There are many fascinating things about cats, but one of the things I often think about is how interesting it is that an animal of such solitary nature became domesticated so easily, and how social – and socially intelligent – domestic cats came to be, despite stereotypes. To the point that many housecats, and entire breeds, are called "dog-like" in their demeanor. Female feral cats also form social groups, "colonies", though unfixed males are certainly more territorial. This is evidently an example of neoteny, the retention of juvenile traits in adulthood, seeing that most felids do have a social period while living with their mother and littermates.

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p_l 11 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Cats are actually very social animals, they just don't firm similar pack structures to dogs

With modem technology it became feasible to observe cats without disruption and it showed communal behaviours, including communal care for offspring and IIRC even bringing food to share.

All along the line of somewhat transitionally joined communities instead of more stable groups

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Sharlin 6 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Yes, this is (outdoors, stray, or feral) domestic cats, which is exactly what I mentioned. And as I said, it's largely the females and their juvenile offspring that form colonies – unfixed adult males, while certainly capable of having friendly social encounters on "no cat's lands", definitely don't willingly share their territory with other adult males.

But my point was that their immediate ancestor (and practically still the same species – they easily interbreed) the African wildcat is not similarly gregarious, and neither is almost any other felid, big or small.

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jasonwatkinspdx 3 hours ago | parent [-]

This is a bit off the mark.

Cats have only been domesticated for like ~10k years, so not much in the way of change or adaptation has happened. So wildcats have the same capacity for forming social bands and such, they just don't in the wild as they don't have any incentive to.

	▲	Sharlin 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Neoteny is easy to achieve in 10k years. Cf. the Soviet experiments on domesticating foxes, which started showing juvenile, gregarious traits in a few generations of selective breeding. In general felids are social in kittenhood within their family unit, most wild species just "grow out of it" in puberty. Selection pressure (natural or artificial) favoring individuals that tolerate or even enjoy human (or conspecifics') presence favors retention of juvenile traits in adulthood, and this change can happen quite quickly.

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TheOtherHobbes 7 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

There are some interesting reels showing cats apparently learning English using speech buttons.

Cats are very communicative, which suggests they're strongly social, in the broadest sense.

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akkad33 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Cats are not so solitary. They can actually live in communities but they are not pack animals

	▲	Sharlin 6 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Which is exactly what I said. Feral or stray domestic cats form colonies, because domestic cats are more social than their immediate ancestors. The African wildcat is not particularly social, not in the way domestic cats are. Which is why it's interesting.