Do cats know other cats are cats? - A feline family reunion.

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True Boss of this Gym

True Boss of this Gym

My style switches like a faggot, but not bisexual.
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I mean, look at dogs. Other canines seem to recognize themselves as similar, but distant relatives. Some dogs are even dumb enough to treat coyotes and maned wolves as actual dogs instead of as hunters and enemies. This brings into question if cats recognize other feline species. Do caracals and servals recognize eachother as cousins? Does a tiger look at a domestic house cat and instantly realize it's a tinier version of it? This might be the whitest thread ever made here.
 
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Imagine you’ve never seen a chimp or any other type of ape and one day come across one, would you think you’re similar to them? Now take that question and put it in the head of cats but remember that felines of all types are fairly dumb in comparison to even canines.

I doubt they would recognize each other. The house cat would most likely just be seen as a snack by the tiger and nothing else.
 
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True Boss of this Gym said:
Some dogs are even dumb enough to treat coyotes and maned wolves as actual dogs instead of as hunters and enemies
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Well they can mate with each other in this instance. So I guess when you are a canine and really horny that hot goldie that wandered out of the yard is "close enough".


AloneTard said:
I doubt they would recognize each other. The house cat would most likely just be seen as a snack by the tiger and nothing else.
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Cats are both predators and prey. They are very vulnerable to larger carnivores. It's why you shouldn't let your cats out if you live in coyote country. Domestic cats can mate with certain other feline species like servals and Asian leopard cats (not actually a leopard). But it likely never happens naturally in the wild. There are bobcat/cat hybrid claims. No one has ever documented a confirmed cross. But there are people that swear they have barncats that are hybrids. It might be possible.

I bring up breeding because animals that can successfully mate with each other likely see each other as kin. Otherwise they wouldn't be interested in the first place. But there are exceptions so that might not be a concrete basis for knowing another cat type is indeed a cat.

All cat/wild cat hybrids come from the subfamily felis. But not all members of felis can mate together. So you won't see manul/cat hybrids. But they can still only mate within their subfamily when possible and they can't mate with cougars because they are from the puma subfamily even though they are considered "small cats" . They can't mate with panthera at all. Your housecat still has more in common with a cougar or a cheetah than a lion or tiger. But all members of felis can purr and meow. So other members of the genus may recognise that type of communication. I'm not sure about tail language. But it's also very important to cats and I don't know what kind of common tail language is used by panthera.

And panthers aka cougars aren't even in panthera. That's awkward. Even more awkward, black panthers aren't panthers. They are leopards and jaguars who have too much melanin.

AloneTard said:
The house cat would most likely just be seen as a snack by the tiger and nothing else.
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I imagine it's no different than that time I saw a hawk eat a woodpecker. Just because they are from the same family doesn't mean they are off the menu.

I think domestic cats are completely aware that other cats are like them though. There's a lot less research on cats than there is on dogs. So we tend to have more data about dog socialization.
 
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Other feline species? I think it depends on how much do they resemble each other/how familiar they are with it.

If a cat were to notice a tiger in the wild, it would recognize it as a threat, period. There's some reseblance, but the cat does not know about genetics or evolution, it's just "unknown dangerous thing".

Maybe like you in the wild seeing one of those orcs from Lord Of The Rings, twice your size (and without thinking too deeply about it, so without human-like sense of curiosity). He may resemble you in its basic form (its limbs, how he walks), but ultimately it's unknown and a foreign threat.

That's what I think anyways.
 
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As the owner of some cats over the years I think that cats are such perfect little egotists that they think almost everything alive is a cat.
If you can kill and eat it it is not a cat
If it feeds you it’s a big magic cat
If you can fight it it’s a weak cat
If you can shag it it’s a cat.
Cats, think the cat, are so good that everything must be a cat, unless I’m eating it. Why would anything living except things for cats to eat and cats even exist?
Since cats are proof of God’s perfect design abilities and benevolent love of humanity, we accept this charming personality quirk.
 
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Otterly said:
As the owner of some cats over the years I think that cats are such perfect little egotists that they think almost everything alive is a cat.
If you can kill and eat it it is not a cat
If it feeds you it’s a big magic cat
If you can fight it it’s a weak cat
If you can shag it it’s a cat.
Cats, think the cat, are so good that everything must be a cat, unless I’m eating it. Why would anything living except things for cats to eat and cats even exist?
Since cats are proof of God’s perfect design abilities and benevolent love of humanity, we accept this charming personality quirk.
Click to expand...
 
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Yes.
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