast in 1867. (Photo by Mikael Buck/Nat Geo Wild)

Rachel Riley, mathematically inclined co-host of the long-lived British puzzle show,”Countdown,” unveiled the sculpture on January 28 to highlight the plight of big cats ahead of Big Cat Week airing in the UK 8pm, February 1-7 on Nat Geo Wild. “You don’t need a maths degree to notice the staggering decline in lion populations,” she said. “For every ten lions on the planet 100 years ago, only one roams free today.”

You don’t need a history degree either, but if you have one, the statue and its location speak even more eloquently about the challenges facing wild lions and those who would protect them today.
The statues surround the base of Nelson’s Column, monument to the naval commander who successfully defended Britain against Napoleonic conquest. At the battle of Trafalgar, for which the square is named, Nelson had fewer ships but bolder tactics and his forces soundly defeated the Franco-Spanish fleet. Though Nelson himself died in the battle, his confident and unconventional maneuvers catapulted Britain from a position of anxious defense to utter supremacy at sea around the world.

Today, poaching and habitat loss are the lions’ Napoleon. Can we Nelson them out of annihilation?
National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence and co-founder of the Big Cats Initiative Dereck Joubert thinks so.

“We no longer have the luxury of time when it comes to big cats,” he said. “Today we have more statues of them than actual cats roaming the world so it is important that we raise awareness of these majestic creatures and point to their rapid decline and find solutions. If declines continue at their current pace, wild cat species around the world face a very real risk of extinction. That is why a week dedicated to big cats is hugely important. It stimulates discussion and can help us find solutions.”

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Watch live: Big cat exams at OKC Zoo

by Matt Patterson Published: January 28, 2016 

The Oklahoma City Zoo's big cats have been getting their every-three-years wellness checks this month at the Joan Kirkpatrick Animal Hospital. Kami, a male Sumatran tiger is getting his today and the exam can be watched here via Periscope.

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Marlon posing on the snow by Tambako The Jaguar

Why Cheetah Researchers Spend A Lot Of Time Sneaking Up On Bushes

by Cara Giaimo / 27 Jan 2016

For some wildlife biologists, daily research begins with figuring out what that dot is. (Photo: Anne Hilborn)

Look closely at the above picture. Halfway between the foreground and the horizon, tucked into the waving grass, is something. It's still, and shadowy, and vaguely pointy, but has very few other discernible characteristics. Go ahead and zoom in if you want.

Ok, got it? Quiz time. Is that a cheetah–or not?


A definite cheetah, and the fruit of a lot of horizon-scanning. (Photo: Anne Hilborn)

Even among the always-enigmatic big cats, cheetahs are particularly mysterious creatures. We're not 100 percent clear on the nuances of how they breed and how they fit into their environments. Researchers are trying to figure out how these very endangered animals live their lives so they can develop better conservation plans.

But in order to even begin addressing these larger questions, your average cheetah researcher spends much of her workday guessing what is or isn't a big cat, says ecologist Anne Hilborn. "In Serengeti, we don't have any cheetahs that are collared, so we basically have to go out and find them by eye," she explained in a phone interview, "Sometimes they're just sitting there on a termite mound by the road looking really photogenic, but most of the time it involves hours and hours, and sometimes days, of driving around."


Classic cheetah shape–a small triangle on top of a large one. (Photo: Anne Hilborn)

Hilborn was a research assistant with the Serengeti Cheetah Project from 2004 to 2007, and returned to the park in 2014 to collect data for her own projects. Over her long tenure, she has developed several tricks to maximize her cheetah-spotting chances–getting up at dawn before the heat makes everything hazy, looking out for clumps of staring tourists or hyper-alert gazelles, and scanning for particular shapes. From far away, "when cheetahs are sitting down, they sort of look like an upside-down triangle with a really tiny upside-down triangle on top of it," she says.

