Catwatching by Desmond Morris Read Free Book Online

remarkably well.
    They achieve this high-density success in a number of ways. The most important factor is the provision of food by their owners. This removes the need for lengthy daily hunting trips. It may not remove the urge to set off on such trips – a well-fed cat remains a hunting cat – but it does reduce the determination born of an empty stomach.
    If they find themselves invading neighbouring territories, they can give up the hunt without starving. If restricting their hunting activities to their own cramped home ranges makes them inefficient prey-catchers, it might prove frustrating, but it does not lead to starvation and death. It has been demonstrated that the more food the cats are given by their owners, the smaller their urban territories become.
    Another factor helping them is the way in which their human owners divide up their own territories – with fences and hedges and walls to demarcate their gardens. These provide natural boundary-lines that are easy to recognize and defend. In addition there is a permissible degree of overlapping in feline territories. Female cats often have special areas where several of their home ranges overlap and where they can meet on neutral ground. The males – whose territories are always about ten times the size of those of the females, regardless of how great or small the crowding – show much more overlap. Each male will roam about on an area that takes in several female territories, enabling him to keep a permanent check on which particular queen (female) is on heat at any particular moment.
    The overlapping is permitted because the cats are usually able to avoid one another as they patrol the landmarks in their patch of land. If, by accident, two of them do happen to meet up unexpectedly, they may threaten one another or simply keep out of one another's way, watching each other's movements and waiting their turn to visit a particular zone of the territory.
    The numbers of pet cats are, of course, controlled by their owners, with the neutering of adults, destruction of unwanted litters and the selling or giving away of surplus kittens. But how does the territorial arrangement of feral cats survive the inevitable production of offspring? One detailed study of dockland cats at a large port revealed that in an area of110 acres there were ninety-five cats. Each year they produced about 400 kittens between them. This is a high figure of about ten per female, which must mean that on average each queen gave birth to two litters. In theory this would mean a fivefold increase in the population each year. In practice it was found that the population remained remarkably stable from one year to the next.
    The cats had established an appropriate territory size for the feral, dockland world in which they lived, and then kept to it. Closer investigation revealed that only one in eight of the kittens survived to become adults. These fifty additions to the population each year were balanced by fifty deaths among the older cats. The main cause of death here (as with most urban cat populations) was the fatal road accident.
     

How sociable are cats?
     
    The cat is often characterized as a solitary, selfish animal, walking alone and coming together with other cats only to fight or mate. When cats are living wild, with plenty of space, it is true that they do fit this picture reasonably well, but they are capable of changing their ways when they become more crowded. Living in cities and towns, and in the homes of their human owners, cats show a remarkable and unexpected degree of sociability. Anyone doubting this must remember that, to a pet cat, we ourselves are giant cats. The fact that domestic cats will share a home with a human family is, in itself, proof of their social flexibility. But this is only part of the story. There are many other ways in which cats demonstrate co-operation, mutual aid, and tolerance.
    This is particularly noticeable when a female is having kittens. Other