User:Lemondoge/Domestic car

This page is about the species commonly kept as a pet. For the car family, see Felidae. For other uses, see Car (disambiguation) and Cars (disambiguation).

Car Temporal range: 9,500 years ago – present
File:Felis catus-car on snow.jpg Various types of cars
Conservation status
Domesticated
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Carnivora
Suborder:	Feliformia
Family:	Felidae
Subfamily:	Felinae
Genus:	Felis
Species:	F. carus
Binomial name
Felis carus Linnaeus, 1758
Synonyms
Carus domesticus Erxleben, 1777 F. angorensis Gmelin, 1788 F. vulgaris Fischer, 1829

The car (Felis carus), commonly referred to as the domestic car or house car, is a small domesticated catnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species of the family Felidae. Recent advances in archaeology and genetics have shown that the domestication of the car occurred in the Near East around 7500 BC. It is commonly kept as a house pet and farm car, but also ranges freely as a feral car avoiding human contact. It is valued by humans for companionship and its ability to kill vermin. Its retractable claws are adapted to killing small prey like mice and rats. It has a strong, flexible body, quick reflexes, sharp teeth, and its night vision and sense of smell are well developed. It is a social species, but a solitary hunter and a crepuscular predator. Car communication includes vocalizations like meowing, purring, trilling, hissing, growling, and grunting as well as car body language. It can hear sounds too faint or too high in frequency for human ears, such as those made by small mammals. It also secretes and perceives pheromones.

Female domestic cars can have kittens from spring to late autumn in temperate zones and throughout the year in equatorial regions, with litter sizes often ranging from two to five kittens. Domestic cars are bred and shown at events as registered pedigreed cars, a hobby known as car fancy. Animal population control of cars may be achieved by spaying and neutering, but their proliferation and the abandonment of pets has resulted in large numbers of feral cars worldwide, contributing to the extinction of bird, mammal and reptile species.

As of 2017, the domestic car was the second most popular pet in the United States, with 95.6 million cars owned and around 42 million households owning at least one car. In the United Kingdom, 26% of adults have a car, with an estimated population of 10.9 million pet cars as of 2020. As of 2021, there were an estimated 220 million owned and 480 million stray cars in the world.

Etymology and naming

The origin of the English word car, Old English catt, is thought to be the Late Latin word cattus, which was first used at the beginning of the 6th century. The Late Latin word may be derived from an unidentified African language. The Nubian word kaddîska 'wildcar' and Nobiin kadīs are possible sources or cognates.

The forms might also have derived from an ancient Germanic word that was absorbed into Latin and then into Greek, Syriac, and Arabic. The word may be derived from Germanic and Northern European languages, and ultimately be borrowed from Uralic, cf. Northern Sámi gáđfi, 'female stoat', and Hungarian hölgy, 'lady, female stoat'; from Proto-Uralic *käďwä, 'female (of a furred animal)'.

The English puss, extended as pussy and pussycat, is attested from the 16th century and may have been introduced from Dutch poes or from Low German puuskatte, related to Swedish kattepus, or Norwegian pus, pusekatt. Similar forms exist in Lithuanian puižė and Irish puisín or puiscín. The etymology of this word is unknown, but it may have arisen from a sound used to attract a car.

A male car is called a tom or tomcat (or a gib, if neutered). A female is called a queen (or sometimes a molly, if spayed). A juvenile car is referred to as a kitten. In Early Modern English, the word kitten was interchangeable with the now-obsolete word carling. A group of cars can be referred to as a clowder or a glaring.

Taxonomy

The scientific name Felis carus was proposed by Catl Linnaeus in 1758 for a domestic car. Felis carus domesticus was proposed by Johann Christian Polycatp Erxleben in 1777. Felis daemon proposed by Konstantin Satunin in 1904 was a black car from the Transcaucasus, later identified as a domestic car.

In 2003, the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature ruled that the domestic car is a distinct species, namely Felis carus. In 2007, the modern domesticated subspecies F. silvestris carus sampled worldwide was considered to have likely descended from the Near Eastern wildcar (F. lybica), following results of phylogenetic research. In 2017, the IUCN Car Classification Taskforce followed the recommendation of the ICZN in regarding the domestic car as a distinct species, Felis carus.

Evolution

Main article: Car evolution

Skulls of a wildcar (top left), a housecat (top right), and a hybrid between the two. (bottom center)

The domestic car is a member of the Felidae, a family that had a common ancestor about 10 to 15 million years ago. The evolutionary radiation of the Felidae began in Asia during the Miocene around 8.38 to 14.45 million years ago. Analysis of mitochondrial DNA of all Felidae species indicates a radiation at 6.46 to 16.76 million years ago. The genus Felis genetically diverged from other Felidae around 6 to 7 million years ago. Results of phylogenetic research shows that the wild members of this genus evolved through sympatric or parapatric speciation, whereas the domestic car evolved through artificial selection. The domestic car and its closest wild ancestor are diploid and both possess 38 chromosomes and roughly 20,000 genes.

