FELID BEHAVIOR
fishing cat
With the exception of the largest cats, most felids are adept climbers, and many are skilled swimmers. They are also cursorial (with limbs adapted to running), diurnal (active during the daytime), nocturnal (active at night), crepuscular (active at dawn and dusk), motile (move around as opposed to being stationary), sedentary (remain in the same area), have daily torpor (a period of reduced activity, sometimes accompanied by a reduction in the metabolic rate, especially among animals with highmetabolic rates), territorial (defend an area within the home range) and sometimes social (associates with others of its species; forms social groups).
The primary social group for cats is a mother and her young. Adult males and females usually have little to do with one another except when they are mating. Adult cats of the same sex don’t hang much together either. Cats are very fastidious about keeping themselves clean. They spend a lot of time grooming and licking themselves. One reason for this is that it is important for them not to have a strong odor which warns their prey of their presence. Cats rarely pant and don’t slurp or drool when they drink. Only their footpads sweat. Their flexible body allows them to be able to lick almost every part of their body. The same hook-like appendages of their tongues (papillae) that help them rip meat off bones also hold fluids when they lap up water. All cats, large and small, lick their paws and scrub their faces in pretty much the same way.
Cats spend up to two third of their time sleeping. In this way they conserve their energy for the necessities of life: hunting, breeding and taking care of young. Their muscles are also designed to expend large amounts of energy quickly and thus need time to recuperate. Because cats have rapid eye movement during sleep some scientist believe they dream. Wild cats are thought to do alright in captivity because the spend most of their time just lying around.
With the exception of lions, which form prides, felids are solitary animals that only come together to mate. They tend to hunt at night (with cheetahs being an exception) and, although most are primarily nocturnal activity levels peak during dusk and dawn. When members of their own species meet, their tail posture, position of the ears, and exposure of teeth reveals their level of tolerance. Scent marking, rubbing, and scratching trees are used to mark territorial (defend an area within the home range), boundaries and communicate dominance and fertility. [Source: Erika Etnyre; Jenna Lande; Alison Mckenna, Animal Diversity Web (ADW) /=]
According to Animal Diversity Web: ]Felids are apex predators that initiate top-down control and are often considered keystone species in their native habitats. Often preying upon the most vulnerable of individuals (e.g., young, old, or ill), felids promote robust prey populations that exhibit decreased vulnerability to disease and prevent overgrazing by large herbivores. Although not an act of predation, many large cats are intolerant of heterospecific felids. For example, lions readily kill leopards, which are known to kill cheetahs. During attempted pride takeovers, male lions commit infanticide as a way of inducing estrus in pride females and eliminating the offspring of rival males. About one quarter of lion cub deaths can be attributed to infanticide, which also occurs in pumas.
Cat Hunting
Cats are solitary hunters who hunt at night and day and rely on sight and hearing and find their prey nd kill it quickly with well-placed bites. By contrast, dogs and wolves hunt in a group, rely on their sense of smell to track prey, attack en mass and tear pieces off their prey and eat them while their prey is still alive.
According to Animal Diversity Web: Most felids stalk, crouch, wait, and pounce while hunting prey. They avoid long chases typical of canids and are considered ambush predators. Small prey are killed with a specialized bite to the base of the skull, which severs the spinal cord. Large prey are typically killed by suffocation. Prior to eating, some species drag carcass by the nape to a secluded location. Most small cats feed by crouching over their prey without using their paws, whereas large cats eat while lying down. Felids are instinctive hunters and, if given the opportunity, they will kill more prey than they can eat. [Source: Erika Etnyre; Jenna Lande; Alison Mckenna, Animal Diversity Web (ADW) /=]
Cats usually stalk their prey — often creeping along with their bellies on the ground, their heads down and ears flattened — and bring their prey down with a dramatic final rush. They are very patient and very quiet. They move when their prey does and stop when it does and have the ability to freeze in mid stride. When they get close enough, the coil up like a spring in preparation for the final lunge.
Cats often swat their prey with their forelimb and/or tackle it by leaping and grabbing their prey while the cat’s hind legs are anchored on the ground for balance. They kill their prey with their claws, canine teeth and well-positioned bites to the skull, neck or vertebra. Some cats kill with a suffocation bite to the necks, clamping the throat shut until the prey suffocates. Others kill with a bit to the neck that forces the neck vertebra apart, essentially breaking its neck.
The cat family (felids) is one of three modern families of carnivores hunting and bringing down prey several times their size. The other two are the hyena family (hyaenids) and canids (dogs, foxes, jackel, wolves). Chris Carbone of the Zoological Institute of London worked out that at a body weight threshold of about 20 kilograms mammals have to be able to kill prey larger than themselves to secure enough calories to keep their big bodies going whereas small predators can sustain themselves on invertebrates such as insects, centipedes and scorpions.