Even this distinct silhouette is no guarantee. Hilborn has been fooled by stumps, bushes, clumps of grass, leopards, Kori bustards, and "any of the millions of [other] things that you wouldn’t think looked like a cheetah, but actually does." Termite mounds are particularly tricky:

(The Unidentified Field Object at the top, by the way, did not turn out to be a cheetah. It was a bush.)
If it is, indeed, a cheetah, the search is not over. Step two involves using spot- and scar-based identification to figure out exactly which individual has graced you with her presence, in order to get a sense of her day to day activities. Step three, in many cases, means collecting cat scat–a whole separate search-and-gather procedure that involves further patience ("it's really hard to predict when a cheetah is going to poop"), and sometimes, if things are really dire, getting out of the Land Rover and sniffing.

Hilborn is the current steward of the @realscientists Twitter feed, where, along with hosting games of Cheetah or Not, she is regaling readers with harrowing tales of elephant-adjacent scat collection and hyena reproduction. Luckily for desk-chair biologists, she has provided a number of signs for easy identification: try the #ratemylion and #cheetahface hashtags for great close-ups of those research subjects she did manage to track down.

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Drones to keep an eye on big cats

2016-01-28 11:13

 China Daily Editor: Feng Shuang

 

An image of a Siberian tiger taken with an infrared camera in Hunchun, Jilin province. (Photo/Xinhua)

Jilin province cooperates with Russia to protect endangered Siberian tigers, Amur leopards

Jilin province is planning a series of measures to protect endangered Siberian tigers and Amur leopards, some of which inhabit territory along China's border with Russia, according to a provincial forestry official.

The province plans to invest an estimated 12.8 billion yuan ($2 billion) in the project, making use of advanced technologies and collaborating with Russia to protect the two species, said Lan Hongliang, director of the Jilin Forestry Department, at a symposium in Beijing on Wednesday.

According to Lan, unmanned aerial drones will be used to keep an eye on the tigers and leopards in the future. About a dozen drones will be purchased to monitor the animals' activities.

"We have also cooperated with Russia on the establishment of protection zones and personnel exchanges," Lan said. "We hope to further that cooperation in the future."

Joint monitoring by China and Russia found that there are at least 35 Siberian tigers and 70 Amur leopards in an area around Russia's Land of the Leopard National Park and China's Hunchun, Jilin province, near the borders of China, Russia and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

But the area, which measures no more than 4,000 square kilometers, is isolated - blocked on the north, south and east. The tigers and leopards are unable to enter the Russian interior. What's more, the number of the animals in the area has exceeded its ecological carrying capacity, said ecologist Ge Jianping.

"Under such circumstances, the tigers and leopards can only come westward to the large forested areas in Northeast China," said Ge, who is also vice-president of Beijing Normal University and vice-president of the Central Committee of China Democratic League. "It is a great opportunity for China to have more wild Siberian tigers and Amur leopards."

To seize the opportunity, Lan said measures should be taken to reduce grazing and other human activities around Hunchun to make space for the big cats.

"In this way, the tigers and leopards could enter the forests of Changbai Mountains and Heilongjiang province's Lesser Hinggan Mountains," Lan said.

"It's important for the living and breeding of these endangered species in China."

From 2012 to 2014, at least 27 Siberian tigers were found active in Northeast China, all along a 5-kilometer corridor on the China-Russia border. The number of wild Siberian tigers in Russia was reported to have reached 540 last year.

Su Zhou contributed to this story.

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Kitty meets a wild fox (video)

Your Daily #Cat

 

Cleo on the snowy log by Tambako The Jaguar

Jaguar Hunts a Capybara Under Water in Mato Grosso (video)

How Jaguars Survived the Ice Age

from Laelaps

A Blog by Brian Switek

Posted Wed, 01/27/2016

A jaguar at the St. Louis Zoo. Photo by Brian Switek.

The mastodons, ground sloths, and sabercats are all gone. They all slipped into extinction around 10,000 or so years ago, along with an even wider variety of fantastic beasts and birds that fall under the category “megafauna.” But not all the Ice Age megamammals died out. We spend so much time mourning the losses that we often forget the survivors that carry whispers of the Pleistocene world. Among these resilient beasts is the jaguar.

