WILD CATS AND DOMESTIC CATS

According to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

in 2014, many of the differences between wild and domestic cats are in the genes that govern
their personality traits, such as aggression. Wild cats are much more aggressive by nature,
whereas, house cats are more likely to form memories and learn through reward based stimuli,
as well as tolerate and even enjoy human interaction and contact, and living with the family
dog. Besides, nearly identical in structure, wildcats have slightly larger brains (for their size)
than domestic cats, slit pupils of our domesticated felines, large cats have round pupils.
According to a study published in the journal Science Advances, this difference is related to
lifestyle, and domesticated cats purr but don’t roar, whereas, lions roar but don’t purr due the
anatomical differences in throat anatomy between the two.

Genome sequencing reveals that tigers and housecats share around 95 percent of the
same DNA. Tigers are closely related to other big cats, so it goes without saying that there are
plenty of ways in which the housecat is similar to its wild cousins.

Some of the shared attributes include:

 Sleep –Both wild and domestic cats spend between 16 to 20 hours a day sleeping.
 Smell – Wild and domesticated cats have great senses of smell and both will use their
open mouths to smell better.
 Food – Both wild and domestic cats are obligatory carnivores, which means they rely,
primarily, on a meat diet, being much better able to digest meat proteins over plant
material.
 Self-grooming – Wild and domesticated cats both groom themselves a lot, anywhere
from 30 to 50 percent of their waking hours.
 Stalking – All cats, big and small, will stalk their prey and generally confine their
hunting to dusk, nighttime, and dawn.
 Playing – Cats of all shapes and sizes enjoy a good session of laser pointer chase,
unraveling a role of string or toilet paper, and even playing in boxes.
 Catnip – Although mostly due to the genetics of certain family lines, half of both wild
and domesticated cat populations will react strongly to and enjoy catnip.
 Territory marking – All types of cats use similar methods to mark their respective
territories, including, spraying, face rubbing to distribute their scent via the glands on
their faces, to scratching — a tree trunk if you’re a lion, the couch if you’re a cat.
 Vocalizing – Much like the meowing and chirping you hear from your cat, big cats
have their own ways of “talking” to one another that can sound similar.
 Food Games – Domesticated cats often play with their food or hide it (after catching a
mouse). Wild cats will often hide their kill by moving it somewhere else or burying it,
in order to save it for a later meal.
 Kneading – No one knows for certain why cats knead, perhaps, it’s a carry-over from
nursing and a show of contentment, but we do know that wild felines also engage in
this endearing behavior.