That cat expert, Layla Morgan Wilde, happens to be my wife and we both feel that these cats have gotten a bad rap, associated as they are with the dark side; witch’s familiars (as if there’s anything wrong with that) and all that other stuff that feeds into primal fears and prejudices. Currently, in the United States, black cats are 50% less likely to be adopted in a shelter setting.
Layla, founder of catwisdom101.com wants to make a difference and has taken to Kickstarter to raise funds for a book,Black Cats Tell All, that will highlight just how adorable, inspirational and downright adoptable they are.
Here’s Layla’s take on all this:
It’s time for a
new perspective. Black cat lives matter and to judge a cat simply by
the color of their fur is discrimination. The world is full of fear or
ignorance of something or someone different. We fear what we don’t
understand. That mysterious unknown gets twisted and embedded
culturally, generation after generation. That’s how myths are created,
like the superstition that black cats are evil. Black cat lives matter.
It’s time to stop the prejudice.
This collection of 22 positive, black cat stories (a first of its kind) will be narrated by the felines themselves and among those telling tales will be Cole; of Cole and Marmalade fame. This feline duo, made famous by Chris Poole on YouTube (88 +million YouTube hits) has joined with Layla to further this non-profit educational effort.
Other notable supporters of the effort include Gwen Cooper, New York Times, bestselling author of Homer’s Odyssey: A Fearless Feline Tale, or How I Learned About Love and Life With a Blind Wonder Cat. Cooper has written a glowing, book blurb for Black Cats Tell All.
Perks for supporters include an autographed collectible, donated by Francesco Marciuliano, writer of the New York Times bestseller, I Could Pee On This: And Other Poems by Cats. Scott Metzger, syndicated cartoonist, has also created some art work to be given out as perks.
Passionate about her goal to rebrand black cats, Layla sees the publication of the book as a first step in a comprehensive outreach effort to convince potential adopters to look beyond the prejudice and misconceptions and consider providing a black cat with a forever home.
Layla, who grew up in Canada, has been doing good things for felines since she founded the Toronto-based, non-profit, Annex Cat Rescue in 1997, and has continued her advocacy on behalf of this furry community since arriving in New York in 2001; including a memorable appearance - with one-eyed cat Odin - on a 2011 Daily Show segment, “Sophie’s Choice,” which also featured cat celebrity/hipster Jackson Galaxy.
So, consider pledging to this non-profit 501(c)3 tax-deductible effort. Black cats everywhere will be grateful.
The Reason You Love Your Cat Might Be Super Creepy --
This Video Could Explain Your Feline Enthusiasm
Claire Warner
People have been using the "crazy cat lady" disease as an excuse to hate on the internet's favorite animal for decades, but does toxoplasmosis actually make you like cats?
That's the question asked by a TED-Ed video, and the answer may make
even the staunchest feline enthusiast eye their cat with suspicion. And
then shrug and pour them a glass of kitty wine, because you're already in too deep — you might as well commit to the role.
Researchers have been aware of the existence of Toxoplasma gondii,
a parasite found in cat feces, for decades. Although it can pose major
problems for people with weakened immune systems, healthy people are
generally capable of fighting it off without experiencing more than mild
flu-like symptoms. Once the initial symptoms are over, the protozoan
was believed to go into a dormant stage in the brain. It's creepy to
think about, but relatively harmless — or so researchers used to think.
Recent studies have found that T. gondii may actually be capable of influencing its host, and if you've lived around a cat, that probably includes you. Researchers have found evidence of toxoplasmosis, the disease caused by infection with T. gondii, in ancient Egyptian mummies, and at least 60 million people in the United States alone are estimated to be infected today.
As host Jaap de Roode explains in the TED-Ed video, parasites depend on their hosts to live and reproduce. T. gondii's
life cycle involves a complicated ladder of cats, mice, and other
mammals, including humans. Brace yourself — things are about to get a
little gross: The parasite can only reproduce sexually inside cat
intestines. Known as oocysts, the offspring exit the cat's body through
its feces, where they're likely to be ingested by mice or some other
animal. Once inside the mouse, the oocysts mature into adult T. gondii. If its host is eaten by a cat, this new generation of T. gondii takes up residence in the intestines and reproduces again.
Because mice tend to avoid cats by nature, T. gondii finds its
way to the host's brain to tinker with its behavior: Infected rodents
show less fear of predators, slower reaction times, and ironically, are
more attracted to feline urine. This makes it more likely to get snapped
up by Fluffy down the road. Researchers aren't sure how T. gondii
manages to influence its host so dramatically, but the prevailing
thought is that the parasite is able to mess with neurotransmitters like
dopamine.