Jaguars are old cats. They first evolved in Eurasia sometime around three million years ago before spreading both west and east, eventually inhabiting a range from southern England to Nebraska and down into South America. Today’s range of southern Arizona to Argentina—over 3.4 million square miles—is only a sliver of their Ice Age expansion. And it wasn’t just the jaguar’s range that shrunk. Today the spotted cats are about fifteen percent smaller than their Pleistocene predecessors.

Nevertheless, jaguars survived while the American lion, the sabercats, and other predators vanished. How? In order to investigate this question, biologist Matt Hayward and colleagues looked at the jaguar diet and how the cat’s prey preferences changed over time.

Drawing from 25 published studies documenting 3,214 jaguar kills, Hayward and coauthors found that jaguars are pretty finicky for apex predators. The big cat’s menu spans 111 species—ranging from cattle to rodents to monkeys to turtles—but, contrary to what has often been written about the cat, the jaguar is not really a generalist that hunts anything and everything.

The most common parts of the jaguar diet, Hayward and colleagues found, are capybara, wild pig, caiman, collared peccary, nine-banded armadillo, giant anteater, and white-nosed coati. These species account for 16-21% of the jaguar diet. The stats also showed that prey including peccaries, brocket deer, giant anteaters, and coatis which were hunted 85% of the time when they were present in the jaguar’s range. Crunching the numbers a bit further, the zoologists found that jaguars seemed to especially target capybara and giant anteater. On the other hand, jaguars never preyed upon tapirs and almost never touched primates.

Jaguars come out of all this as a paradox. They are burlier than leopards, yet they prefer to hunt a narrow range of prey that falls in the shallow end of what jaguars should be able to tackle. This might have something to do with why the cats have shrunk. Jaguars aren’t large enough to take on tapirs alone, yet human hunting on mid-range prey—such as deer—has made such herbivores too rare to rely upon. So despite their size, jaguars responded by picking out smaller prey which Hayward and coauthors dub “suboptimal” for what the cats initially evolved to do.

The jaguar’s not alone in this. Coyotes have gone through similar changes. The scrappy canids are Ice Age survivors, too, and they were significantly larger during the Ice Age. When all their competition disappeared, coyotes became smaller and ended up living on the fringes in a world heavily influenced by humans.

Flexibility made all the difference for these carnivores. Even though jaguars no longer prowl as much of the world as they once did, and are currently listed as “near threatened” on the IUCN Red List, they were able to persist where so many other carnivores perished by shifting their diets. “It may be that jaguars survived this mass extinction event by preferentially preying on relatively small species,” Hayward and coauthors write. The fossil record of cougars tells a similar story: By eating parts of carcasses other cats didn’t want, mountain lions were able to survive the tough times. And even though the cause of the loss of many Ice Age celebrities remains debated, the survivors are truly the animals we should be looking at in greater detail. How they succeeded may hold the secrets to why so many other species failed.

Reference:
Hayward, M., Kamler, J., Montgomery, R., Newlove, A., Rostro-García, S., Sales, L., Van Valkenburgh, B. 2016. Prey preferences of the jaguar Panthera onca reflect the Post-Pleistocene demise of large prey. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. doi: 10.3389/fevo.2015.00148


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Earliest Cat Domesticated in China Was the Leopard Cat, Scientists Say

Posted by David Maxwell Braun of National Geographic Society in Cat Watch on January 26, 2016

Illustration of leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis) by Walter A. Weber/National Geographic Creative.

 

The wildcat (Felis silvestris lybica) is the common ancestor of the 500 million domestic cats (Felis catus) in the world today. It became domesticated in Africa and the Middle East more than 10,000 years ago, about the time that humans started farming and storing grain, which in turn created a proliferation of rodents and a steady supply of prey for cats.

But according to new research, published in the science journal PLOS ONE on January 22, the wildcat was not the only species of cat to be domesticated. Analysis of ancient bones shows that in China a different species, the leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis), settled down independently with humans some 5,000 years ago, before the domesticated wildcat arrived in the region.

