-Gene pool?

In article , c864320
@yahoo.com enlightened us with...

I had a Persian for some time and I honestly see no difference in his
behavior from the other cats I have (all adopted strays/ferals). All
my cats were always extremely docile, with only two exceptions: two
females that had been hurt by people. The huge difference is in
health. This Persian had all sorts of health problems while the others
are very healthy. Maybe some people appreciate Persians for their fur
or the "status" of having a purebred cat because as far as "behavior"
goes, I really see no difference.


There's the health aspect, certainly, but I have a hard time seeing a
Persian successfully hunting due to the (most popular, it seems to me)
commonly seen snub faces. There's also the common breathing problems
with the "new" version with those snub noses. The "old" version that
actually has a muzzle might fare better, but displaying typical cat
behavior such as stalking and watching birds does not a successful
hunter make. My cats all do that stuff and I know not a one of them
would survive long on their own. They never ever tried to hurt my pet
rats. *heh*

There is more to survival than hunting. The cat must be able to find
shelter in bad climates, avoid predators, understand and live in a
social group (most feral cats do this, not all), and avoid hurting
themselves while going about their daily lives. Some cats are smart
enough for this. Some are road pizza inside of a week (this would be the
fate of my little Princess, who has no fear of cars).

Plus, this is just from what I've seen in documentaries and such, but
for some reason it seems that feral cats are all shorthaired. I wonder
if this is because the long hair mats badly and interferes with movement
(as I've seen on that animal rescue show) and thus the cat cannot hunt
properly...


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~kaeli~
When a clock is hungry, it goes back four seconds.
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I don't think it's related to fur length, but to genetics. I am not a
geneticist and I saw what I am going to write now on TV once, so it
might not be too precise as I count solely on what I remember. When a
disease hits a community, some individuals die and some survive. The
ones that survive pass this resistance down to their offspring. From
what I remember on immunology, an individual does not "create" an
antibody against a disease. The body gets all antibodies available in
its genetic library and tests each one against the pathogen to see
which one works. Once the body finds one that works, it starts
producing that antibody in large numbers to destroy or neutralize the
pathogen. When animals mate, both the male and the female give their
share of this genetic library. If the two animals are closely related,
many of these "genes" will be the same, so the offspring isn't
gaining, it's losing. And every time an animal is inbred, it looses
more and more of these genes, becoming more vulnerable even to the
silliest diseases. With a "poorer library", the individual will not
have as many antibodies to experiment against a pathogen, hence the
vulnerability.

Strays may end up inbreeding too. If a tom owns an area long enough,
he might end up mating with his own daughters. Nature compensates for
this by either getting rid of the bad fetuses (reabsorbing the fetus)
or the kittens will be born, but will be more vulnerable to diseases
and physically weaker (inbreeding usually results in loss of body
size).

I don't think it's related to fur length, but to genetics. I am not a
geneticist and I saw what I am going to write now on TV once, so it
might not be too precise as I count solely on what I remember. When a
disease hits a community, some individuals die and some survive. The
ones that survive pass this resistance down to their offspring. From
what I remember on immunology, an individual does not "create" an
antibody against a disease. The body gets all antibodies available in
its genetic library and tests each one against the pathogen to see
which one works. Once the body finds one that works, it starts
producing that antibody in large numbers to destroy or neutralize the
pathogen. When animals mate, both the male and the female give their
share of this genetic library. If the two animals are closely related,
many of these "genes" will be the same, so the offspring isn't
gaining, it's losing. And every time an animal is inbred, it looses
more and more of these genes, becoming more vulnerable even to the
silliest diseases. With a "poorer library", the individual will not
have as many antibodies to experiment against a pathogen, hence the
vulnerability.

Strays may end up inbreeding too. If a tom owns an area long enough,
he might end up mating with his own daughters. Nature compensates for
this by either getting rid of the bad fetuses (reabsorbing the fetus)
or the kittens will be born, but will be more vulnerable to diseases
and physically weaker (inbreeding usually results in loss of body
size).