Cats and rodents are the major parts of its life cycle, but humans
play a role, too. People can become infected in all kinds of ways —
litter boxes, contaminated produce, and so on — and research has shown
that toxoplasmosis does affect us. The disease has been connected to psychological disorders
like schizophrenia, obsessive compulsive disorder, and bipolar
disorder; according to the video, it also slows reaction times, just
like an infected mouse.
So is T. gondii the reason some people are so drawn to cats?
There's no definite answer just yet, but it's not like you can do
anything about it anyway. Now go stare adoringly at your cat, but not
until you've watched the video.
In South Africa's Londolozi Game Reserve, rangers are used to getting up close with big cats. But every now and again, something new and unexpected unfolds that surprises even them.
Park rangers Amy Attenborough and James Tyrell were out in the field bright and early recently when they got to witness a little testosterone in action as two dominant male leopards got into a scuffle. The cats, known as the Piva and Inyatini males, had been seen together before, but this was the first time their interactions turned aggressive.
The two rangers seemed to arrive on the scene during a lull in the action, as the cats were lying apart and growling. But it wasn't long before tensions flared once again. "Before we knew it, they had launched themselves at each other and met in mid-air as a ball of fury, rolling through the air and hitting the ground ... kicking up the wintry dust in a plume around them," writes Attenborough on the Londolozi blog.
Leopards are some of Africa's most elusive big cats, and witnessing a battle like this one is rare.
Since fights come with a risk of injury, altercations often fizzle out with just a show of bravado, involving some baring of teeth, growling and squaring off. "Any injury lessens their ability to hunt or protect themselves, which could be fatal for a solitary predator," explains Attenborough.
This time, however, the two rivals came to blows, and leopard fights can be vicious. "They attempt to tear into each other by gripping their opponent with their front legs and ripping with their back legs. Claws and teeth become exposed and there is a barrage of sounds that goes with it too."
The attack lasted just a few seconds, and in the end, only one of the males was injured – a gash down the back of the leg that appeared only superficial.
After the fight, the two predators retreated into the bush where the guides couldn’t follow them. Tracks discovered the next day, however, indicated that the fighters parted ways, with the Piva male heading east and his Inyathini rival going west, possibly to regroup and prepare for another round of fighting.
"I am sure that this is one of many fights to come as these two leopards attempt to push the limits of their boundaries and establish themselves as the most dominant males of [the area]," says Attenborough. "We will just have to wait and see what the next instalment of the saga brings."
This isn't the first time that Londolozi rangers have witnessed a leopard-on-leopard battle. A few years ago, a pair of females was filmed engaging in an epic clash:
Cats can be finicky little creatures, refusing at random — or so it seems — to eat the food you purchased for them. If they would bother to seek employment to purchase their own food, this would be a nonissue. But as is, it’s annoying when they turn up their (cute) noses at even the fanciest of feasts you’ve bought forthem.
But there is, as it happens, some logic to their pickiness. In a study published online last week in the journal Royal Society Open Science, researchers found that neither smell, nor taste, nor texture makes much of a difference in terms of whether or not a cat will eat a particular food. What matters most, according to their research, isnutrition.
The researchers, who are from the U.K. and Australia, gave cats different flavors of foods over the course of several weeks, some of which seemed very cat-friendly (rabbit, fish) and one of which did not (orange!). At first, the animals went for the rabbit- and fish-flavored foods. But that changed over time. “Cats initially selected food based on flavor preferences, but after ‘learning’ (due to prior exposure) about the nutritional composition of the foods, cats selected foods to reach a particular target balance of protein and fat regardless of added flavors,” Adrian Hewson-Hughes, who led the study, told the Discovery News site Seeker, which initially spotted thisstudy. As the study wore on, the cats gravitated to foods with a very particular protein-to-fat ratio, even when that food was flavored a not-typically-cat-friendlyorange.
More specifically, their preferred protein-to-fat ratio appeared to be something like 1 to 0.4, which means that 50 percent of their energy is derived from the fat, and 50 percent from the protein. They’ll eat treats, too, of course, for some short-term fun, but over the long haul, they seem to naturally drift toward this nutritionalsetup.
Just how the cats divine a food’s nutritional makeup in this way, on the other hand, is a question for anotherstudy. Still, if cats are this attuned to their nutritional needs, one can only assume that they are quietly judging those of us who maybe pay a little less attention to ourown.
The
big cat was exhibited chained up in Manaus, Brazil, prompting outrage.
Olympics officials say nothing of this sort will happen again.
This jaguar, known as Juma, was used in an Olympic torch ceremony in Manaus, Brazil, June 20.