Domestic cats in China today, however, are descended from the wildcat, like everywhere else. The domesticated version of the leopard cat did not persist across the millennia, although the leopard cat was again domesticated in the 1960s, producing, by hybridization with domestic cats from the silvestris species, a cat breed known as the Bengal breed, according to a news release about this research published by the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (National Center for Scientific Research), a public organization under the responsibility of the French Ministry of Education and Research.

Illustration of Javan leopard cat from Richard Lydekker’s “A hand-book to the Carnivora”, 1896.

The discovery of the earliest form of cat domestication in China was made by CNRS scientists trying to determine if cats became domesticated independently in China, or whether domesticated cats were introduced to China along trading routes from the west.

Analysis of small bones found in the remains of several agricultural settlements in China from 5,000 years ago found the answer: the earliest known domesticated cats in China were those of the leopard cat, which is still found in Asia, and not the wildcat that became domesticated in Africa. So the two species of cat became domesticated independently, although most likely both in response to the rise of agriculture.

More Information

Modern Old World distribution of the different wild cat subspecies (Felis silvestris) and the leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis), and location of the three Middle-Late Neolithic sites of the Shaanxi and Henan Provinces (China) analysed in this paper:(Vigne et al/PLOS One]. Click map to enlarge it.

• Earliest “Domestic” Cats in China Identified as Leopard Cat (Prionailurus bengalensis) (Research paper in PLOS ONE)
• Cats domesticated in China earlier than 3000 BC (CNRS press release)
• International Bengal Cat Society

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Russian Illustrator Reimagines Different Coffees As Cats

01.26.2016

by Julija Televičiūtė 

So you’ve been drinking your coffee wrong this whole time. Russian illustrator Elena Efremova, for example, not only drinks her coffee, she depicts its flavor by drawing cats with it! Purrfection.

“Here are my coffee cats,” Efremova writes on Behance. According to Efremova, “each has its own character, as well as every type of coffee has its own flavour.” Americano, macchiato, cappuccino cats – they’re all here! For more coffee art, check out this post with animals, or these extremely detailed paintings.

Espresso

Latte

Coffee With Ice-Cream

Cappuccino

Macchiato

Americano

À la Française

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The worst video ever made using cats (PROMISE!)

If you last longer than 30 seconds, then you deserve an award! lol

Surprising Goat And Tiger Friendship Finally Comes To An End

By Solon Kelleher

Jan. 26, 2016

When Amur the tiger befriended Timur the fearless goat, who was supposed to be given to Amur as live food, we all wondered how this unusual friendship would end.

Now, after eight weeks of peacefully sharing living quarters, the two have parted ways. But why? It was all going so well.

The last time we checked in on Timur and Amur, their story had spread across the globe, and the zoo had signed deals to make them the stars of not one, but two documentaries.

On Tuesday Dmitry Mezentsev, the owner of Russia's Far East Zoo, announced plans to bring Timur into his own enclosure, separate from the home he's been sharing with the tiger.

"We have decided to fulfill two tasks — to carry out Timur's veterinary checks and to keep him safe from possible changes in the male tiger's behavior," Mezentsev told the TASS Russian news agency.

Since entering Amur's den, Timur has gained 45 pounds, which has become a health concern to the caretakers at the zoo. "Timur's problem is obesity," Mezentsev continued.

The other concern — that Amur's affection for Timur may suddenly change — has to do with timing. The female tigers have entered their mating period, and this could cause Amur to become more aggressive. The zoo fears that this change in behavior could cost Timur his life … something the zoo wasn't very concerned about in November. After all, they did offer him to Amur as food.

But times have changed since then. The duo is now an internationally recognized commodity for the zoo, which has gone so far as to apply to trademark the Russian and English names of each animal.

While the friends are currently separated, the two could be reunited at some point in the future.

Mezentsev said they would remain apart until the situation changes.
What's next for Timur and Amur?

For now, it's uncertain whether they'll ever frolic through their enclosure together again. The goat who entered the tiger's den and shook up the monotony of life in captivity is now gone. After eight weeks of discovering a new friendship, the first chapter in the story of Timur and Amur has come to a close.