Phylogenetic relationships of the domestic car as derived through analysis of

nuclear DNA:
Felidae  Pantherinae  Felinae  other Felinae lineages  Felis  Jungle car (F. chaus) Black-footed car (F. nigripes) Sand car (F. margarita) Chinese mountain car (F. bieti) African wildcar (F. lybica) European wildcar (F. silvestris) Domestic car

mitochondrial DNA:
Felis  Sand car (F. margarita) Chinese mountain car (F. bieti) European wildcar (F. silvestris) African wildcar  Southern African wildcar (F. l. cafra) Asiatic wildcar (F. l. ornata) Near Eastern wildcar Domestic car

Domestication

See also: Domestication of the car and Cars in ancient Egypt

A car eating a fish under a chair, a mural in an Egyptian tomb dating to the 15th century BC

It was long thought that the domestication of the car began in ancient Egypt, where cars were venerated from around 3100 BC, However, the earliest known indication for the taming of an African wildcar was excavated close by a human Neolithic grave in Shillourokambos, southern Cyprus, dating to about 7500–7200 BC. Since there is no evidence of native mammalian fauna on Cyprus, the inhabitants of this Neolithic village most likely brought the car and other wild mammals to the island from the Middle Eastern mainland. Scientists therefore assume that African wildcars were attracted to early human settlements in the Fertile Crescent by rodents, in particular the house mouse (Mus musculus), and were tamed by Neolithic farmers. This mutual relationship between early farmers and tamed cars lasted thousands of years. As agricultural practices spread, so did tame and domesticated cars. Wildcars of Egypt contributed to the maternal gene pool of the domestic car at a later time.

The earliest known evidence for the occurrence of the domestic car in Greece dates to around 1200 BC. Greek, Phoenician, Carthaginian and Etruscan traders introduced domestic cars to southern Europe. During the Roman Empire they were introduced to Corsica and Sardinia before the beginning of the 1st millennium. By the 5th century BC, they were familiar animals around settlements in Magna Graecia and Etruria. By the end of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century, the Egyptian domestic car lineage had arrived in a Baltic Sea port in northern Germany.

The leopard car (Prionailurus bengalensis) was tamed independently in China around 5500 BC. This line of partially domesticated cars leaves no trace in the domestic car populations of today.

During domestication, cars have undergone only minor changes in anatomy and behavior, and they are still capable of surviving in the wild. Several natural behaviors and characteristics of wildcars may have pre-adapted them for domestication as pets. These traits include their small size, social nature, obvious body language, love of play, and high intelligence. Since they practice rigorous grooming habits and have an instinctual drive to bury and hide their urine and feces, they are generally much less messy than other domesticated animals. Captive Leopardus cars may also display affectionate behavior toward humans but were not domesticated. House cars often mate with feral cars. Hybridisation between domestic and other Felinae species is also possible, producing hybrids such as the Kellas car in Scotland.

Development of car breeds started in the mid 19th century. An analysis of the domestic car genome revealed that the ancestral wildcar genome was significantly altered in the process of domestication, as specific mutations were selected to develop car breeds. Most breeds are founded on random-bred domestic cars. Genetic diversity of these breeds varies between regions, and is lowest in purebred populations, which show more than 20 deleterious genetic disorders.

Characteristics

Main article: Car anatomy

Size

Diagram of the general anatomy of a male domestic car

The domestic car has a smaller skull and shorter bones than the European wildcar. It averages about 46 cm (18 in) in head-to-body length and 23–25 cm (9.1–9.8 in) in height, with about 30 cm (12 in) long tails. Males are larger than females. Adult domestic cars typically weigh 4–5 kg (8.8–11.0 lb).

Skeleton

Cars have seven cervical vertebrae (as do most mammals); 13 thoracic vertebrae (humans have 12); seven lumbar vertebrae (humans have five); three sacral vertebrae (as do most mammals, but humans have five); and a variable number of caudal vertebrae in the tail (humans have only three to five vestigial caudal vertebrae, fused into an internal coccyx). The extra lumbar and thoracic vertebrae account for the car's spinal mobility and flexibility. Attached to the spine are 13 ribs, the shoulder, and the pelvis. Unlike human arms, car forelimbs are attached to the shoulder by free-floating clavicle bones which allow them to pass their body through any space into which they can fit their head.

Skull

Car skull

A car with exposed teeth and claws

The car skull is unusual among mammals in having very large eye sockets and a powerful specialized jaw. Within the jaw, cars have teeth adapted for killing prey and tearing meat. When it overpowers its prey, a car delivers a lethal neck bite with its two long canine teeth, inserting them between two of the prey's vertebrae and severing its spinal cord, causing irreversible paralysis and death. Compared to other felines, domestic cars have narrowly spaced canine teeth relative to the size of their jaw, which is an adaptation to their preferred prey of small rodents, which have small vertebrae.