Photograph by Jair Araujo, Diario do Amazonas, AFP
By Brian Clark Howard
PUBLISHED
In the 1900 Olympic games, live pigeon shooting was an official event. In 2014, authorities around Sochi, Russia, were criticized for rounding up stray dogs. And now, a jaguar from the Amazon was killed after it was featured in a torch ceremony for this summer's games in Brazil.
The jaguar was shot Monday after it escaped from its handlers at a
zoo attached to an army training center in Manaus, the Brazilian
military said in a statement. The jaguar was exhibited, chained up,
during a torch ceremony there.
After the ceremony, the big cat—known as Juma—reportedly approached a
soldier, despite being tranquilized. The soldier fired a single shot,
which killed Juma. The incident has prompted a wave of criticism for
even having the jaguar on display in the first place.
“We made a mistake in permitting the Olympic torch, a symbol of peace
and unity, to be exhibited alongside a chained wild animal," the
organizing committee Rio 2016 said in a statement. "This image goes
against our beliefs and our values. We guarantee that there will be no
more such incidents at Rio 2016.”
Ipaam, the Amazonas state government environmental authority that
oversees the use of wild animals, is investigating the incident and says
the display of the animal may have been illegal, since it didn't have
records of the proper permits.
"When will people (and institutions) stop with this sick need to show
power and control by confining, taming and showcasing wild animals?"
the Rio de Janeiro-based animal rights group Animal Freedom Union wrote
on its Facebook page.
Luke Dollar, a conservation scientist who heads National Geographic's Big Cats Initiative,
says, "The day and age in which the display of such a magnificent
creature 'brought to heel' as a symbol of power or influence is in the
past, and I would hope that this incident will serve as a poignant
indicator to the world at large that these practices are no longer
acceptable."
A smiling jaguar known as Ginga is the mascot for the Brazilian Olympic team.
"The symbol of the jaguar, in the absence of one on a chain, is just
as powerful, and—I would argue—much more compassionate," says Dollar.
Human ancestors, sabre-toothed cats,
giant sloths and other South America's beasts lived together for a long
time, Australian study shows
By Ritwik Roy
June 18 2016
A lynx looks from his cage at the Santillana del Mar's Zoo
in northern Spain, March 12, 2005. With only around 100 lynxes left in
southern Spain, the animal could soon be the first big cat species to
become extinct since the sabre-toothed tiger disappeared 10,000 years
ago, the WWF said.
Reuters/Victor Fraile
New study has revealed that climate change and human impact
played a crucial role in the extinction of South America’s giant beasts
such as sloths the size of elephants, one-tonne bears and sabre-toothed
cats. Megafauna happily existed along with humans for nearly 3,000
years. However, as the climate rapidly warmed up, they became extinct
within 300 years.
The study, published in the journal Science Advances,
counter the earlier “Blitzkrieg” theory that says humans hunted into
extinction the world’s biggest beasts. The new study also includes the
effect of climate change for the demise of megafauna. The research was
led by professor Alan Cooper from the University of Adelaide.
In order to trace the genetic history of the populations, Cooper and
his teammates analysed ancient DNA from carbon-dated teeth and bones
found in southern South American caves. They discovered that the
megafauna disappeared around 12,300 years ago in a short span of 300
years. However, humans had been living in Monte Verde, Patagonia from
about 14,600 years ago, the fossil record showed.
The team of scientists, including researchers from University of New
South Wales, the US and Chile found that a rapid warming of South
America’s climate led to the megafauna’s extinction. Geologist and
palaeobiologist at Deakin University, Dr. Mark Warne, said that early
human colonisation is almost always implicated with megafauna
extinctions, Australian Geographic reports.
However, the new study suggests that human colonisation together with
climate change were responsible for their extinction. It is kind of a
revelation that at one point in time humans and megafauna lived together
and no extinction happened. The moment warming happened, the megafauna
was extinct in a few hundred years. The only large species to survive
the extinction were the ancestors of today's llama and alpaca — the
guanaco.
“The Americas are unique in that humans moved through two continents,
from Alaska to Patagonia, in just 1500 years. As they did so, they
passed through distinctly different climate states – warm in the north,
and cold in the south. As a result, we can contrast human impacts under
the different climatic conditions,” professor Chris Turney, co-author
of the paper and an expert in ancient climate change from the University
of New South Wales, said in a statement.
The experts have also pointed out that Australia saw a prolonged
overlap between megafauna and humans for nearly 11,000 years. Hence,
Down Under, it was definitely not “Blitzkrieg.”
“What we see in Australia is a very prolonged period of overlap
between humans and megafauna of about 11,000 years, so clearly it is not
Blitzkreig,” Cooper told the ABC.
