How Did Wild Cats Become Ancient Human Pets?

@Tinil011 hours ago

I disagree with the statement "A domestic dog returned to the wild has low survival prospects. [...] A domestic cat returned to the wild does not struggle meaningfully", at least how it is formulated at the moment. The overall sentiment, that feral cats are closer to wild cats than feral dogs are to wild dogs is true, that's not the problem, but the way you describe it may give people the idea that cats raised inside can just be let outside and will be perfectly fine. This is LARGELY not the case. Cats that grew up in a home with people will not just naturally do well if released into the outdoors, often they will struggle and eventually die unless it gets help from humans in the form of feeding at the least. Just because domestic cats can and do hunt small mammals and, to a lesser extent, small birds, on a population level doesn't mean any given individual cat will have any good hunting instincts. The numbers of animals killed by domestic cats isn't evenly distributed. I can say with absolute certainty that several of the cats I have owned over my life would starve to death (Or be eaten by a predator, or hit by a car, or other ways of dying) very quickly if they were ever let out into the world. Of course, several other cats I would be willing to bet would be fine or even more than fine, one of them would probably thrive as a feral, but it very much comes down to the individual's experience and personality. It's a minor detail but I only mention it because people will actively use that justification to abandon cats they don't want or can't afford any more. They legitimately think that the cat will just do fine if abandoned, that they know how to survive on their own. And they are often dead wrong. Those abandoned cats, if lucky, will be found by someone and taken care of, but if not they VERY frequently die within a few months. And it's really, really sad, this is an area where ignorance literally costs lives.번역 보기