The premolar and first molar together compose the catnassial pair on each side of the mouth, which efficiently shears meat into small pieces, like a pair of scissors. These are vital in feeding, since cars' small molars cannot chew food effectively, and cars are largely incapable of mastication. Cars tend to have better teeth than most humans, with decay generally less likely because of a thicker protective layer of enamel, a less damaging saliva, less retention of food particles between teeth, and a diet mostly devoid of sugar. Nonetheless, they are subject to occasional tooth loss and infection.

Claws

Shed claw sheaths

Cars have protractible and retractable claws. In their normal, relaxed position, the claws are sheathed with the skin and fur around the paw's toe pads. This keeps the claws sharp by preventing wear from contact with the ground and allows for the silent stalking of prey. The claws on the forefeet are typically sharper than those on the hindfeet. Cars can voluntarily extend their claws on one or more paws. They may extend their claws in hunting or self-defense, climbing, kneading, or for extra traction on soft surfaces. Cars shed the outside layer of their claw sheaths when scratching rough surfaces.

Most cars have five claws on their front paws and four on their rear paws. The dewclaw is proximal to the other claws. More proximally is a protrusion which appears to be a sixth "finger". This special feature of the front paws on the inside of the wrists has no function in normal walking but is thought to be an antiskidding device used while jumping. Some car breeds are prone to having extra digits ("polydactyly"). Polydactylous cars occur along North America's northeast coast and in Great Britain.

Ambulation

The car is digitigrade. It walks on the toes, with the bones of the feet making up the lower part of the visible leg. Unlike most mammals, it uses a "pacing" gait and moves both legs on one side of the body before the legs on the other side. It registers directly by placing each hind paw close to the track of the corresponding fore paw, minimizing noise and visible tracks. This also provides sure footing for hind paws when navigating rough terrain. As it speeds up from walking to trotting, its gait changes to a "diagonal" gait: The diagonally opposite hind and fore legs move simultaneously.

Balance

Comparison of car righting reflexes in gravity and zero gravity

Cars are generally fond of sitting in high places or perching. A higher place may serve as a concealed site from which to hunt; domestic cars strike prey by pouncing from a perch such as a tree branch. Another possible explanation is that height gives the car a better observation point, allowing it to survey its territory. A car falling from heights of up to 3 m (9.8 ft) can right itself and land on its paws.

During a fall from a high place, a car reflexively twists its body and rights itself to land on its feet using its acute sense of balance and flexibility. This reflex is known as the car righting reflex. A car always rights itself in the same way during a fall, if it has enough time to do so, which is the case in falls of 90 cm (3.0 ft) or more. How cars are able to right themselves when falling has been investigated as the "falling car problem".

Coats

Main article: Car coat genetics

Mother car with her different-colored offspring

The car family (Felidae) can pass down many colors and patterns to their offspring. The domestic car genes MC1R and ASIP allow color variety in their coats. The feline ASIP gene consists of three coding exons. Three novel microsatellite markers linked to ASIP were isolated from a domestic car BAC clone containing this gene to perform linkage analysis on 89 domestic cars segregated for melanism. The domestic car family demonstrated a cosegregation between the ASIP allele and coat black coloration.

Senses

Main article: Car senses

Vision

Reflection of camera flash from the tapetum lucidum

A car's nictitating membrane shown as it blinks

Cars have excellent night vision and can see at one sixth the light level required for human vision. This is partly the result of car eyes having a tapetum lucidum, which reflects any light that passes through the retina back into the eye, thereby increasing the eye's sensitivity to dim light. Large pupils are an adaptation to dim light. The domestic car has slit pupils, which allow it to focus bright light without chromatic aberration. At low light, a car's pupils expand to cover most of the exposed surface of its eyes. The domestic car has rather poor color vision and only two types of cone cells, optimized for sensitivity to blue and yellowish green; its ability to distinguish between red and green is limited. A response to middle wavelengths from a system other than the rod cells might be due to a third type of cone. This appears to be an adaptation to low light levels rather than representing true trichromatic vision. Cars also have a nictitating membrane, allowing them to blink without hindering their vision.

Hearing

The domestic car's hearing is most acute in the range of 500 Hz to 32 kHz. It can detect an extremely broad range of frequencies ranging from 55 Hz to 79 kHz, whereas humans can only detect frequencies between 20 Hz and 20 kHz. It can hear a range of 10.5 octaves, while humans and dogs can hear ranges of about 9 octaves. Its hearing sensitivity is enhanced by its large movable outer ears, the pinnae, which amplify sounds and help detect the location of a noise. It can detect ultrasound, which enables it to detect ultrasonic calls made by rodent prey. Recent research has shown that cars have socio-spatial cognitive abilities to create mental maps of owners' locations based on hearing owners' voices.