Be the ultimate helicopter pet parent with this easy solution.
by Alina Bradford
Keep your cat company no matter where you are. Alina Bradford/CNET If your pet hates to be alone -- or you just like checking in on your animals throughout the day -- you needn't buy a fancy security camera.
All you need is an inexpensive tablet and a Skype account to make a homemade video chat system.
The tablet
For the best results, your tablet needs to run a modern operating system such as Android or Windows, have 32MB of free space and at least a 1GHz processor.
Since the tablet may get some happy licks from time to time, choose an inexpensive tablet with these specs. You can typically pick up an Android or Kindle tablet on Amazon or other stores for less than $60, £40 or AU$90, or you can go on eBay and snag a used one for around half that.
Set up a Skype account
If you don't have Skype on your work computer you'll need to download it and set up an account.
Then, go to the Skype for tablets download page and choose a download for the type of operating system your tablet has, if it doesn't have Skype already. You can choose between iPad, Android, Kindle Fire HD and Windows downloads.
Once Skype is downloaded to your tablet, set up an account for your pet, since you can't call yourself using your Skype account. A cute profile pic of your pet is a must, of course.
Set up auto answer
Now you need to set up your pet's account so that it will answer when you call. Log into your pet's account and set the account to auto answer. Auto answer will allow a Skype call to be answered automatically on the tablet, since your pet doesn't have fingers to answer your call, or, you know, a solid grasp on the principles of web-based telephony.
Here's how to set it up through Windows:
Open Skype
Add your Skype profile to your pet's contact list
On the menu bar, select Tools > Options
Select Calls, then click Show advanced options
Tick Answer incoming calls automatically and Start my video automatically when I am in a call
Select that you only want auto answer to work when your account calls your pet
Here's how to set up auto answer on Android and Kindle Fire HD:
Open Skype
Add your Skype profile to your pet's contact list
Click on Settings
Under the Voice and Video calls settings, tick the box that says Answer calls automatically
Here's how to set up auto answer with Mac:
Open Skype
Add your Skype profile to your pet's contact list
Click on the Skype Menu and select Preferences...
Select Calls, then set Incoming calls to Answer automatically
Click Configure and select Answer automatically with video
Location
Now that you have everything setup, it's time to place your tablet. Find a place in your home that your pet frequents and that's by an outlet so that you can plug your tablet in.
Stick strips of self-adhesive Velcro to the back of your tablet and stick the other side of the Velcro on the wall. Make sure that the tablet is placed so that your pet can easily see the screen. Stick the tablet to the Velcro and turn on your tablet's screensaver. Now you're ready to interact with your pets when you're not at home.
ANCHORAGE –
Jim Hershberger doesn’t get into town very often but Friday you could
find him at Ship Creek standing next to his truck tending to his 22
cats. Hershberger normally lives on a remote homestead about 50 miles
outside of Tok. Every few years he brings the cats into Anchorage to
update their rabies shots and run errands.
But pretty much wherever he goes he turns heads. People want to know about the cats. “They’re my family, I raised them from kittens,” said Hershberger, who doesn’t mind when people stop and take photos.
Hershberger didn’t always have so many cats, he started off with one
and then got another from a friend. He thought he had two females.
He was wrong.
Now he has 11 males and 11 females — all of them are spayed or neutered.
It’s clear that Herberger considers his cats family. He said they
keep him company on his homestead where, besides the cats, he lives
alone. “That’s why I’m still single. It’s hard to find someone who will
accept you with 22 cats,” he said, adding that he’s pretty much given up
on dating. “My cats come first.”
Hershberger transports the cats in a custom cathouse on the back of
his truck. It features automatic food dispensers and a second-story
sleeping loft.
He didn’t always have such a nice ride. Several years ago,
Hershberger brought the cats to Anchorage in winter in a small cramped
car, where they spent several nights without any heat. Animal Control
seized his cats while Hershberger worked to get them back.
Now Hershberger says the animals only travel in summer and rarely at
that. He says they prefer the homestead to the city and knows they’ll be
happy when they head home in several weeks.
Big cat Leo80M - also called Nikolay - prepares for flight to Moscow and 'noble mission'.
The leopard is becoming the first in 60 years to be moved from the wild to a zoo. Picture: Centre 'Siberian Tiger'
Siberian leopards are one of the world's most endangered species with only 80 alive in the wild and another 200 in captivity. Leo80M's role is to boost the numbers.
The leopard is becoming the first in 60 years to be moved from the wild to a zoo. He is not going on show to the public but at Moscow Zoo, he will entertain females from around the world, also part of a breeding programme that could be the difference between survival and extinction for these rare animals.
