Ok, so I was watching NY1 news the other morning, and they did a little segment that they trot out every once in a while, where a lady from the animal shelter comes on with a cute little animal, and urges people to adopt animals.
Anyway, she mentioned that you should adopt your kitten from the shelter rather than try to capture a feral kitten. She said that after a few generations, genetic changes can be observed in feral cats that make them unable to ever adjust to living as a housepet.
I have heard this sort of thing before – that a feral kitten cannot usually be brought into a home – but I’m not clear on what sort of genetic changes she is talking about. From everything I know about genetics (um, that would be everything I’ve learned from watching Nova a lot), I was under the impression that it takes more than "a few’ generations before you see a consistant, widespread change in the genetic make-up of a large population of animals.
(this is the actual Question part):
In what way, exactly, is a feral kitten different genetically from a kitten born at home?
This whole thing makes me a little nervous, because now I’m worried that my little Gryffin is a walking feline genetic time bomb.
Sounds like to me that she’s just trying to free up shelter space. I sincerely doubt that genetics plays a large role, especially given that a good deal of house cats are impregnated when they escape the house by a feral tom without negative results.
The only problem may stem from how old the feral cat is when it is brought into the home. A very young kitten hasn’t fully acclimated to a feral lifestyle, and will more easily accept humans as members of their “pack.” An older cat may have problems adjusting to being “trapped” in a dwelling, and trusting the humans. Such a cat may bite the hand that feeds it.
If you cat has displayed no behavior problems as to this date, I doubt that he/she will suddenly develop them as a result of its “wild” past.
I agree with Lissa on this one… It sounds like shadowy science to me. I’ve never heard of such a change occuring so quickly… It is more the behavior pattern that an owner would run up against. In addition to this, if you do get a pound kitty, who’s to say it wasn’t swiped from the streets not 3 days ago? I know the pound here will pick up stray cats when they’ve run out of dogs (yes, it’s a fairly small town) so the chances that you’ve gotten a “genetically domicile” cat may not be that great.
IOW, I think she’s plugging for adoption, and spewing crap while she’s at it! But, this is just IMHO!
There’s been an ongoing study at the Institute of Cytology and Genetics in Novosibirsk, Russia, about the genetics of domestication. They’ve produced a domesticated version of the silver fox, in aproximately 10 generations of selective breeding. I would imagine that it would be just as easy for Mother Nature to breed the domestication back out.
I would bet she’s supporting emptying the shelter too.
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Most feral cats live in close proximity to humans, just because most discarded or escaped cats get turned loose in cities and towns and they never leave. I’ve seen people feed strays all my life, the only thing I’ve noticed about the strays is more parasite infestations. They were all very wary of unfamiliar people, but cats are generally more independent-natured so that isn’t too surprising.
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Domestication is the (sometimes unconscious) selection of desirable traits (or the non-selection of undesirable ones, but it’s the same thing). It is artifical selection - the human override of natural selection.
Assuming that domesticated organisms are capable of survival in the wild and also assuming that there is enough diversity/variability in the gene pool, then natural selection will resume and the organisms that are left after a few generations may well show traits that would make them undesirable in a domestic situation.
This is not only true of animals; if you live in a climate suitable for the sustained natural growth of tomatoes, escaped seedlings will produce variable fruits, their offspring will do the same and (in most cases) after a few generations, you’ll end up with tough, weedy plants with very small berries.
I should have mentioned that not all of the subsequent generations of tomato plants will be tough and weedy with small fruits, but in most cases the ones that aren’t will be weeded out by pests, diseases etc, so the surviving descendants will have different traits to their cultivated ancestors; these traits are genetic and largely hereditary.
Thanks for the replies! I agree with the people who mentioned she was trying to push the whole adopt from the shelter thing. Nothing wrong with that, it’s a good cause, but I think she did go overboard on the genetics.