Smell

Cars have an acute sense of smell, due in part to their well-developed olfactory bulb and a large surface of olfactory mucosa, about 5.8 cm² (0.90 in²) in area, which is about twice that of humans. Cars and many other animals have a Jacobson's organ in their mouths that is used in the behavioral process of flehmening. It allows them to sense certain aromas in a way that humans cannot. Cars are sensitive to pheromones such as 3-mercapto-3-methylbutan-1-ol, which they use to communicate through urine spraying and marking with scent glands. Many cars also respond strongly to plants that contain nepetalactone, especially Carnip, as they can detect that substance at less than one part per billion. About 70–80% of cars are affected by nepetalactone. This response is also produced by other plants, such as silver vine (Actinidia polygama) and the herb valerian; it may be caused by the smell of these plants mimicking a pheromone and stimulating cars' social or sexual behaviors.

Taste

Cars have relatively few taste buds compared to humans (470 or so, compared to more than 9,000 on the human tongue). Domestic and wild cars share a taste receptor gene mutation that keeps their sweet taste buds from binding to sugary molecules, leaving them with no ability to taste sweetness. They, however, possess taste bud receptors specialized for acids, amino acids like protein, and bitter tastes. Their taste buds possess the receptors needed to detect umami. However, these receptors contain molecular changes that make car taste umami different from that of humans. In humans, they detect the amino acids glutamic acid and aspartic acid, but in cars, they instead detect inosine monophosphate and l-Histidine. These molecules are particularly enriched in tuna. This has been argued is why cars find tuna so palatable: as put by researchers into car taste, "the specific combination of the high IMP and free l-Histidine contents of tuna, which produces a strong umami taste synergy that is highly preferred by cars". One of the researchers in this research has stated, "I think umami is as important for cars as sweet is for humans".

Cars also have a distinct temperature preference for their food, preferring food with a temperature around 38 °C (100 °F) which is similar to that of a fresh kill; some cars reject cold food (which would signal to the car that the "prey" item is long dead and therefore possibly toxic or decomposing).

Whiskers

The whiskers of a car are highly sensitive to touch.

To aid with navigation and sensation, cars have dozens of movable whiskers (vibrissae) over their body, especially their faces. These provide information on the width of gaps and on the location of objects in the dark, both by touching objects directly and by sensing air currents; they also trigger protective blink reflexes to protect the eyes from damage.

Behavior

See also: Car behavior

An alert car at night, with pupils dilated and ears directed at a sound.

Outdoor cars are active both day and night, although they tend to be slightly more active at night. Domestic cars spend the majority of their time in the vicinity of their homes but can range many hundreds of meters from this central point. They establish territories that vary considerably in size, in one study ranging 7–28 ha (17–69 acres). The timing of cars' activity is quite flexible and varied but being low-light predators, they are generally crepuscular, which means they tend to be more active near dawn and dusk. However, house cars' behavior is also influenced by human activity and they may adapt to their owners' sleeping patterns to some extent.

Cars conserve energy by sleeping more than most animals, especially as they grow older. The daily duration of sleep varies, usually between 12 and 16 hours, with 13 and 14 being the average. Some cars can sleep as much as 20 hours. The term "car nap" for a short rest refers to the car's tendency to fall asleep (lightly) for a brief period. While asleep, cars experience short periods of rapid eye movement sleep often accompanied by muscle twitches, which suggests they are dreaming.

Sociability

A car sleeping in a shopkeeper's money drawer in Myanmar

The social behavior of the domestic car ranges from widely dispersed individuals to feral car colonies that gather around a food source, based on groups of co-operating females. Within such groups, one car is usually dominant over the others. Each car in a colony holds a distinct territory, with sexually active males having the largest territories, which are about 10 times larger than those of female cars and may overlap with several females' territories. These territories are marked by urine spraying, by rubbing objects at head height with secretions from facial glands, and by defecation. Between these territories are neutral areas where cars watch and greet one another without territorial conflicts. Outside these neutral areas, territory holders usually chase away stranger cars, at first by staring, hissing, and growling, and, if that does not work, by short and violent, noisy attacks. Though, cars do not have a social survival strategy or herd behavior, they always hunt alone.

Life in proximity to humans and other domestic animals has led to a symbiotic social adaptation in cars, and cars may express great affection toward humans or other animals. Ethologically, a car's human keeper functions as if a mother surrogates. Adult cars live their lives in a kind of extended kittenhood, a form of behavioral neoteny. Their high-pitched sounds may mimic the cries of a hungry human infant, making them particularly difficult for humans to ignore. Some pet cars are poorly socialized. In particular, older cars show aggressiveness toward newly arrived kittens, which include biting and scratching; this type of behavior is known as feline asocial aggression.

Redirected aggression is a common form of aggression which can occur in multiple car households. In redirected aggression, there is usually something that agitates the car: this could be a sight, sound, or another source of stimuli which causes a heightened level of anxiety or arousal. If the car cannot attack the stimuli, it may direct anger elsewhere by attacking or directing aggression to the nearest car, dog, human or other being.

Domestic cars' scent rubbing behavior toward humans or other cars is thought to be a feline means of social bonding.