Strays may end up inbreeding too. If a tom owns an area long enough,
he might end up mating with his own daughters.

Actually ferals probably inbreed far more than do purebred cats, since a
knowledgeable breeder will avoid inbreeding. Even among owned indoor/outdoor
cats, I have to say that in our neighborhood since hardly anyone spays/neuters,
most of the cats are closely related to each other. They may be more vulnerable
to diseases but they live long enough to reproduce a number of times.

Strays may end up inbreeding too. If a tom owns an area long enough,
he might end up mating with his own daughters.

Actually ferals probably inbreed far more than do purebred cats, since a
knowledgeable breeder will avoid inbreeding. Even among owned indoor/outdoor
cats, I have to say that in our neighborhood since hardly anyone spays/neuters,
most of the cats are closely related to each other. They may be more vulnerable
to diseases but they live long enough to reproduce a number of times.

Plus, this is just from what I've seen in documentaries and such, but
for some reason it seems that feral cats are all shorthaired. I wonder
if this is because the long hair mats badly and interferes with movement
(as I've seen on that animal rescue show) and thus the cat cannot hunt
properly...

But how much hunting do urban ferals really do? I think I read a study
somewhere that analyzed the contents of the stomachs of feral cats, and the
majority of what they were living on was garbage, not rodents or birds.

Plus, this is just from what I've seen in documentaries and such, but
for some reason it seems that feral cats are all shorthaired. I wonder
if this is because the long hair mats badly and interferes with movement
(as I've seen on that animal rescue show) and thus the cat cannot hunt
properly...

But how much hunting do urban ferals really do? I think I read a study
somewhere that analyzed the contents of the stomachs of feral cats, and the
majority of what they were living on was garbage, not rodents or birds.

"Teddy" wrote in message
...
If the only cats allowed to breed are the strays and those belonging
to
'irresponsible' cat owners what happens to the gene pool in time?

The gene pool will grow stronger. It thrives on diversity. When cats
are selectively bred illnesses and genetic defects are bred in.

"Teddy" wrote in message
...
If the only cats allowed to breed are the strays and those belonging
to
'irresponsible' cat owners what happens to the gene pool in time?

The gene pool will grow stronger. It thrives on diversity. When cats
are selectively bred illnesses and genetic defects are bred in.

In article ,
ospam enlightened us with...
Plus, this is just from what I've seen in documentaries and such, but
for some reason it seems that feral cats are all shorthaired. I wonder
if this is because the long hair mats badly and interferes with movement
(as I've seen on that animal rescue show) and thus the cat cannot hunt
properly...

But how much hunting do urban ferals really do? I think I read a study
somewhere that analyzed the contents of the stomachs of feral cats, and the
majority of what they were living on was garbage, not rodents or birds.


Oh, I'm sure, but AFAIK, there are many, many more stray, feral, and
"unattended" cats in non-urban areas than urban ones.
This is just what I was thinking, since I know of so many farms with
tons of "barn cats". Not to mention the fact that urban areas are few
and far between if you consider the world as a whole and purebreds only
make up like ~5% of the total world population of cats (best guess on
several totals from the net).
I was thinking basically what would happen if cats tried to go back to
nature, so to speak, and didn't live where humans were. There was a
documentary on Animal Planet about these cats that live in some other
country (somewhere in Africa, I think) and they're totally wild. They
live in the desert off of lizards and stuff and the local people, who
are hunter/gatherer types, even hunt the cats and eat them.
The cats in that area all descended from domesticated, "normal" cats and
the special showed several that looked like any grey tabby you'd see in
the shelter.
The really interesting thing is that those cats, unlike our feral
colonies, were solitary for the most part. They did not gather in
groups. Could be because they had to range for food...

--
--
~kaeli~
Is it true that cannibals don't eat clowns because they
taste funny?
http://www.ipwebdesign.net/wildAtHeart
http://www.ipwebdesign.net/kaelisSpace