| Thursday, 30 June 2016 |
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posted by deepak_sodhi007 @ 12:47  |
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Behavior and social life
Although almost all are loners, the social lives of cats depend on their behavior and their habitat (it will happen more easily than cats join forces to hunt when the prey is large or if it is in times of scarcity by example).
Communication
There are different modes of communication in cats. As mammals, they are very talkative, but can communicate by vocalizations. Just like humans, they make sounds with their vocal cords during expiration. The frequency of these calls is 50 to 10,000 hertz, and their repertoire is very varied, ranging from the roaring hiss, and some calls are species-specific.
For felines solitary vocalizations used primarily during the breeding season, call for females or to warn other cats that the territory is occupied. These vocalizations can be complemented by scent marks, by various substances (pheromones, urine, etc..) And visual (scratches on trees, etc..).
But feline sociable, communication is crucial for a good deal. Among them, the vocals are more numerous and complex. The mewing call is one of the most common, and can be used in many situations such as when mothers communicate with their young. When they want to be aggressive, cats spit and growl, while at friendly approaches, they emit gurgling snort, signs of abating. Widely known through our domestic cats, purring is also used by the other cats to express contentment. The cats also use them meaningful postures, for example to signal to other dogs that we feel danger, to invite a partner to mate, to threaten an adversary or, conversely, to show submission. These attitudes accompany and complement the vocals.
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| posted by deepak_sodhi007 @ 12:43 |
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Live alone [edit]
Cats are usually solitary nocturnal, they live at night and see well enough in the dark. They live on land of varied shapes and sizes, divided into activity zones strategically placed (feeding area, rest, no water, etc..). To feed, they must hunt prey, different in kind and where they live. But despite their skills, a successful hunt is not always guaranteed, and the cats eat only every 3 to 4 days on average (it varies according to season, habitat and diet). In the cheetah, for example, it is estimated that hunting is successful only once in three. And even if the prey is caught, it is sufficient that the cat has taken to his unsteady she escapes.
Apart from hunting, cats spend most of their time sleeping (18 hours a day) or just to bask in their shelter. The carnivorous diet of cats explains this behavior: the meat is digested quickly, allowing them to feed less often, and hunting the heavily depleted (in the cheetah, the energy expended in the race is such that it can generally not catch its prey if it runs away then, and can not recover if the other predators steal it).
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| posted by deepak_sodhi007 @ 12:43 |
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Exceptions
During the period of heat when a male finds a female ready to mate, he follows her for several days until mating. Sometimes he stays longer in the company of the female, even dealing with his little for no apparent reason. Outside this period, few meetings, females are avoiding them, and preferring other males to stay away thanks to odors that mark the boundaries of the territories. Sometimes, however exceptions, such as when a male kills a large prey, sometimes it accepts to share it with females cohabiting with him. All these cases show that solitary can be sociable, but the most blatant example is that of young males, having just left their mother, who join for a while to find their own territory. This is often the case with cheetahs, whose social organization remains relatively unknown because they are neither social cats, no real solitary cats. By partnering and they enjoy the advantage of numbers, useful for hunting. However, even if he can cheetah adult males have overlapping territories, and despite these spontaneous associations, one can speak of true social organization. It also happens to young lions or tigers youth to follow this kind of behavior.
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| posted by deepak_sodhi007 @ 12:43 |
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Special case: the lion
The lions are, unlike most cats, very sociable animals, living in a troop of twenty individuals, consisting of a close-knit family with males (one to seven), females (usually ten ) and their young. The number of individuals is limited by the number of prey available in the territory, which can reach 500 km2, which is why young males leave the group to form their own families when they reach sexual maturity.
It is the lionesses that are responsible for hunting, males occupying rather keep out intruders, thus maintaining the safety of youth. But a male is rarely more than four years as head of a group, replaced by younger lions who have won a battle against each other. These changes are beneficial to the dominant clans, providing them with new blood.
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| posted by deepak_sodhi007 @ 12:43 |
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Habitat [edit]
Habitats are diverse, although almost three-quarters of the species live in forests. The cats have colonized all continents except Australia and Antarctica (excluding domestic cat).
Traditional classification [edit]
Since the advent of molecular studies of DNA species, the classification of cats has undergone many changes. Many species "appear" while others are based. One class traditionally felines present in two or three subfamilies:
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| posted by deepak_sodhi007 @ 12:43 |
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