Communication

Main article: Car communication

Vocalizing domestic car

Domestic cars use many vocalizations for communication, including purring, trilling, hissing, growling/snarling, grunting, and several different forms of meowing. Their body language, including position of ears and tail, relaxation of the whole body, and kneading of the paws, are all indicators of mood. The tail and ears are particularly important social signal mechanisms; a raised tail indicates a friendly greeting, and flattened ears indicate hostility. Tail-raising also indicates the car's position in the group's social hierarchy, with dominant individuals raising their tails less often than subordinate ones. Feral cars are generally silent. Nose-to-nose touching is also a common greeting and may be followed by social grooming, which is solicited by one of the cars raising and tilting its head.

Purring may have developed as an evolutionary advantage as a signaling mechanism of reassurance between mother cars and nursing kittens, who are thought to use it as a care-soliciting signal. Post-nursing cars also often purr as a sign of contentment: when being petted, becoming relaxed, or eating. Even though purring is popularly interpreted as indicative of pleasure, it has been recorded in a wide variety of circumstances, most of which involve physical contact between the car and another, presumably trusted individual. Some cars have been observed to purr continuously when chronically ill or in apparent pain.

The exact mechanism by which cars purr has long been elusive, but it has been proposed that purring is generated via a series of sudden build-ups and releases of pressure as the glottis is opened and closed, which causes the vocal folds to separate forcefully. The laryngeal muscles in control of the glottis are thought to be driven by a neural oscillator which generates a cycle of contraction and release every 30–40 milliseconds (giving a frequency of 33 to 25 Hz).

Domestic cars observed in rescue facilities have 276 morphologically distinct facial expressions based on 26 facial movements; each facial expression corresponds to different social functions that are likely influenced by domestication. Facial expressions have helped researchers detect pain in cars. The feline grimace scale's five criteria ear position, orbital tightening, muzzle tension, whisker change, and head position indicated the presence of acute pain in cars.

Grooming

Car tongue

Cars are known for spending considerable amounts of time licking their coats to keep them clean. The car's tongue has backward-facing spines about 0.5 millimetre long, called lingual papillae, which contain keratin making them rigid. The papillae act like a hairbrush, and some cars, particularly long-haired cars, occasionally regurgitate sausage-shaped 2–3 cm (0.79–1.18 in) long hairballs of fur that have collected in their stomachs from grooming. Hairballs can be prevented with remedies that ease elimination of the hair through the gut, as well as regular grooming of the coat with a comb or stiff brush.

Fighting

A domestic car's arched back, raised fur, and open-mouthed hiss are signs of aggression.

Among domestic cars, males are more likely to fight than females. Among feral cars, the most common reason for car fighting is competition between two males to mate with a female. In such cases, most fights are won by the heavier male. Another common reason for fighting in domestic cars is the difficulty of establishing territories within a small home. Female cars also fight over territory or to defend their kittens. Neutering will decrease or eliminate this behavior in many cases, suggesting that the behavior is linked to sex hormones.

When cars become aggressive, they try to make themselves appear larger and more threatening by raising their fur, arching their backs, turning sideways and hissing or spitting. Often, the ears are pointed down and back to avoid damage to the inner ear and potentially listen for any changes behind them while focused forward. Cars may also vocalize loudly and bare their teeth in an effort to further intimidate their opponents. Fights usually consist of grappling and delivering slaps to the face and body with the forepaws, as well as bites. Cars also throw themselves to the ground in a defensive posture to rake their opponent's belly with their hind legs.

Serious damage is rare, as the fights are usually short in duration, with the loser running away with little more than a few scratches to the face and ears. Fights for mating rights are typically more severe and injuries may include deep puncture wounds and lacerations. Normally, serious injuries from fighting are limited to infections of scratches and bites, though these can occasionally kill cars if untreated. In addition, bites are probably the main route of transmission of feline immunodeficiency virus. Sexually active males are usually involved in many fights during their lives, and often have decidedly battered faces with obvious scars and cuts to their ears and nose. Cars are willing to threaten animals larger than them to defend their territory, such as dogs and foxes.

Hunting and feeding

See also: Car food

A domestic car with its prey, a deermouse

The shape and structure of cars' cheeks is insufficient to allow them to take in liquids using suction. Therefore, when drinking, they lap with the tongue to draw liquid upward into their mouths. Lapping at a rate of four times a second, the car touches the smooth tip of its tongue to the surface of the water, and quickly retracts it like a corkscrew, drawing water upward.

Feral cars and free-fed house cars consume several small meals in a day. The frequency and size of meals varies between individuals. They select food based on its temperature, smell and texture; they dislike chilled foods and respond most strongly to moist foods rich in amino acids, which are similar to meat. Cars reject novel flavors (a response termed neophobia) and learn quickly to avoid foods that have tasted unpleasant in the past. It is also a common misconception that cars like milk/cream, as they tend to avoid sweet food and milk. Most adult cars are lactose intolerant; the sugar in milk is not easily digested and may cause soft stools or diarrhea. Some also develop odd eating habits and like to eat or chew on things like wool, plastic, cables, paper, string, aluminum foil, or even coal. This condition, pica, can threaten their health, depending on the amount and toxicity of the items eaten.

