Reproduction of domestic and wild cats

Every year brings significant changes to the population. The number, sex, age composition and many other indicators characterizing the population change. One of the populations living in our village is the domestic cat population, which is a striking example of a group of animals undergoing annual changes.

This population was under our observation for three years in order to identify changes and their causes.

In addition to the general characteristics of the species and the population as a whole, there is another interesting problem - the problem of animal behavior. “Comprehension of the language of animals is a dream as old as humanity itself, a dream about the key to understanding nature.” The science of animal behavior is not just about describing individual interesting episodes in the lives of animals. Its goal is to find out as accurately as possible what “moves” animals, why they behave this way and not otherwise. By coming into contact with animals in natural conditions, observing them and studying their behavior in a wide variety of conditions, you can encounter a variety of questions about the behavior of cats. Why does the cat come to the nursery to wake up the children at half past seven, because she doesn’t have a clock? How do they know that evening milking is coming and now they will be fed. Swedish naturalist Gustav Eckstein conducted observations on the sense of time in cats (Mezentsev V., 1989). The English zoologist William Beach gives an example of the sense of time in donkeys. The mystery of animal biorhythms has been solved through observations and experiments. In our case, observations were carried out over three years and we tried to answer some questions about the behavior of cats in a populated area.

The mating period for domestic cats occurs in December-January, July-August, while for lions, for example, this can occur in any month of the year (the reason is that lions’ habitats are warm and there is plenty of food all year round) . At this time, as with wild cats, the male begins to show interest in the female and show concern: “a tender relationship between a male cat and a male cat is observed during mating...Hugging closely, they lick each other.... The cat pushes its partner with its forehead, strokes the cheek, neck, shoulders, sides and under the chin. Also, when they meet, they run towards each other with their tails raised, purr and make other greeting sounds.” Pregnancy in a domestic cat lasts about three months (in lions this period reaches 100–108 days, this is understandable: lions are much larger). And when the time comes, the cat will have kittens in a secluded place, blind and defenseless. It should be noted that the habit of hiding kittens is inherent in most felines: “She (the lioness) leaves the pride to give birth. Look for a den somewhere in the thick of thorny bushes, in tall grass or in a rock crevice, ... in a secluded place a female cheetah gives birth to one to five cubs, ... the father of leopards is, to put it mildly, unimportant. It happens that he is not averse to eating his children. Therefore, the female builds a den secretly from him (most often in some cave).” (I. Akimushkin, 1988). Domestic cats usually give birth to 3 to 5 kittens, rarely up to 10 kittens. For lions - 3, rarely 5-6, for cheetahs - from 1 to 5, for tigers 2-4, rarely - up to 7. For the latter, it would seem that this is not so bad, but tigers are disappearing. The fact is that tiger cubs live with their mother for about 2-3 years (sometimes up to 5). At first, kittens feed on nutritious mother's milk (for snow leopards, or snow leopards, it is five times more nutritious than cow's milk). Later, the mother cat, and in some species of large cats (cheetah) and father, brings meat to the babies. Kittens grow quite quickly. They learn by playing: they are active, dexterous, and restless. It happens that a cat brings them half-dead prey. In this case, the “hunt” begins. Kittens catch up with an animal caught by a cat, for example, a mouse, and learn to catch it. An adult cat closely monitors the game and, if the “prey” is faster than the kittens, returns it to the kids. Already at this age, kittens have stronger individuals: they get most of the prey, or the entire prey.

Food connections of cats

Hunting plays a huge role in the life of an adult feline. For pets, this takes less time, since they are fed, and in the life of wild cats, hunting is a vital event. The former hunt small animals: birds, rodents (mice, less often rats). Their wild relatives hunt for larger prey: gazelles, deer, roe deer, antelopes, hares, fish, small crocodiles (which in turn hunt them!) Some (tigers, snow leopards) do not disdain smaller prey: mice, frogs . It happens that tigers even eat berries.

Felines have different hunting methods. The domestic cat first sneaks up on its prey. Uses any cover and can lie flat on the ground; Before taking a step, he carefully considers it and tries not to make noise. The cat does this subconsciously, instinctively. Then she bends down, leaps, and kills the victim with a bite to the back of the head, damaging the spinal cord. We use this hunting method for both rodents and birds. But in the latter case, the hunt rarely ends in success, since the bird flies away. In the book Deckert G., Deckert K. “How do animals behave?” There is information that “... The cat is not specialized for catching birds. In most cases, it takes too long to prepare for the jump, so the bird manages to fly away. That is why bird hunters are so rare among domestic cats.”