Still, if I understand Mangetout and SC_Wolf correctly, it’s interesting to know that perhaps she is approaching this backwards – that the domestic traits that were introduced by human breeding aren’t necessarily sustained by breeding in the wild (well, if you consider Brooklyn “the wild.”)
if you think about it, it makes sense; suppose you released a bunch of assorted pedigree dogs into the wild; the chihuahuas and toy poodles would get eaten up (probably by the pit bulls) - the facial wrinkles of the bulldogs (and similar) would be a great place for parasites to live, weakening the dogs, a lot of the spaniels would die from ear infections and so on; the survivors would be ‘at it like dogs’ and the mongrel offspring would display a wide variety of traits, some of these (like a docile nature, or weak hips, too ‘trusting’ a nature or even white fur) would be disadvantageous, others (like good eyesight, stamina, a well-camouflaged coat and the ability and nature to win fights) would be an advantage; after, say, a dozen generations, I’d be very surprised if the typical individual wasn’t something quite similar to a dingo/coyote/wolf.
People seem to think that genetic changes must take millions of years. Wrong.
Most breeds of dogs were created within the last 400 years. It takes very little time to create a population that is genetically different in a niche environment. Now, cats won’t form beaks or gills in that time, but they can look and behave in distinctly different ways.
I’ve fostered dozens upon dozens of feral kittens; I also volunteer in a shelter that takes in several dozen feral kittens a season (and I spend a LOT of time with those kittens), and of my own cats, four were ferals from the same colony (a colony of approx. 15 years; thus, my kittens are many generations removed from the original two who started the colony). I’m no geneticist or zoologist but I haven’t seen any evidence yet that feral kittens are any different from house-born kittens. Well, I do have one that is quite skittish and scared of other people - but she LOOOOVES me! - but I attribute that to her being half dead and about 11 weeks old when I caught her - not because she was probably in the 25th or more generation of ferals.
I have a couple of cats, and they all hate people that are not me. One is a bush baby I rescued, literally, from a bush when he was 6 weeks old and the other two I got from a friend’s litter.
The weird thing is that the feral one enjoys strangers’ attention the most. He’s the most curious and likely to come up for a butt rub on your leg. You certainly can’t pick him up (not even me that much) but one of the others is twice as bad as him when it comes to that.
He’s also a big black monster and I’m sure he would have sired many a kitten had I not snatched him from the cold heartless wilderness!
The other two always vanish the second anyone else comes in the house. They keep a wary eye on events from far away and scatter the second anyone makes a move towards them.
Where do you people think kittens and cats at the shelter come from? It isn’t always from some nice family, or the best “breeding stock.” When domestic cats breed, I doubt the selection pressure towards “domestication” is as intense as you might think.
The tomato analogy probably isn’t the greatest, since almost all commercial vegetables are hybrids of some sort. Most likely, if you took two tomato plants of the same variety, with all the same desirable traits, and polinated the one with the other, you’d get wild-type tomatoes in the next generation (which usually actually taste fine; they’re just small). This is not true of housecats: Breed two housecats, and you’ll get a housecat.
I think the more important point here is that the original report was comparing adopting a kitten to trying to capture a feral cat. I can state with extreme confidence that any cat you obtain by capturing it is not going to be a good pet. On the other hand, a feral cat which, of its own volition, just starts showing up at your place for meals and such may very well end up as a pet.
My cat was feral for at least the first year and a half of her life, and was captured (by my best friend) so that she could be spayed and have foxtail burrs removed from her eyes. My friend was successful in changing a shrieking, growling, feline meat grinder into a loving and lovable cat. It did, however, take two years, and probably there are very few people who have that much time and patience. I have had this cat for five years, since she was (at least) four years old, and she is without a doubt the best cat I’ve ever had. She thinks I am a goddess, and there’s something very appealing about that!
I wasn’t thinking of hybrids, just conventional open-pollinated garden varieties (I considered mentioning this), but perhaps you’re right that tomatoes aren’t the best example; some of our cultivated vegetables though, have been selectively bred in a very few generations; I can’t find a cite, but I remember reading that it is possible to selectively breed decent beetroot from wild sea beet (which has no swollen root at all) in less than half a dozen generations
But, this is just IMHO!