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Kitty touch lamp... better than anything (video)

Tourists forced to flee tiger enclosure on foot after truck breaks down

• 10 tourists were visiting tiger enclosure at the Jiufeng National Forest Park
• 100ft into the big cat enclosure, the truck's engine stalled due to cold
• As terrified visitors phoned their families, big cats circled the vehicle 

By John Hutchinson for MailOnline

Published: 26 January 2016 

Horrified tourists at a popular zoo had to flee a tiger enclosure on foot after their sightseeing vehicle broke down mid-tour. Surrounded by half a dozen big cats, the visitors feared for their lives as they became stranded in the middle of the territory and were told they would need to leave the vehicle.

Reports said 10 tourists visiting the famous Siberian tiger enclosure at the Jiufeng National Forest Park near Beijing began phoning their friends and family after the safari car they were travelling in broke down.

Scroll down for video 

Tourists were given a major fright when their truck broke down in the Siberian tiger enclosure at the Jiufeng National Forest Park

The 10 visitors were then told they would have to escape the enclosure on foot, while tigers prowled

The group were about 100ft inside the big cat enclosure when the engine is said to have stalled because of sub-zero temperatures. With six adult tigers roaming around the enclosure, the disbelieving tourists were then told that the only way they could leave was on foot.

Pictures taken by one of the tourists show the big cats circling the broken down vehicle. The nervous tourists that refused to get out of the vehicle until the big cats were taken away then had to wait while gamekeepers spent the next 20 minutes driving the tigers into cages with other vehicles.

The people on the truck began phoning friends and family as the Siberian tigers circled the truck

The visitors then exited the vehicle and boarded another sightseeing car waiting for them at the entrance and which took the back to the tourist centre. The park has since apologised for the incident and offered the tourists a full refund of their tickets.

Last month MailOnline reported on the moment a tiger paced inches from tourists - who somehow managed to remain calm despite their truck appearing to have no doors. The alarming footage was shot during a safari at the Umred Karhandla Wildlife Sanctuary near Nagpur in India.

While the point of a wildlife trek is undoubtedly to get close to some of the spectacular animals of the bush, in this video, there are very obvious safety aspects that appear to have been neglected.

The scene begins with the tiger walking stealth-like towards the vehicle, and while the driver and front-seat passenger sections appear to be covered, there is no roof or doors for those seated at the back.

A man appears in shot, and while he remains calm as the big cat springs forward, his silence is perhaps only to be expected.

Although most of the tourists remain calm in the truck, there are clearly some nerves as the tigers approaches

Hushed silence in the truck continues as the big cat checks out what is interrupting its day

Another worry is that the driver appears to have moved out of his seat, meaning a quick exit should anything go wrong is less-than likely. The big cat lets out a couple of grunts before beginning an assault on the wing-mirror using its mouth and paws in an attempt to wrench it off.

After giving up on that attack, the tiger then paces past the truck, and this is where it becomes apparent that there is practically nothing separating the group of the people in the back from the ferocious beast.

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Tiger spotted rolling a huge snowball to play with at Midlands zoo

He's still a kitten at heart!

• Ian Thomas, 52, of Anglesey, north Wales, perched in snow for four hours 
• He stalked the tiger enclosure at Dudley Zoo, West Midlands, for photos 
• Amateur photographer had 15 minute encounter with two tigers 
• One of the big cats had fun with massive snowball in freezing conditions   

By Matt Hunter For Mailonline

Published: 26 January 2016

They may be a lot bigger than the domestic cat but a tiger has shown he still likes to play ball at a West Midlands zoo. Bold amateur photographer Ian Thomas, 52, of Anglesey, north Wales, perched in the snow for four hours at Dudley Zoo, West Midlands, as he stalked the tiger enclosure. And his patience was rewarded when two of the big cats braved the cold to frolic in the snow - with one having fun with a massive snowball. 