Large Carnivores Help Ecosystems
In January 2014, AFP reported: “The gradual decline of large carnivores such as lions, wolves or pumas is threatening the Earth's ecosystems, scientists warned as they launched an appeal to protect such predators. More than 75 per cent of 31 large carnivore species are on the decline, and 17 of them now occupy less than half of their former ranges, says a study published in the American journal Science. [Source: AFP, January 10, 2014]
"Globally, we are losing large carnivores," wrote William Ripple, lead author of the study and a professor in the Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society at Oregon State University. "Many of them are endangered," Ripple wrote. "Their ranges are collapsing. Many of these animals are at risk of extinction, either locally or globally. And, ironically, they are vanishing just as we are learning about their important ecological effects."
Ripple and his colleagues reviewed published scientific reports and focused on seven species that have been studied for their widespread ecological effects. They are African lions, leopards, Eurasian lynx, cougars, gray wolves, sea otters and dingoes. The different reports show that a decline in pumas and wolves in Yellowstone National Park led to an increase in animals that feed on tree leaves and bushes, such as deer and elk. This disrupts the growth of vegetation and shifts populations of birds and small mammals, the researchers said.
In Europe, fewer lynx have been tied to overpopulation of roe deer, red foxes and hares, while in Africa the disappearance of lions and leopards has coincided with a dramatic increase in the number of olive baboons, which threaten farm crops and livestock. In Alaska, a decline in sea otters through killer whale depredation has triggered a rise in sea urchins and loss of kelp beds.
"Nature is highly interconnected," said Ripple. "The work at Yellowstone and other places shows how one species affects another and another through different pathways." For instance, avoiding overpopulation of herbivores allows forest flora to develop more and sequester more carbon dioxide, the main green house gas responsible for global warming. But the authors of the study say it will be very hard to convince people to accept a large scale restoration of large carnivore populations. People are afraid of them and have fought them to protect their livestock and their communities, they said.
How Cats Drink Water Without Getting Wet
Marc Kaufman wrote in the Washington Post, Four researchers at the the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have painstakingly filmed, analyzed and determined how it is that a cat can drink water while (unlike a dog) keeping its chin and whiskers pleasingly dry. The answer involves an exquisite demonstration of physics: The cat, in effect, balances the forces of gravity against the forces of inertia, and so quenches its thirst. While a dog curls its tongue like a ladle to collect the water and then pull up what it can, a cat curves its tongue under and slightly back, leaving the top surface of the tip of the tongue to lightly touch the liquid. The cat then raises its tongue rapidly, creating an upward mini-stream of water. The cat snaps its mouth shut and the water is captured before the countervailing force of gravity pulls it down. [Source: Marc Kaufman, Washington Post, November 12, 2010]
An average house cat, the team found, can make four of these mini-streams per second. "What we found is that the cat uses fluid dynamics and physics in a way to absolutely optimize tongue lapping and water collection," said Jeffrey Aristoff, now at Princeton University but who was one of the four researchers who began the study out of curiosity at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "Nobody had ever studied it before, so nobody knew how the water went from the bowl into the cat's mouth," he said. Not surprisingly, they found that cats lap at precisely the rate that would get them the most water for the effort expended. The team's results are described in an article released by the journal Science.
The four researchers went to several zoos to observe and film tigers, jaguars, lions and ocelots, and went to YouTube to find videos of bobcats, cheetahs, leopards and lionesses drinking in the wild. They found the same basic drinking mechanism in all the cats, though the larger ones (with larger tongues) slowed their lapping to best take advantage of the physics at play - that is, the balance between upward movement of the water set off by the cat's tongue (the inertia) and the gravity pulling the water down. A lion, Aristoff said, laps about two times per second.
"In the beginning of the project, we weren't fully confident that fluid mechanics played a role in cats' drinking," said Sunghwan Jung, now an engineer at Virginia Tech., whose research focuses on soft bodies, such as fish, and the fluids surrounding them. "But as the project went on, we were surprised and amused by the beauty of the fluid mechanics involved in this system."
Aristoff explained the dynamics at work: You're in the shower and turn on the hot water. The steam starts to rise, and that upward flow lowers the pressure levels at your knees. The result is that the inside of the shower curtain will billow in toward you, unless you have some weight attached to the curtain to stop it. That interplay of motion and pressure parallels the dynamic that quenches the cat's thirst.
