Study regarding wild vs. tame animals...

keycube

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I read something earlier today regarding genetic differences in wild vs. tame animals.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/...dvstameanimals

While that isn't necessarily big news, I'd like some assistance by those familiar with animal families, genuses, and such. From what I've understood, there are two sub-families of the Felidae family, Pantherinae and Felinae. The long and the short of the distinction was that those in Pantherinae could roar, and those in Felinae could not (due to structural differences in the throat). The thing I found cool about this, was that domestic cats belonged in the same class as cheetahs, lynx, and the like, and were only a minor physical deviation from lions, tigers, leopards, and jaguars. There wasn't a major genetic difference, just that of physical size.

So, with this new finding, would that put domestic (tame) cats in a new family, under sub-order Feliformia? I don't know how I would break it to Bayliss that he's not this close ---> [] to being a mighty panther!
 

strange_wings

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I thought most people knew this already? Everyone has seen crossbreeding between large cats (tigers x lions being fairly common), and of course everyone is familiar with Bengals and other smaller mixes like Savannahs. I've even personally seen a bobcat x domestic cat.

For those who didn't know, I've even commented on it in other threads in the behavior section. howtoholdacat may remember.
 

going nova

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Originally Posted by strange_wings

I've even personally seen a bobcat x domestic cat.
OK, I hope you all will not ostracize me for my ignorance. Will a bobcat see a domestic cat as food or as a mate? I suppose it may depend on the circumstances?
 

strange_wings

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Originally Posted by Going Nova

OK, I hope you all will not ostracize me for my ignorance. Will a bobcat see a domestic cat as food or as a mate? I suppose it may depend on the circumstances?
I honestly believe it's very very rare outside of a breeder raising the cats together. For the most part, I would suspect each would see the other more as an invader in their territory instead of food.

The one I know was an only kitten. The mother was a domestic cat and the family did live out in the country. The kitten (I met him at 2 years of age actually) was HUGE, weighing in at around 28lbs - and lean, not fat. He was all muscle, had the tannish coloration to his coat with spots on his legs and more ticking on his back. Black tipped tuffed ears and the bobbed tail. The body shape was a bit different, too, to where if you seen him at a distance (around the home) you would easily mistake him for a bobcat.
If it wasn't for the fact that the family that had the female cat was there when he was born I would swear that mother cat stole him since he did not look much like the mother cat at all - the mother cat was known for stealing items and attempting to mother all sorts of things including human babies...
He was fairly friendly, neutered, but did act a little odd (but the mother cat was a strange one, too).

iirc, one of the main reasons he was primarily kept outside was because he would start trying to fight with the little dogs in the house and/or go after legs and could be odd and even aggressive with company he didn't like.
 

going nova

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Originally Posted by strange_wings

I honestly believe it's very very rare outside of a breeder raising the cats together. For the most part, I would suspect each would see the other more as an invader in their territory instead of food.

The one I know was an only kitten. The mother was a domestic cat and the family did live out in the country. The kitten (I met him at 2 years of age actually) was HUGE, weighing in at around 28lbs - and lean, not fat. He was all muscle, had the tannish coloration to his coat with spots on his legs and more ticking on his back. Black tipped tuffed ears and the bobbed tail. The body shape was a bit different, too, to where if you seen him at a distance (around the home) you would easily mistake him for a bobcat.
If it wasn't for the fact that the family that had the female cat was there when he was born I would swear that mother cat stole him since he did not look much like the mother cat at all - the mother cat was known for stealing items and attempting to mother all sorts of things including human babies...
He was fairly friendly, neutered, but did act a little odd (but the mother cat was a strange one, too).

iirc, one of the main reasons he was primarily kept outside was because he would start trying to fight with the little dogs in the house and/or go after legs and could be odd and even aggressive with company he didn't like.
That's very interesting! Thanks for the reply!
 

lorie d.

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Last winter I was watching a program that was about genetics and how dogs first started developing into such a wide variety of breeds. One interesting thing they mentioned about foxes was that when these animals are tamed and handled like regular domesticated animals there are natural color variations that develop so the foxes coat could actually end up being other colors like black and white and etc.
 
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