Lions prefer to hunt as a whole pride. This usually happens as follows. Few predators think of approaching prey from the side from which the wind blows. But that's exactly what a lion does. In order to be better noticed, the predator can also growl. Thus, it scares the prey and makes it run away in panic. At this time, the rest of the pride members had already taken their place in the ambush. The bloody role usually goes to young lions and lionesses; the lion himself only leads the hunt. The speed of a lion running after its prey can reach fifty kilometers per hour. However, the victims are also excellent runners, so the hunt does not always end successfully. If it is still possible to catch up with the prey, the hunter sinks his fangs into it. A lion's fangs are such that if they grab a human shoulder, they will bite right through without effort. Another method of hunting (applicable to all cats) is to select prey. That is why all cats try to eat in a secluded place. In the life of a domestic cat, everything is more prosaic: you catch it yourself and eat it yourself. Despite the family relationships in the micropopulation, cats prefer to hunt and eat prey alone.

Hunters call the tiger a “gentleman.” It is noble in that it warns the hunter with a roar before an attack (a panther, for example, attacks silently). When a tiger hunts, it attacks from the leeward side. The predator itself has a poor sense of smell. But the eyes and ears are excellent. In India they say that a tiger can imitate the cry of a deer, luring it. But when he hunts monkeys, he growls terribly. Out of fear, they do not calculate their jump and fall down. There is still debate about how a tiger kills its prey. Many claim that he jumps on the back of a deer or pig and grabs the muzzle with his paw, jerking the head towards himself, breaking the cervical vertebrae. As for the tiger’s personal possessions, they extend over hundreds of square kilometers; that is why the beast wanders around all the time, bypassing them.

But the cheetah hunts in a rather unusual, peculiar way. He looks out for his prey from some hill or elevation. Creeping along the ground. Approximately 20-100 meters from the target, it jumps up and begins the chase, immediately developing enormous acceleration. The speed of the predator can reach up to 112 km/h. according to official data, according to unofficial data - up to 140. But the cheetah is a runner only over short distances, and if it does not catch up with the prey in the first hundred meters, it stops pursuing it. If it catches up, it knocks down the prey and bites into its throat. There are both cases of cheetah hunting alone, and group hunting, and the group can include both males and females.

Sometimes during a hunt it comes to the point where you need to get into the water. Some do it with pleasure, some only as an exception. So, tigers and lions love water. Lynx and jaguar are also excellent swimmers. But the puma, although it swims excellently, enters the water only when absolutely necessary. The leopard really doesn’t like water, and if it rains even a little, it hides. Domestic cats do not like to swim or get wet in the rain.

In general, we can identify common features in the hunting style of cats. This is a style of surprise attack: cats prefer a sudden attack. The main “weapons” of cats are fangs and paws. Most cats' hearing and vision are much better developed than their sense of smell. However, the sense of touch with the help of vibrations compensates for it. As for vision, a cat has only two types of retinal cells that respond to increasing or decreasing light. Therefore, no matter how the light changes, any type of cell will work. The hearing of these animals is well developed, and, interestingly, some have additional devices. In the lynx, the tassels on the ears are a kind of antenna. If they are cut off, the lynx's hearing is sharply dulled.

It is interesting that during a hunt, the cat’s entire attention is focused on the prey; it perceives extraneous information only in extreme cases. The proof can be found in the experience described by Tinbergen in Animal Behavior. In this experiment, electrodes were placed in the cat's brain to show that the cat's attention was focused on a ticking metronome. The vibrations of the metronome were reflected in a diagram of brain activity. But after the cat noticed the mouse, its attention switched from the metronome to the prey. The cat chose the mouse as the object as the most useful stimulus for it. In life, a cat does not always completely focus its attention on any one object. There are a huge variety of sounds around, from which you need to choose the most significant at the moment. For example, a cat sitting near a mouse hole does not change the direction of its gaze when a person approaches, but turns its ears towards the sound. That is, the cat divides all information according to its importance and chooses where to direct most of its attention.