Feral cats just better at surviving? WHY?

Hello

I live close to the city and in a span of one month almost all neibourhood cats have been caught and eaten. This is the city so it should be more difficult for a predator to get them he has to go threw peoples backyards and and cross roads jump fences etc...


ON the other hand my friend has five feral cats that have been living in his barn for years and years all but 1 have been caught and spayed. None of these cats have gone missing or been killed or eaten! The area he lives there are MANY more fishers more coyotes more PREDATORS thicker woods NO roads backyards people to avoid, im sure his feral cats alre always out and about the woods prowling around yet none get killed! Are feral cats a specal line of cats created threw years and years of living in the wild maybe? Generations after generations of being feral created cats with b etter survivor skills?

Originally Posted by chausiefan

...Are feral cats a specal line of cats created threw years and years of living in the wild maybe? Generations after generations of being feral created cats with b etter survivor skills?

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Feral cats are not a separate species of cat, but basically, yes, if they are multi-generational ferals, they are subject to the law of "survival of the fittest." There are feral colonies out there where no cats get sick, they have such strong systems their systems fight off round worms or tape worms. They are strong, healthy, stealthy - and taught by experienced survivors how to survive, and they use those skills. They are wild animals than can be domesticated because of a genetic predisposition - but they are wild animals.

I think they are taught by their Mom's. My avatar boy Will was born at the dairy barn across the street. He learned many survival skills. One thing he learned was that dairy trucks don't stop for cats. If a large truck even drives down the street, he runs and hides. Yet his original owners would slow down their car, and give the cats time to move out of the way.

He still is not really afraid of cars! After he moved over to our house, I would even honk as I pulled into the driveway, to help spook him from cars. Today, dh pulled into our driveway just before me. He pulled his pickup truck in, and Will kept laying in the drive. When I pulled up, I honked to spook him, then he ran off into the garage.

This is ingrained in him...where he grew up all cats scattered when the trucks came, and they lay around the drive (right next to it, nearby on a porch, etc.)

I think it is the same with knowing to be afraid of coyotes, and other predators. When they are taught from a young age, they learn very well. And only the savy cats survive to reproduce and teach their young.

This is one reason my Garfield and Festus can never become outside cats. While my yard is fairly safe for Will, and my other outside cat Josie, I doubt Gar or Fest would survive 6 months if I allowed them to go outside. They just never learned those skills, since they were born and raised inside!

Moms and good friends is one answer. Another is simple the ferals are those who made it. Those who didnt made it arent there...

So it is true quite a few dumped cats live on yes. but what horrors can be told about those who dont make it... It is perhaps better not to know...
Lets say they were eaten. It is in any case a quite quick death compared to most others...

Gods wrath over those who dumpes their cats!

Cats raised in the wild by moms also living successfully in the wild will learn to become predator savy. My feral cats knew to simply disappear when a roaming dog came around. My indoor cats, the few times they've escaped to the great outdoors, roam around without a care in the world. They would be dead in a few days. The only cat I allow outside is very predator savy or he wouldn't be allowed out.

Hello

I also noticed many barn cats seem to be extremly predator savvy and are rarly killed or even vanish. Would this also apply to them being raised by a mother who teaches them them how to avoid predators?

I think it is a mix between how they are raised and genetics. I had two nests of kittens from the same mother one summer (accident of course). The mother was born wild and the first father was an accident between a Norwegian forest cat and a stray cat. The second father was our neighbours, very domestic, six-toed cat. The first father and the same mother raised all kittens. They all became excellent hunters and climbers except for our little princess from the second nest. She always climbed to high trees and had to be rescued with fire-ladders and she always screamed for help. When she was two years old, the day came when we didn't find her anymore. My guess is that a predator took her but my hope is that she was stolen. I will never know and I am still looking for her even if it is seven years since she disappeared.
If I new what I know about cats today I would of found her a home where she could of been an indoor cat. She was really not born to manage outdoors.
The other cats are still outdoor cats, living with my ex-husband in the middle of the forest and doing well.