The researchers said there could be useful implications gleaned from their "fundamental" research. Engineers, for example, are moving into the field of "soft robots" and are working on the basic properties of nonmetallic parts that may play a role. Aristoff said there's great interest in creating robots that can walk on water, and this research could help. This new cat-drinking research follows by 70 years related work done by Harold "Doc" Edgerton, who first used strobe lights to capture stopped action on film. His photography, which uncovered some of the secrets of how cats drink, was featured in an Academy Award-winning short called "Quicker'n a Wink."
Cat Communication
Felids communicate with vision, touch, sound and chemicals usually detected by smelling. They also employ pheromones (chemicals released into air or water that are detected by and responded to by other animals of the same species) and scent marks produced by special glands and placed so others can smell and taste them. [Source: Erika Etnyre; Jenna Lande; Alison Mckenna, Animal Diversity Web (ADW) /=]
Although cats are mostly solitary they have an elaborate system of vocal, visual and olfactory communication that defines territory, warns of an attack and advertises sexual receptivity. Cats have a voice box with two sets of vocal cords. The lower ones, the true ones, produce the growling and roaring noises. The upper ones are called false chord. When a cat is relaxed, these chords vibrate to produce the soften fluttering purring sound Cats make at least 12 vocalizations including meows, screams, chirps and twitters. When they are angry they hiss and growl, flatten their ears on their heads and whip their tails around like a snake. Cats are the only known animals that purrs. Most cats purr to express contentment. The sound is produced by two folds of skin behind the vocal chords. .
According to Animal Diversity Web: Due to their nocturnal and solitary lifestyles, investigating audible communication in felids has proven difficult. However, the calls of many carnivores are known to signal individual recognition and territorial boundaries. It is thought that by observing domestic cats, one can hear a majority of the sounds made by most felids. They purr, meow, growl, hiss, spit, and scream. The hyoid apparatus of small-bodied cats is hardened, resulting in an inability to roar. Large-bodied cats have the capability to roar, which is thought to serve as a form of long-distance communication. For example, lions typically roar at night to advertise territories. Research suggests that lionesses can identify the sex of a roaring individual and lionesses respond differently to different numbers of roaring individuals. /=\
Cat Scent Communication
Big cats often communicate with each other through scents, hormones and pheremones left on their feces and urine. Through scent a cat can often tell the sex, age, sexual receptivity of the animal that left it, what the animal had eaten and no doubt things that only cats understand. Cats have numerous scent glands. They are located all over their body: around the mouth, cheeks and chin, on the back of their tails, between their toes. The scents are left wherever they pass and are used to mark territories, advertise sexual receptivity, and establish social bonds. Males spray urine backwards onto bushes and trees at nose level. Dominant males splash their urine around and leave their feces more prominently than lesser males. Scent trails are often updated with cats erasing traces of their rivals and leaving their own scents.
According to Animal Diversity Web Felids are solitary animals that scent mark territories with facial glands and urine. They also mark territorial boundaries by clawing tree trunks. Like many vertebrates, felids have a vomeronasal organ, or Jacobson's organ, that allows them to detect pheromones (chemicals released into air or water that are detected by and responded to by other animals of the same species). This olfactory sense organ is found at the base of the nasal cavity and plays an important role in member of their own species interactions, especially those related to reproduction. [Source: Erika Etnyre; Jenna Lande; Alison Mckenna, Animal Diversity Web (ADW) /=]
For example, after smelling the genital area or urine of a potential mate, males curl their upper lip toward their nostrils (i.e., the Flehmen response). Using the vomeronasal organ, this allows males to assess the mating condition and quality of potential mates. It is thought that input from the vomeronasal organ and the olfactory bulbs significantly contribute to mating activity.
Felid Mating and Reproduction
Felids are most often classified as polygynous (males have more than one female as a mate at one time) but can also be polygynandrous, (promiscuous), with both males and females having multiple partners. They engage in both seasonal breeding and year-round breeding depending on the species. Most felids are non-seasonal breeders, but in areas of extreme climatic or prey variability, parturition occurs during the most favorable times of the year. [Source: Erika Etnyre; Jenna Lande; Alison Mckenna, Animal Diversity Web (ADW) /=]
According to Animal Diversity Web: Estrous lasts from one to 21 days. Most have estrous cycles lasting from from one to three days. Females may have multiple estrous cycles until they become pregnant. Females advertise estrus to potential mates through vocalizations, scent marking, and restlessness. As with most polygynous species, males compete for access to mates via displays and fighting, and successful males court mates through vocalizations and direct physical contact (e.g., rubbing on the female). During courtship, successful males may also approach receptive females with their head lowered. While the act of copulation lasts less than a minute, multiple copulations can occur over a period of several days, which may help induce ovulation. After several days, males may leave in order to find additional estrous females, in which case another male takes his place.
