Cats and Dogs

cats sociality

lions only social cats

everything else solitary

lions pride

1-4 males

15 lionesses

lion spacing

females stay together for life and in same area as generation of relatives before them = natal philopatry

males disperse and become nomadic, sometimes stay w/ their brothers

lion mating system

polygynandrous

why female lions live in groups

NOT cooperative hunting (too big)

Take care of each other’s young, avoid infanticide 

Defense of territory (against nomadic males)

why do female lions cooperate in raising young?

inclusive fitness, kin selection

why synchronized reproduction in lions

cub survival better when other cubs around

if cubs killed, they all birth more at once

what is synchronized estrus?

Whitten effect

do females tolerate infanticide?

they try to defend, but males too strong

why do male lions share food w/ cubs but females dont

males only in pride for a short amount of time but females in it their whole life

-short window for male to provide

1st domesticated species

dogs

when did dogs diverge from wolf

135,000 years ago

co evolution of humans and wolves

humans learned to act like wolves

wolves gave early humans a survival advantage

neanderthals might have died bc they weren’t living w/ dogs

how does brain change w/ domestication?

brain shrinks

-bc they dont need to put in as much effort to survive

human brain shrank when we started living w/ dogs

what brain regions changed

human midbrain and olfactory bulbs shrank

dog forebrain and corpus callosum shrank

where and when were cats domesticated

Cyprus 9500 years ago

wild cat environment

thought to be desert

-feces in sand

-hate water

-like heat and sun

-hissing imitates snake

why did cats develop relationship w/ human

cats ate the rodents that invaded grain stores

why couldn’t dogs protect grain stores?

bc cats are carnivores but dogs eat grains

what does it mean that cats are crepuscular?

most active at dawn and dusk

why are cats excessive groomers?

saliva removes odors, which camouflaged them from predators

why do cats play so much

practicing hunting skills

why do cats have retractable claws?

so the ground won’t whittle their nails down

only cats that don’t have retractable claws

cheetahs bc they run so fast

why do cats directly register

(front foot goes exactly where back foot was)

minimize noise

Cat ovulation

Induced

why does cat penis have spikes

to induce ovulation

cat mating

promiscuity

Females mate w/ more than 1 male

why are cats so curious

solitary hunters

dogs sociality

very social and non-territorial

about dominance

dog tail wagging finding

seeing a dog swing its tail to the right is relaxing

left wag stressful

dog eating

Hunters and scavengers

Eat anything

Social eating

how do dogs hunt

in packs

use scent as an advantage

great olfaction

dog urine marking

convey sexual readiness, social confidence, who walks by spot

it is not marking territory

pheromones

cats have flehmen, dogs have combo of flehmen and tongue lapping

Barking

wolves dont bark, dogs invented barking to communicate w/ us