Cats are usually furry, domesticated,
and carnivorous mammal. They are often
called a housecat when
kept as an indoor pet or simply a cat when there is no need to distinguish
them from other felids and felines. Cats
are often valued by humans for companionship and their ability to hunt pests.
Cats are
similar in anatomy to the other felids, with strong,
flexible bodies, quick reflexes, sharp retractable claws, and teeth adapted to
killing small prey. Cat senses fit a crepuscular and predatory ecological niche.
Cats can hear sounds too faint or too high in frequency for human ears, such as those made by
mice and other small animals. They can see in near darkness. Like most other mammals,
cats have poorer color vision and a better sense of smell than humans.
Despite
being solitary hunters, cats are a social species and cat communication
includes the use of a variety of vocalizations (mewing, purring, trilling,
hissing, growling and grunting),
as well as cat pheromones and types of cat-specific body
language.
Cats have a
high breeding rate. Under controlled breeding, they can be bred and shown as registered pedigree pets, a hobby known as cat fancy.
Failure to control the breeding of pet cats by neutering and the abandonment of
former household pets, has resulted in large numbers of feral cats worldwide, requiring population control.This has led to extinction of many bird species.
Since cats
were cult animals in ancient
Egypt, they were commonly believed to have been domesticated there, but
there may have been instances of domestication as early as the Neolithic from around 9,500 years ago (7,500 BC). A genetic study in 2007, concluded
that domestic cats are descended from African wildcats (Felis silvestris lybica),
having diverged around 8,000 BC in West Asia. Cats are the most popular pet in the
world, and are now found in almost every place where humans live.
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