In felids, male territories often encompass those of multiple females (for an exception see Panther leo) and males mate with females that reside within his territory. Most member of their own species interactions occur during mating season or as a result of territorial (defend an area within the home range), disputes among rival males. Indirect interactions via scent markings or vocalizations help reduce the number of fatal interactions. /=\
Cat Sex
Males often compete with one another for the rights to females. Sex itself is often rough and unrelenting. Males often bite into females during sex and females often bite back. Some species have sex every 20 or 40 minutes for hour after hour. Males have a retractable penis with a tip covered with spines. Females need to be stimulated through copulation to begin ovulating and produce eggs to be fertilized. Ovulation is believed to be triggered by the intense pain caused when the male withdraws his pine-covered penis.
The act of copulation is aggressive and brief and may be repeated multiple times an hour for several days. Repeated copulation is thought to induce ovulation in females. Females are only in heat for a few days. They announce they are in estrus by spraying their urine which contains glandular secretions. When males pick up this scent with their Jacobson’s organ the scent overwhelms them so much they wrinkle their nose, curl their upper lip and grimace in what is called the “flehmen” response
Courtship often is a drawn out affair, with a great deal of visual and vocal communication between the male and female. The female often initially refuses the male, and growls and spits to show her contempt. As the estrus progresses she becomes more approachable: stretching and rubbing against objects and then against the male to show she is ready.
Felid Young
According to Animal Diversity Web: Small-bodied cats tend to have three litters per year, while large cats average one litter every 18 months. The interval between birthing events may depend on maturation rates of young, body size, food availability, or recent loss of litter. For example, if a female loses her litter, she can come into estrus within a few weeks. Although most litters contain two to four cubs, females can give birth to as many as eight cubs in a litter. Gestation lasts from two months in small cats to three months in lions and tigers. [Source: Erika Etnyre; Jenna Lande; Alison Mckenna, Animal Diversity Web (ADW) /=]
Cats are altricial. This means that young are born relatively underdeveloped and are unable to feed or care for themselves or move independently for a period of time after birth. Some cats are born with their eyes open. Others with their eyes closed. Many are born blind and deaf, rendering them defenseless. Mothers often hide newborns in dens, rock crevices, or tree hollows until they are mobile. Cubs remain with their mother until they can hunt on their own. Weaning begins at the introduction of solid food and ranges in length from 28 days (domestic cats) to 100 days (lions and tigers). Felids reach sexual maturity in less than a year for small cats and up to two years for large cats.
Typically, cats do not produce their first litter until they have established a home range, which usually does not occur until they are three or four years of age. Although age of independence is highly variable, many species become independent around 18 months of age. Unlike most felids, lions are very social and females take turns nursing young born to other pride members (i.e., communal nursing) while absent mothers are hunting for food. Young cats live to play. They like to chase things and bat them about on their paws. Much of what they do has applications to hunting.
Felid Parenting
With the exception of lions, females are the sole caretakers of young felids. They generally raise their young without the help of males. Mothers are very affectionate and patient with their young. They act as protectors, playmates and teachers. They teach their young how to hunt by taking them along and then let them practice on small game.
Parental care during the pre-birth, pre-weaning pre-independence stages of provisioning and protecting are done by females. There is an extended period of juvenile learning. A mother protects her young by circling her tail around them and carrying them from place to place with the scruff of their necks in her mouth. Most young are hidden in secluded places, which are regarded as safe enough to leave the young alone while the mother hunts. Often times the biggest threat come from cannibalistic males.
According to Animal Diversity Web: Mothers hide their cubs in dens, rock crevices, or tree hollows while they are away hunting and young hide until she returns. Weaning begins at the introduction of solid food, around 28 days in domestic cats (Felis domesticus) and 100 days in lions. Females teach cubs how to stalk, pounce, and kill. Weaning is complete when cubs can eat meat and help hunt for prey. Juvenile felids spend a majority of their time “role playing,” which helps develop important hunting skills. Juveniles are independent once they become competent hunters, though they may remain in their mother’s territory for up to a year before they establish their own. Most felids do not begin reproducing until they have their own territories. Although male lions use infanticide to eliminate unrelated young during pride takeover events, they also provide a significant degree of parental care to their own offspring, protecting cubs while they feed and allowing mothers to rest./=\
Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons
Text Sources: Animal Diversity Web animaldiversity.org ; National Geographic, Live Science, Natural History magazine, David Attenborough books, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, Discover magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, Wikipedia, The Guardian, Top Secret Animal Attack Files website and various books and other publications.
Last updated January 2025