He is not going on show to the public but at Moscow Zoo, he will entertain females from around the world. Pictures: Land of Leopard, Centre 'Siberian Tiger'
He was given hunting tests and passed without problems, but experts feared that his paw could become infected in the wild. So a decision was made to move the big cat to the Center of Reproduction of Rare Species of Animals at Moscow Zoo. Here, any infections can be monitored and controlled.
The leopard is the first to be moved from the wild to a zoo since 1956 when the catching of the endangered species was banned.
Zoologist Ekaterina Blidchenko, who has cared for the leopard, will miss him when he takes up his new breeding duties. 'He used to me, and I was attached to him,' she said. 'For me, he is not just some Amur leopard. He is Leo 80M, a close friend.
'I know by heart all his habits and his every step. He is the one, and it will be very sad to part.'
'The experience of Nikolay's rehabilitation for life in the wild is a first and unprecedented experience with the Amur leopard.' Picture: Centre 'Siberian Tiger', Land of Leopard
Experts have gained new insights from their attempts to get the leopard back to the wild, lessons which can be useful for future attempts to prepare big cats for release into the wild.
While numbers of the species in the wild have risen from an alarming 30 to 80 in less than a decade, the future of the Amur leopard is far from assured.
Elena Shevtsova, Deputy Director of Land of Leopard, said: 'The experience of Nikolay's rehabilitation for life in the wild is a first and unprecedented experience with the Amur leopard.
Experts feared that his paw could become infected in the wild. Pictures: Land of Leopard
'The experience we had will be useful not only for the rehabilitation of other individuals in the future, but also to improve understanding of the behaviour of leopards in the wild, which is very important for the development of measures for their conservation.'
In Moscow, he will not be on display for zoo visitors, but kept behind the scenes and out of sight, to breed with female leopards from zoos around the globe.
Credit: Jonny Armstrong Being at the top of the food chain is no guarantee of a species survival. Not only are many of these so-called apex predators susceptible to human impacts, they also are slow to recover from them, which makes these animals vulnerable despite their high-ranking ecosystem status.
Ecologists and conservation biologists have repeatedly sounded the alarm about the global decline of apex predators—a group that includes gray wolves, spotted owls, bald eagles, cheetahs, killer whales and sea otters. However, restoration practitioners have met with limited success despite major efforts to recover some of the world's most charismatic megafauna.
New research conducted by Adrian Stier while a postdoctoral scholar at UC Santa Barbara's National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis examines the big picture with regard to predator and ecosystem recovery. Stier worked on the study with colleagues at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Oregon State University and University of Florida. Their findings appear in the journal Science Advances.
"Recovery of apex predators is key because they often provide fundamental services such as disease regulation, the maintenance of biodiversity and carbon sequestration," said Stier, who will join UCSB's Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology as an assistant professor this fall. "To recover apex predators we must first appreciate that the pathway to predator recovery may differ markedly from the pathway predators initially followed to decline."
The scientists' comprehensive literature review revealed that full recovery of apex predator populations is currently the exception rather than the rule. In addition to well-known considerations such as continued exploitation and slow life histories of these species, several underappreciated factors complicate predator recoveries.
"Not all predator species are equivalent, so we need to tailor successful recovery strategies based on how these animals are connected to the surrounding ecosystem," Stier said. "The 'when' is just as important as 'what' with respect to timing predator recoveries. This means designing adaptive sequences of management strategies that embrace key environmental and species interactions as they emerge."
A good example of a successful restoration project is the reintroduction of wolves to the ecosystem in and around Yellowstone National Park. However, Stier and his co-authors noted that reintroducing wolves has not recreated an ecosystem that looks the same as it did pre-1920 when wolves were abundant. While wolves have contributed to a reduced elk population in recent years, lower elk numbers have not been sufficient to restore willows, the region's dominant woody vegetation on which elk and other animals feed. This in turn has likely limited the recovery of the beaver population, which uses willow as building material for dams in small streams.
"Sometimes just reintroducing a species isn't enough," Stier said. "An ecosystem can morph into a different-looking system that can be relatively stable, and adding in these top predators doesn't necessarily cause that system to recover back into its original state."
Then again, according to Stier, that may not always be the ultimate goal. He and his fellow investigators point out that the recovery of apex predators isn't always well-received and reintroducing them in an artificial way can be controversial.
"It's important to understand what people want to see in their ecosystem and to try and balance conservation needs with social and economic goals," Stier concluded. "We have the opportunity to identify efficient win-win solutions that offer dual prosperity to these majestic carnivores and the human systems within which they are embedded."
More information: A. C. Stier et al. Ecosystem context and historical contingency in apex predator recoveries, Science Advances (2016). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1501769 , advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/5/e1501769
Late last year, safari guide Onesmus Irungu photographed a rather unusual scene on a morning out in Kenya’s Maasai Mara National Reserve: a spotted hyena getting chased off its kill by a mother cheetah and her three cubs.