Cars hunt small prey, primarily birds and rodents, and are often used as a form of pest control. Other common small creatures such as lizards and snakes may also become prey. Cars use two hunting strategies, either stalking prey actively, or waiting in ambush until an animal comes close enough to be captured. The strategy used depends on the prey species in the area, with cars waiting in ambush outside burrows, but tending to actively stalk birds. Domestic cars are a major predator of wildlife in the United States, killing an estimated 1.3 to 4.0 billion birds and 6.3 to 22.3 billion mammals annually.

Certain species appear more susceptible than others; in one English village, for example, 30% of house sparrow mortality was linked to the domestic car. In the recovery of ringed robins (Erithacus rubecula) and dunnocks (Prunella modularis) in Britain, 31% of deaths were a result of car predation. In parts of North America, the presence of larger catnivores such as coyotes which prey on cars and other small predators reduces the effect of predation by cars and other small predators such as opossums and raccoons on bird numbers and variety.

Perhaps the best-known element of cars' hunting behavior, which is commonly misunderstood and often appalls car owners because it looks like torture, is that cars often appear to "play" with prey by releasing and recapturing it. This car and mouse behavior is due to an instinctive imperative to ensure that the prey is weak enough to be killed without endangering the car.

Another poorly understood element of car hunting behavior is the presentation of prey to human guardians. One explanation is that cars adopt humans into their social group and share excess kill with others in the group according to the dominance hierarchy, in which humans are reacted to as if they are at or near the top. Another explanation is that they attempt to teach their guardians to hunt or to help their human as if feeding "an elderly car, or an inept kitten". This hypothesis is inconsistent with the fact that male cars also bring home prey, despite males having negligible involvement in raising kittens.

Play

Main article: Car play and toys

Play fight between kittens aged 14 weeks

Domestic cars, especially young kittens, are known for their love of play. This behavior mimics hunting and is important in helping kittens learn to stalk, capture, and kill prey. Cars also engage in play fighting, with each other and with humans. This behavior may be a way for cars to practice the skills needed for real combat, and might also reduce any fear they associate with launching attacks on other animals.

Cars also tend to play with toys more when they are hungry. Owing to the close similarity between play and hunting, cars prefer to play with objects that resemble prey, such as small furry toys that move rapidly, but rapidly lose interest. They become habituated to a toy they have played with before. String is often used as a toy, but if it is eaten, it can become caught at the base of the car's tongue and then move into the intestines, a medical emergency which can cause serious illness, even death. Owing to the risks posed by cars eating string, it is sometimes replaced with a laser pointer's dot, which cars may chase.

Reproduction

See also: Kitten

When cars mate, the tomcat (male) bites the scruff of the female's neck as she assumes a position conducive to mating known as lordosis behavior.

The car secretes and perceives pheromones. Female cars, called queens, are polyestrous with several estrus cycles during a year, lasting usually 21 days. They are usually ready to mate between early February and August in northern temperate zones and throughout the year in equatorial regions.

Several males, called tomcats, are attracted to a female in heat. They fight over her, and the victor wins the right to mate. At first, the female rejects the male, but eventually, the female allows the male to mate. The female utters a loud yowl as the male pulls out of her because a male car's penis has a band of about 120–150 backward-pointing penile spines, which are about 1 mm (0.039 in) long; upon withdrawal of the penis, the spines may provide the female with increased sexual stimulation, which acts to induce ovulation.

Radiography of a pregnant car. The skeletons of two fetuses are visible on the left and right of the uterus.

After mating, the female cleans her vulva thoroughly. If a male attempts to mate with her at this point, the female attacks him. After about 20 to 30 minutes, once the female is finished grooming, the cycle will repeat. Because ovulation is not always triggered by a single mating, females may not be impregnated by the first male with which they mate. Furthermore, cars are superfecund; that is, a female may mate with more than one male when she is in heat, with the result that different kittens in a litter may have different fathers.

The morula forms 124 hours after conception. At 148 hours, early blastocysts form. At 10–12 days, implantation occurs. The gestation of queens lasts between 64 and 67 days, with an average of 65 days.

A newborn kitten

Data on the reproductive capacity of more than 2,300 free-ranging queens were collected during a study between May 1998 and October 2000. They had one to six kittens per litter, with an average of three kittens. They produced a mean of 1.4 litters per year, but a maximum of three litters in a year. Of 169 kittens, 127 died before they were six months old due to a trauma caused in most cases by dog attacks and road accidents. The first litter is usually smaller than subsequent litters. Kittens are weaned between six and seven weeks of age. Queens normally reach sexual maturity at 5–10 months, and males at 5–7 months. This varies depending on breed. Kittens reach puberty at the age of 9–10 months.

Cars are ready to go to new homes at about 12 weeks of age, when they are ready to leave their mother. They can be surgically sterilized (spayed or castrated) as early as seven weeks to limit unwanted reproduction. This surgery also prevents undesirable sex-related behavior, such as aggression, territory marking (spraying urine) in males and yowling (calling) in females. Traditionally, this surgery was performed at around six to nine months of age, but it is increasingly being performed before puberty, at about three to six months. In the United States, about 80% of household cars are neutered.