Let's play ball: One of the tigers has fun with the massive snowball at the Midlands zoo in this photo taken by Mr Thomas

Rough and tumble: The two tigers get up close in the sub-zero conditions at Dudley Zoo, West Midlands

Mr Thomas admitted that the incredible shot, taken with a Nikon D7000 camera and Nikon 70-200 2.8 VR lens, was worth the wait and had been a hit online.

He said: 

'I came across the tiger compound and decided to wait and wait I did. The tiger compound had a great viewing platform that doesn't require any fencing due to its clever design and the tigers can roam below you and at the same level once they ascend the sloping bank towards the back of the compound. I sat and waited and waited getting colder and colder but afraid to move in case I missed them. After a few hours sat on my own two tigers roamed around and to my pleasure one pounced on a massive snowball and started to roll it about.'

Despite capturing the incredible shot, the amateur photographer insists he preferred a portrait image he took when he went face to face with the legendary predators.

Impressive sight: One of the tigers decided to sit in the snow for this striking image taken by Mr Thomas who prefers this portrait shot to the one of the tiger playing with the snowball

Amateur photographer Ian Thomas (pictured) who stalked the tiger enclosure at Dudley Zoo, West Midlands, for the great shots 

And despite the frozen temperatures taking their toll, the snapper says that his long wait was made worth it for just 15 minutes with the big cats. Mr Thomas added: 

'Soon after the snowball photo, my dream came true and a beautiful scene was set as a tiger lay down in the snow some 40 feet from me and looked straight into my eyes.

All those hours suffering with frozen fingers suddenly became irrelevant. I felt at one with a magnificent creature. My day was completed when the two tigers became amorous and cuddled before ripping into a chunk of meat. I may have only had 10-15 minutes of interacting with these magnificent creatures in four hours but the experience will stay with me forever.' 

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Putting your fat cat on a diet will make it MORE affectionate

• Vets put 58 obese cats on one of three calorie-controlled diets
• Found high-fibre diet was most effective for weight loss over eight weeks
• Also found while cats begged more before meals, they were satisfied after
• The study showed pets became more affectionate, as well as slimmer 

By Sarah Griffiths for MailOnline

Published:  26 January 2016

Our pets are facing an obesity crisis, with many fat cats devouring too many treats that can lead to arthritis, diabetes and heart disease. Now a new study shows that not only does dieting reduce a feline's waistline, but it also makes them more affectionate towards owners. However, like humans, the cats didn't enjoy the process in the short-term.

A new study shows that not only does dieting reduce a feline's waistline, but it also makes them more affectionate towards owners. A stock image of a fat cat being weighed is shown above

Vets from Cornell University, Ithaca New York and Hills Pet Nutrition in Topeka, Kansas studied 58 obese indoor cats over eight weeks. All the cats had 25 per cent more bodyweight than they should, but had no other health conditions. Portly pets were fed one of three diets - a high fibre (HiFi) diet, a control diet formulated to maintain weight in adult cats, or a low-carbohydrate and high-protein diet.

The cats' change in weight and behaviours were recorded by their owners at four and eight weeks into the regime change and the results compared between diet groups.

The study, published in The Journal of Veterinary Behaviour: Clinical Applications and Research said 81 per cent of the fat cats lost weight during the first four weeks irrespective of the diet they were placed on. 

Vets from Cornell University, Ithaca New York and Hills Pet Nutrition in Topeka, Kansas studied 58 obese indoor cats over eight weeks when they were put on one of three diets. All the fat cats lost weight but the high fibre (HiFi) diet was most effective, shown by the chart above. Negative values show weight loss

The cats' change in weight and behaviours were recorded by their owners at four and eight weeks into the regime change and the results compared between diet groups. Two stock images of obese cats are shown. Vets have warned of a pet obesity epidemic and animals stay sedentary inside our homes

However, those placed on the HiFi diet shed more weight over eight weeks that those on the low carbohydrate and high protein diet.

WHY OBESITY IS DANGEROUS 

An obese cat has 25 per cent more body weight than it should.   

A recent study said a third of cats are obsese.

They are more likely to have problems walking as well as diabetes and non allergic skin conditions. more likely to develop health problems, the study says. 