The sighting might be the first time that such behaviour has ever been caught on camera – and when it comes to upending stubborn misconceptions about Africa's carnivores, Irungu's three snapshots do a pretty good job.
Image: Onesmus Irungu/used with permission
Image: Onesmus Irungu/used with permission
Image: Onesmus Irungu/used with permission
For a start, the hunting prowess of the hyena is on show. Often unfairly branded as nature's cackling thieves and scavengers (thanks, Lion King), hyenas are actually very capable predators – in fact, research suggests they kill up to 95% of the food they eat. And this particular hunter, likely a young male, had managed to take down a topi, one of Africa's speediest antelopes.
Unfortunately, the hyena barely had time to sample its spoils before trouble arrived. A female cheetah approached the carcass with her three 15-month-old cubs in tow, and the youngsters initiated the chase. Outnumbered, the lone hyena had no choice but to abandon its breakfast, and the feline family settled in for an undisturbed two-hour feast.
Seeing the poster animal for the high-speed hunt turn to scavenging is surprising, and the behaviour is indeed highly unusual. "Cheetahs have been seen stealing kills from other cheetahs, but to my knowledge there are no published reports of cheetahs actively stealing from any other predators," says Femke Broekhuis, who, along with Irungu, described the event in a recent paper.
When it comes to carcass theft, it's usually the cheetahs who lose out. Their smaller size and mostly solitary habits make them vulnerable, and in some parts of Africa, more than 12% of their kills are commandeered by larger rival carnivores. Such thieving tactics have earned lions and spotted hyenas a share of the blame for the serious decline in cheetah numbers, yet sightings like Irungu's add to other evidence that these lithe spotted cats can cope with losing the occasional meal – and are flexible enough to adapt their behaviour in order to survive. Scavenging, it turns out, might be one way they get by.
Appropriating an unguarded carcass is one thing, but stealing it from a larger predator is a risky move, and it's possible this cheetah mother took her chances because she had three extra mouths to feed. For Broekhuis, who is the director of the Mara Cheetah Project in Nairobi, Kenya, the behaviour helps us to see the predators in a different light. "Cheetahs are always portrayed as being very vulnerable, but the sighting of cheetah taking a kill from a hyaena not only shows that they will scavenge, but also that they can confront other predators to obtain resources," she says.
It also helps researchers tease out the real threats facing these cats, most of which can be linked to human activity – from habitat loss and disappearing prey to the illegal pet trade. "Both lions and spotted hyaenas are known to kill cheetahs and to steal their kills, but these three species have always coexisted and these interactions are all part of a natural system – unless there is a human cause for increased interactions," adds Broekhuis.
This might be the first time that a carcass-stealing cheetah has been caught on camera, but the team behind the Mara Cheetah Project hopes future observations will tell them whether it was more than just a fluke. The long-term project sees researchers tracking cats out in the field each day and recording their behaviour.
"We currently have approximately 75 different cheetahs in our database, which allows us to follow individuals over time, so it is possible that we might observe this behaviour again at some point," Broekhuis says.
Credit: Seregraff / Shutterstock.com
When Fluffy turns her nose up at the bowl of food you've placed in front of her, don't take it personally. Your seemingly high-maintenance cat has evolution to blame for her picky eating.
Cats, as it turns out are driven to eat foods with a preferred ratio of protein to fat: 1 to 0.4. This translates to about 50:50 in terms of percentage of energy from protein and fat, according to the authors of a study published June 15, 2016, in the journal Royal Society Open Science.
What's more, "Cats can display neophobia," lead author Adrian Hewson-Hughes told Discovery News. "This means they are unwilling to try a food that is new or different to their normal food, which may make them appear fussy."
Prior research has found that cats and minks have almost identical food needs and foibles. Both are known as hypercarnivores, since they have evolved to eat a diet of almost exclusively meat, as opposed to omnivores like dogs. In the wild, eating a new food can lead to stomach upset or worse, making neophobia a lifesaver outside safe home environments.
To explore factors affecting cat food choices, Hewson-Hughes, a senior research scientist at the Waltham Center for Pet Nutrition, and his colleagues conducted a series of experiments.
First, they presented male and female cats with three flavors of wet foods that the researchers had formulated: rabbit, fish, and orange. The foods had approximately the same protein to fat ratio. The felines favored fish, with rabbit being their second choice and orange a very distant third.
The other experiments were designed to disentangle the influences of flavor and aroma from nutrition.
"Cats initially selected food based on flavor preferences, but after 'learning' (due to prior exposure) about the nutritional composition of the foods, cats selected foods to reach a particular target balance of protein and fat regardless of added flavors," Hewson-Hughes said.