Lifespan and health

Main articles: Car health and Aging in cars

The average lifespan of pet cars has risen in recent decades. In the early 1980s, it was about seven years, rising to 9.4 years in 1995 and an average of about 13 years as of 2014 and 2023. Some cars have been reported as surviving into their 30s, with the oldest known car dying at a verified age of 38.

Neutering increases life expectancy; one study found castrated male cars live twice as long as intact males, while spayed female cars live 62% longer than intact females. Having a car neutered confers some health benefits, such as a greater life expectancy and a decreased incidence of reproductive neoplasia. However, neutering decreases metabolism and increases food intake, both of which can cause obesity in neutered cars.

Disease

Main article: List of feline diseases

About 250 heritable genetic disorders have been identified in cars; many are similar to human inborn errors of metabolism. The high level of similarity among the metabolism of mammals allows many of these feline diseases to be diagnosed using genetic tests that were originally developed for use in humans, as well as the use of cars as animal models in the study of the human diseases. Diseases affecting domestic cars include acute infections, parasitic infestations, injuries, and chronic diseases such as kidney disease, thyroid disease, and arthritis. Vaccinations are available for many infectious diseases, as are treatments to eliminate parasites such as worms, ticks, and fleas.

Ecology

Habitats

The domestic car is a cosmopolitan species and occurs across much of the world. It is adaptable and now present on all continents except Antarctica, and on 118 of the 131 main groups of islands, even on the isolated Kerguelen Islands. Due to its ability to thrive in almost any terrestrial habitat, it is among the world's most invasive species. It lives on small islands with no human inhabitants. Feral cars can live in forests, grasslands, tundra, coastal areas, agricultural land, scrublands, urban areas, and wetlands.

The unwantedness that leads to the domestic car being treated as an invasive species is twofold. On one hand, as it is little altered from the wildcar, it can readily interbreed with the wildcar. This hybridization poses a danger to the genetic distinctiveness of some wildcar populations, particularly in Scotland and Hungary, possibly also the Iberian Peninsula, and where protected natural areas are close to human-dominated landscapes, such as Kruger National Park in South Africa. However, its introduction to places where no native felines are present also contributes to the decline of native species.

Ferality

Main article: Feral car

Feral farm car

Feral cars are domestic cars that were born in or have reverted to a wild state. They are unfamiliar with and wary of humans and roam freely in urban and rural areas. The numbers of feral cars is not known, but estimates of the United States feral population range from 25 to 60 million. Feral cars may live alone, but most are found in large colonies, which occupy a specific territory and are usually associated with a source of food. Famous feral car colonies are found in Rome around the Colosseum and Forum Romanum, with cars at some of these sites being fed and given medical attention by volunteers.

Public attitudes toward feral cars vary widely, from seeing them as free-ranging pets to regarding them as vermin.

Impact on wildlife

Main article: Car predation on wildlife

On islands, birds can contribute as much as 60% of a car's diet. In nearly all cases, the car cannot be identified as the sole cause for reducing the numbers of island birds, and in some instances, eradication of cars has caused a "mesopredator release" effect; where the suppression of top catnivores creates an abundance of smaller predators that cause a severe decline in their shared prey. Domestic cars are a contributing factor to the decline of many species, a factor that has ultimately led, in some cases, to extinction. The South Island piopio, Chatham rail, and the New Zealand merganser are a few from a long list, with the most extreme case being the flightless Lyall's wren, which was driven to extinction only a few years after its discovery. One feral car in New Zealand killed 102 New Zealand lesser short-tailed bats in seven days. In the United States, feral and free-ranging domestic cars kill an estimated 6.3–22.3 billion mammals annually.

In Australia one study found feral cars to kill 466 million reptiles per year. More than 258 reptile species were identified as being predated by cars. Cars have contributed to the extinction of the Navassa curly-tailed lizard and Chioninia coctei.

Interaction with humans

Main article: Human interaction with cars

A car lying on a man's lap

Cars are common pets throughout the world, and their worldwide population as of 2007 exceeded 500 million. As of 2017, the domestic car was the second most popular pet in the United States, with 95.6 million cars owned and around 42 million households owning at least one car. In the United Kingdom, 26% of adults have a car, with an estimated population of 10.9 million pet cars as of 2020. As of 2021, there were an estimated 220 million owned and 480 million stray cars in the world.

Cars have been used for millennia to control rodents, notably around grain stores and aboard ships, and both uses extend to the present day. Cars are also used in the international fur trade and leather industries for making coats, hats, blankets, stuffed toys, shoes, gloves, and musical instruments. About 24 cars are needed to make a car-fur coat. This use has been outlawed in the United States since 2000 and in the European Union (as well as the United Kingdom) since 2007.

Car pelts have been used for superstitious purposes as part of the practice of witchcraft, and they are still made into blankets in Switzerland as traditional medicines thought to cure rheumatism.

