First a MP Animal Story IMS:
My sister and I were reminiscing this weekend about a cat we had when we were kids. We found him when I was little- he was in a bag of three kittens that had been dumped. They were tiny, not weaned, one was dead, another died a day or so later, and the third we named Bela (so named because he was always “bellowing”). We bottle raised him and we had a nursing cat at the time who let him nurse and he lived- became very healthy in fact. He was never very big, but he was a tough and strong little sucker. We’d intended to keep him as a house cat, but before he was even full grown it was clear that he was just too damned mean to live in the house.
I grew up on a farm that had four houses on it- the one I lived in and three that belonged to various old female relatives. All four houses always had cats in residence. It wasn’t that we particularly wanted them, but there was no humane society in the county, once you pour out cheap dry catfood for one the word somehow gets out, people “dumped” kittens (and dogs [and once an alligator]) in the country and they gravitate, so at any given time there were usually two or three adult cats at our place, more at the houses of the old ladies, and others who came and went from time to time, and of course there were often kittens (most of whom, like the sons of Abraham, went off into the wilderness when they got old enough [i.e. wandered off and lived in the woods or whatever]). These cats weren’t really pets and weren’t quite strays- they were domestic cats, but they were more feral cats we fed than they were house cats, if that makes sense.
Back to Bela (and I promise this is relevant): We had an alpha cat when Bela was a kitten named Spooky (solid black and green eyed) who was also mean- he fought male cats constantly (one of whom, his litter mate, was never seen again soon after a fight with him) and tried to kill Bela. We protected Bela at first, but after we had to evict him (scratching, biting, destructive little thing) he was pretty much on his own. When Bela disappeared we thought Spooky had killed him, but nope- Bela came back. Pissed.
Almost thirty years later I still remember “the fight”- Bela, barely full grown, a not very big cat, but all muscle, versus Spooky- mean, long and skinny- went at it in the yard. We tried to separate them with the water hose, but it just pissed both of them off more. We finally did at least chase them to the woods. For two days off and on we’d hear the sound of their fighting in the woods, then a lull, then fighting again. Then Bela came back, much the worse for wear, his ear torn and lots of scratches and an eye swollen shut- it was bad enough we started to take him to the vet, but when he attacked as we tried to pick him up we thought better of it. He just lay on the porch until he recovered. Spooky we never saw again.
A few weeks later, the first litter of kittens was born with quasi Siamese markings like Belas. For the next several years this would be a regular occurrence. Bela couldn’t really be said to be “our” cat and he was a deadbeat dad; he’d wander off for long periods of time but then show up at our houses, stay maybe a few days or maybe several weeks, during which time the tomcats- even those who were obviously his sons- would voluntarily vacate the premises. He’d often impregnate a she-cat or two, fight with any males who didn’t get the message “the god-king is in residence”, and then leave.
Later my sister got a full-blood Siamese, Misha. Even though Misha lived inside usually when Bela visited he went ballistic. At the first opportunity he crawled into an open window (this in summer) and beat the hell out of Misha. Eventually Misha went outside (through an open window) and never came back. Bela was in residence at the time. Poor Misha (body never found).
Anyway, Bela would periodically drop in for many years. Every so often we’d think “that crazy cat must have finally died”, but then he’d turn up again. Sometimes he would absolutely bring a female cat with him and leave her at one of the houses! The last time I ever set foot in the house I grew up in it was abandoned- except for Bela, who’d moved inside- he was old, his balls almost dragging the carpet, scarred- but still very obviously willing to fight. (And by that time I don’t think there was a cat in that part of the county that didn’t have him at least once in their ancestry).
So, I was wondering- Bela’s behavior was something like that of a lion taking over a pride. I don’t recall him ever killing the kittens that didn’t look like him, but he definitely would beat the besheezus out of any male cat who came around while he was in residence. He basically had harems at each house and at others, and while he might be gone for several months, once he came back- the adult male vacating. Was this a form of expressing dominance, like the king of a pride might do?
OTOH, IINM in prides lionesses do the hunting, while Bela and some other tomcats we had were all natural hunters. Bela once drug up a rabbit that was almost as big as he was and the chicken coop at my aunts’ house had to be specially Bela-proofed, while the female cats didn’t usually bother the chickens and preferred to just eat the dry cat food that was poured out for them (supplemented by an occasional mouse perhaps, but didn’t seem to actively hunt).
So what are the similarities between domesticated cats gone semi-feral and their lion/tiger cousins? What are the biggest differences between them? Keeping in mind that I grew up in the country where the behavior patterns were probably different than a city stray cat, was Bela’s behavior unusual for an alpha cat (if that’s a term)?
I’m sure there are studies, but unfortunately I don’t have access to any zoological databases at the moment and can’t find them with keywords in the EBSCO databases or Lexis.