As a result, some felines actually ate more orange-flavored chow, which had the target protein to fat ratio, than they consumed fish and rabbit-flavored foods without such a precise nutrient ratio.
How cats can detect this ratio remains a complete mystery for now.
Martha Cline, a veterinarian specializing in clinical nutrition at Red Bank Veterinary Hospital, recently analyzed current feeding practices of cat owners for the upcoming book, "Feline Internal Medicine," directed at animal health care experts. In it, she suggests that cats may not be getting enough protein in their diets, per the current National Research Council and Association of American Feed Control Officials guidelines.
"The protein requirement of adult cats to maintain lean body mass is now thought to be higher," according to Cline, who explained that cats fed a high protein diet for 2 months in a study maintained healthy lean body mass, while cats fed moderate and low protein diets did not fare as well.
Still other research finds that domestic cats perceive bitterness at the molecular level, allowing them to detect off ingredients with incredible precision. This could further help to explain why felines so often turn up their noses to particular foods and medicines.
As for why felines seem to go for carb-laden cat treats, it could be that, like junk food for humans, short-term appeal, conditioning and even boredom may come into play. Hewson-Hughes did say that treats can be fine for cats, so long the treats only make up about 10 percent of the cat's daily calorie requirements.
Orange-flavored cat food will not be coming to stores anytime soon, but the new research does pave the way for different formulations containing the desired protein to fat ratio.
"First and foremost, an ideal cat food should provide complete and balanced nutrition -- providing all the essential nutrients including vitamins, minerals and macronutrients to maintain the health of your cat," Hewson-Hughes said.
"An ideal food needs the right balance of protein and fat, based on the finding of this study, and also needs to be appealing to a cat in terms of flavor, aroma and texture. We still have a lot to learn before we fully understand all the factors that influence food selection in the cat."
acquired 2012 - 2013download large image (1 MB, JPEG, 1740x1305)
acquired 2010 - 2011download large image (1 MB, JPEG, 1740x1305)
Feral cats in Australia usually don’t range too far for food. Hunts are usually limited to their home territory, just a few kilometers across. But there is at least one exception to the rule: the cats appear to travel pretty far for the chance to hunt on land that has recently burned. The phenomenon was recently described by Hugh McGregor and colleagues affiliated with the Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) and University of Tasmania.
According to AWC, feral cats kill millions of native animals per day across Australia. To reduce the impact on native species, researchers want to better understand the hunting behavior of these cats. Observations have shown that within their home territory, they prefer to hunt on intensely burned land. One reason might be that these fires change the structure of the habitat from grassy savanna to burned and barren. Small mammals become more exposed, and easier for cats to detect and capture.
But will cats venture to burned areas beyond their territory for the chance at a good hunt? If so, how far will they go? To find out, McGregor and colleagues used GPS collars to track the movements of 32 cats in the Kimberley region of northwestern Australia between 2010 and 2013. The paths of five of those cats are represented by colored lines on the images above. The background images were acquired with the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 and show the topography of the region. Brown-shaded areas depict the extent of burn scars from intense fires that occurred in 2010-2011 (top image) and 2012-2013 (second image).
Note the tangle of movement within the home range, followed by relatively direct paths to and from the burn scars. The cats’ journeys ranged up to 12.5 kilometers, far beyond their home territory. The willingness to travel suggests that even a low-density population of feral cats can have a large, wide-ranging effect on native species.
acquired 2010 - 2013
The level of impact varied, however, as not all fires are equally appealing. Cats preferred fires that were both intense and recent. The average length of stay at a burn scar was 15 days. But as the graph above shows, some stayed longer—up to 50 days or more—if the burn was recent. Conversely, cats lingered less at older burn sites. The researchers speculate that as grasses begin to return, prey became less vulnerable.
It’s still not clear how the cats detected and navigated to burn scars. Journeys usually began at least five days after a fire burned, but it’s possible that cats retained the memory of the direction of smoke or some other cue.
References and Related Reading
Australian Wildlife Conservancy (2016) Feral cat research. Accessed June 8, 2016.
Researcher Saho Takagi holding her cat. Credit: Mayu Takagi
Cats understand the principle of cause and
effect as well as some elements of physics. Combining these abilities
with their keen sense of hearing, they can predict where possible prey
hides. These are the findings of researchers from Kyoto University in
Japan, led by Saho Takagi and published in Springer's journal Animal Cognition.
Previous work
conducted by the Japanese team established that cats predict the
presence of invisible objects based on what they hear. In the present
study, the researchers wanted to find out if cats use a causal rule to
infer if a container holds an object, based on whether it is shaken
along with a sound or not. The team also wanted to establish if cats
expect an object to fall out or not, once the container is turned over.
