Decoding the Cat
Cats have a curious allure. Even the most pampered house cats seem to flaunt their independence, as if to say that they do not really need us to get by. ___ 31 ___ this hauteur – or perhaps because of it – many of us cannot resist bringing these regal creatures into our homes, litter boxes and all. In fact, cats outnumber canines as human companions, although we know surprisingly little about their cognition.
Our partnership with cats is long-standing. Feline DNA suggests that the domestic cat may have split from its wild counterpart in the Middle East nearly 10,000 years ago. In 2014, a study identified a set of genes that may have been crucial in the ___ 32 ___ of the prehistoric cat into the cuddly pets we know today. These genes have been linked to key behavioral traits, such as the ability to learn and reduced fearfulness, which would have helped cats adapt to life in human company.
Yet many mysteries remain in deciphering feline behavior and intelligence, particularly ___ 33 ___ to our growing knowledge of dogs. This gap arose in part because of the more urgent need to study dogs. Negative interactions between humans and hostile or misbehaving dogs are common societal problems.
A bigger reason for our poor grasp of the feline mind stems from the challenges of cat behavior. Whereas the ancestors of dogs roamed in packs and learned sophisticated strategies for interacting socially with other animals, the wildcat progenitors of today’s house cat were more ___ 34 ___ animals. The patterns that govern their exchanges with one another and humans are therefore harder to parse.
Cats are also tough to manage in the laboratory. As a result, most studies of cats are based on observations in the home rather than controlled experiments in the lab.
Thus, ___ 35 ___ these complications, we still have much to learn about cats. We can easily decipher a score of signals from dogs, but with cats it’s more like five or six, including purring, meowing and licking.
Julia Calderone, Scientific American Mind