Overall welfare is decreased if the cat is obese

Cats that live in a small home, alone and are male and neutered are most at risk.   

Overall, three quarters of the cats were slimmer at the end of the eight week trial.

But more interestingly, the cats seemed to behave a little like dieting humans.

Before starting the trial, owners were asked to complete a questionnaire about their cat's behaviour when hungry and after eating, with similar questionaires filled in after four and eight weeks.

The questionnaires showed a change in behaviour.

'Irrespective of the diet, many cats reacted to caloric restriction by intensifying their appetitive behaviours,' the authors write.

At four weeks, owners noticed their cats intensified their begging, meowing and pacing before a meal, as well as following their owners in the hope of a tasty titbit.

Begging behaviour was typically seen between 16 and 45 minutes before feeding.

The questionnaires showed a change in behaviour. 'Irrespective of the diet, many cats reacted to caloric restriction by intensifying their appetitive behaviours,' the authors wrote. Changes are shown above

At the end of the trial, most owners reported more affectionate behaviour in their cats. 'The cats exhibited increased affection at both four and eight weeks,' the study says. A stock image is shown above

But the cats didn't begin to beg earlier during food restriction and also showed signs of being satisified after their dinner. These signs included jumping into their owners' laps and increased use of their litter box. 'When compared with their behaviour before food restriction, the cats were significantly more likely to have increased purring, sitting in the owner's lap, resting, and using the litter after their meal at either 4, 8 weeks, or both,' the study explained. 

At the end of the trial, most owners reported more affectionate behaviour in their cats. 'The cats exhibited increased affection at both four and eight weeks,' the study said. 'The cats became more affectionate, which owners should view as a positive side effect of restricting their cats' intake,' it continued. 'Owners tend to anthropomorphise their cats and, therefore, are afraid to reduce the cat's food intake because they think the animal will become vindictive. It should be easier to convince owners to put their cats on a reducing diet, if the owners know that the cats will not snub them for it or exhibit undesirable behaviours.'

The study noted that just two cats displayed aggressive behaviour in retaliation for their smaller meals and no cats began to urine mark. 

MILLIONS OF PETS FACE EARLY DEATH FROM EATING JUNK FOOD 

More than 18 million pets are at risk of early death because of poor diets consisting of takeaways. An obese cat is shown head by a PDSA nurse

More than 18 million pets are at risk of early death because of poor diets consisting of takeaways, crisps and cakes, a report in 2013 claimed.

Unprecedented numbers of dogs, cats and rabbits are being fed 'potentially life-threatening' fatty foods which can lead to arthritis, diabetes and heart disease, veterinary charity PDSA has found.

The 'deadly diets' have left animals unable to walk, play or even clean themselves, it said.

While an estimated 18.5 million pets are fed inappropriate diets, some 13.5 million animals are 'treated' to fatty or sugary treats and junk food, the PDSA Animal Wellbeing (Paw) report revealed.

Elaine Pendlebury, PDSA senior veterinary surgeon, said: 'Pet obesity poses not only major health risks such as diabetes, arthritis and heart disease, but sadly also means daily misery for millions of pets who are feeling the strain from carrying too much weight.

'Vet practices across the UK see the consequences of pet obesity every single day such as obese dogs unable to enjoy regular walks due to exhaustion, fat cats that can't jump or play, and rabbits so hopelessly overweight they can't clean themselves properly.

'And then there are other obesity-related health conditions which can mean pets don't lead the long and happy lives they should.'

Dr Alex German, an animal obesity specialist at the University of Liverpool's veterinary school, said pet obesity was 'entirely preventable'.

Other findings from the PAW report, which surveyed 4,000 pet owners, 466 vets and 553 children, showed that nearly half of owners 'treat' their pets because they believe it makes the animal feel happy.

While a further 29 per cent of owners do so because it makes them happy.

Some 61 per cent of owners think severely overweight pets should be removed from someone who persistently ignores veterinary advice while 51 per cent of owners believe overweight people are more likely to have fat pets. 

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