Thirty domestic cats
were videotaped while an experimenter shook a container. In some cases
this action went along with a rattling sound. In others it did not, to
simulate that the vessel was empty. After the shaking phase, the
container was turned over, either with an object dropping down or not.
Two experimental conditions were congruent with physical laws, where
shaking was accompanied by a (no) sound and an (no) object to fall out
of the container. The other two conditions were incongruent to the laws
of physics. Either a rattling sound was followed by no object dropping
out of the container or no sound while shaking led to a falling object.
The cats looked longer at the containers which were shaken together
with a noise. This suggests that cats used a physical law to infer the
existence (or absence) of objects based on whether they heard a rattle
(or not). This helped them predict whether an object would appear (or
not) once the container was overturned.
The animals also stared longer at containers in incongruent conditions, meaning an object
dropped despite its having been shaken noiselessly or the other way
around. It is as if the cats realized that such conditions did not fit
into their grasp of causal logic.
"Cats use a causal-logical understanding of noise or sounds to predict the appearance of invisible objects," says Takagi.
Researchers suggest that species' surroundings influence their
ability to find out information based on what they hear. The ecology of
cats' natural hunting style may therefore also favor the ability for
inference on the basis of sounds. Takagi explains that hunting cats
often need to infer the location or the distance of their prey from
sounds alone because they stake out places of poor visibility. Further
research is needed to find out exactly what cats
see in their mind's eye when they pick up noises, and if they can
extract information such as quantity and size from what they hear.
More information:
Saho Takagi et al, There's no
ball without noise: cats' prediction of an object from noise, Animal Cognition (2016). DOI: 10.1007/s10071-016-1001-6
The 3-month-old twin cubs are being trained to take on an educational role at Tampa’s Lowry Park Zoo.
Tampa, FL
By Sherri Lonon (Patch Staff) - June 10, 2016
Tampa, FL — Tampa Bay area residents wondering just what happened to Lowry Park Zoo’s twin clouded leopard cubs born about three months ago are in for a treat. Aiya and Shigu are officially “ambassadors-in-training,” the zoo announced Friday.
“The zoo hopes the small siblings will make a big impression on zoo guests – and eventually offsite audiences during outreach programs – about the needs and perils of this rare and vulnerable species,” the zoo said in a media release.
To get the cubs' training started, zoo staff are currently working to introduce them to a wide variety of different environments. They’re also encouraging socialization and adaptation. The zoo’s pathways and gardens are being used as "classrooms" for the twins' harness training practice.
“Soon the charismatic cats will be taking strolls through the zoo grounds, at various times of the day, for exercise and conditioning,” the zoo promised.
Learning to become animal ambassadors is no easy feat, the zoo said. Before they’ll be considered ready, Aiya and Shigu must “master a number of critical behaviors, as well as exhibit personality traits that facilitate engagement,” the zoo explained.
So far, the process has been quite encouraging, the zoo reported.
“Both have been very eager to participate in training sessions thus far, and enjoy being ‘out and about’ with their trainers.”
The cubs are the first set of multiples born to the zoo’s pair of 5-year-old adult clouded leopards. Shortly after their Feb. 29 birth, their mom stopped caring for them. Zoo staff had to step in to care for the cubs.
“As hand-reared and well-bonded females, the siblings were ideal candidates for the animal ambassador program,” the zoo said.
Lowry Park takes part in the Association of Zoos and Aquariums Clouded Leopard Species Survival Plan. It was through that plan the cubs’ parents Malee and Yim were paired and delivered to Lowry Park in 2011.
Considered vulnerable in the wild, clouded leopards are the smallest of the world’s “big cats.” They weigh between 30 and 50 pounds at adulthood and measure 5 feet long, including the tail. The creatures are native to Southeast Asia and are generally found in rainforests and forests. The cats are known for their reclusive behavior, the zoo noted. Deforestation rates, hunting, and poaching have stressed the wild clouded leopard population in recent years, making the species vulnerable to extinction, the zoo reported.
“Increasingly zoos are the last hope for many species due to the loss of habitat and political instability in range countries,” Dr. Larry Killmar, zoo director, said. “The birth of these cubs is an example of the collective efforts to manage this species within North American zoos to ensure their survival.”
For more information about Tampa’s Lowry Park Zoo, visit it online.
Image: Onesmus Irungu/used with permission
For a start, the hunting prowess of the hyena is on show. Often unfairly branded as nature's cackling thieves and scavengers (thanks, Lion King), hyenas are actually very capable predators – in fact, research suggests they kill up to 95% of the food they eat. And this particular hunter, likely a young male, had managed to take down a topi, one of Africa's speediest antelopes.
