Killers and Company

There is a fascinating creature living amongst us; a violent vicious hunter which kills with impunity. There are millions living in and around the world’s cities and their numbers are growing at an exponential rate. Pound for pound they are one of the most efficient predators on the planet, and even now they are prowling the streets of your neighbourhood searching out prey to add to their long list of victims.

They are cats, the closest most people will ever come to living with a real wild animal. But how well do we actually know our feline friends?

Only by studying their design and observing their habits and mannerisms can we get some inkling into their often secret lives.

The first tamed cats were used for pest control in Egypt around 3000 BC and were a species known as the North African Wildcat-a hardy member of the cat family, which later became loved as a household companion and worshipped as a god. Domesticated cats later spread to Italy and then to the rest of Europe where they became highly prized possessions.

The cat’s fortunes changed, however, during the Middle Ages as the Christian church, aware of the animal’s connection with paganism and witchcraft, often killed cats by burning them alive. The myth that the black cat solely was considered the witches familiar is wrong, and cats of all colours were killed.

The cat became popular again only when its usefulness for reducing vermin populations became recognised; a popularity and respect which has remained to the present day.

The domestic feline is a physiological marvel of nature, a creature known to be endowed with lightning speed and reflexes. As a hunter the parts of the cat’s brain associated with movement and the senses are very well developed. The spine is extremely flexible also, allowing it to squeeze through the tiniest of gaps and for the same reason it lacks a collarbone which would broaden the chest. As runners they are short distance specialists; when a cat runs, all its legs are in the air for a time allowing it to accelerate up to 30mph for short bursts. The strong hind quarters and back provide amazing jumping capabilities – 6 feet of fence or tree proves little problem and the human equivalent would be a person capable of jumping onto the roof of a house.

They have a better sense of balance than humans, mainly because they have a tail which they use in the same way that a tightrope walker uses a pole. Contrary to many people’s belief, cats cannot see in the dark any better than we can, but their eyes are more specialised and are useful for gathering every scrap of light. Their vision works best at dawn and dusk, perhaps because this is the time when their prey are either waking up or retiring and so are not at their most alert. In addition cats have a wider field of vision than man and so are able to see more movement on their periphery.

Hearing, too, is an advanced design of the cat allowing it to hear sounds up to two octaves higher than the highest note we can hear and surprisingly it hears higher notes than its arch enemy, the dog.

So with these features in their arsenal domestic cats are built as natural hunters but unlike their wild “cousins” like tigers and cheetahs they don’t often hunt to satisfy hunger, although they do occasionally eat their catch. Basically they are in it for the sport, perhaps instinctively seeing it as entertainment or a form of exercise. The way a cat toys with its prey may seem quit cruel to us, as the victim is rarely killed immediately. this is simply another way for a cat to polish its hunting skills. If it can bounce a sparrow into the air and catch it in its claws it has a better chance of success when it must pluck one of the air to satisfy hunger. Similarly, kittens usually start with household spiders and flies, honing their own skills before progressing to feather and fur.