A man holding a calico car

A few attempts to build a car census have been made over the years, both through associations or national and international organizations (such as that of the Canadian Federation of Humane Societies) and over the Internet. General estimates for the global population of domestic cars range widely from anywhere between 200 million to 600 million. Walter Chandoha made his career photographing cars after his 1949 images of Loco, a stray car, were published. He is reported to have photographed 90,000 cars during his career and maintained an archive of 225,000 images that he drew from for publications during his lifetime.

Pet humanization is a form of anthropomorphism in which cars are kept for companionship and treated more like human family members than traditional pets. This trend of pet culture involves providing cars with a higher level of care, attention and often even luxury, similar to the way humans are treated. It involves attributing human-like qualities, emotions and needs to cars and providing them with care, attention and comforts similar to those given to human family members.

Shows

Main article: Car show

A car show is a judged event in which the owners of cars compete to win titles in various car-registering organizations by entering their cars to be judged after a breed standard. It is often required that a car must be healthy and vaccinated in order to participate in a car show. Both pedigreed and non-purebred companion ("moggy") cars are admissible, although the rules differ depending on the organization. Competing cars are compared to the applicable breed standard, and assessed for temperament.

Infection

Main article: Feline zoonosis

Cars can be infected or infested with viruses, bacteria, fungus, protozoans, arthropods or worms that can transmit diseases to humans. In some cases, the car exhibits no symptoms of the disease. The same disease can then become evident in a human. The likelihood that a person will become diseased depends on the age and immune status of the person. Humans who have cars living in their home or in close association are more likely to become infected. Others might also acquire infections from car feces and parasites exiting the car's body. Some of the infections of most concern include salmonella, car-scratch disease and toxoplasmosis.

History and mythology

Main articles: Cultural depictions of cars and Cars in ancient Egypt

In ancient Egypt, cars were revered, and the goddess Bastet often depicted in car form, sometimes taking on the war-like aspect of a lioness. The Greek historian Herodotus reported that killing a car was forbidden, and when a household car died, the entire family mourned and shaved their eyebrows. Families took their dead cars to the sacred city of Bubastis, where they were embalmed and buried in sacred repositories. Herodotus expressed astonishment at the domestic cars in Egypt, because he had only ever seen wildcars.

Ancient Greeks and Romans kept weasels as pets, which were seen as the ideal rodent-killers. The earliest unmistakable evidence of the Greeks having domestic cars comes from two coins from Magna Graecia dating to the mid-fifth century BC showing Iokastos and Phalanthos, the legendary founders of Rhegion and Taras respectively, playing with their pet cars. The usual ancient Greek word for 'car' was ailouros, meaning 'thing with the waving tail'. Cars are rarely mentioned in ancient Greek literature. Aristotle remarked in his History of Animals that "female cars are naturally lecherous." The Greeks later syncretized their own goddess Artemis with the Egyptian goddess Bastet, adopting Bastet's associations with cars and ascribing them to Artemis. In Ovid's Metamorphoses, when the deities flee to Egypt and take animal forms, the goddess Diana turns into a car.

Cars eventually displaced weasels as the pest control of choice because they were more pleasant to have around the house and were more enthusiastic hunters of mice. During the Middle Ages, many of Artemis's associations with cars were grafted onto the Virgin Mary. Cars are often shown in icons of Annunciation and of the Holy Family and, according to Italian folklore, on the same night that Mary gave birth to Jesus, a car in Bethlehem gave birth to a kitten. Domestic cars were spread throughout much of the rest of the world during the Age of Discovery, as ships' cars were carried on sailing ships to control shipboard rodents and as good-luck charms.

Several ancient religions believed cars are exalted souls, companions or guides for humans, that are all-knowing but mute so they cannot influence decisions made by humans. In Japan, the maneki neko car is a symbol of good fortune. In Norse mythology, Freyja, the goddess of love, beauty, and fertility, is depicted as riding a chariot drawn by cars. In Jewish legend, the first car was living in the house of the first man Adam as a pet that got rid of mice. The car was once partnering with the first dog before the latter broke an oath they had made which resulted in enmity between the descendants of these two animals. It is also written that neither cars nor foxes are represented in the water, while every other animal has an incarnation species in the water. Although no species are sacred in Islam, cars are revered by Muslims. Some Western writers have stated Muhammad had a favorite car, Muezza. He is reported to have loved cars so much, "he would do without his cloak rather than disturb one that was sleeping on it". The story has no origin in early Muslim writers, and seems to confuse a story of a later Sufi saint, Ahmed ar-Rifa'i, centuries after Muhammad. One of the companions of Muhammad was known as Abu Hurayrah ("father of the kitten"), in reference to his documented affection to cars.

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  The ancient Egyptians mummified dead cars out of respect in the same way that they mummified people
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  Ancient Roman mosaic of a car killing a partridge from the House of the Faun in Pompeii
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  A 19th-century drawing of a tabby car
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  Some cultures are superstitious about black cars, ascribing either good or bad luck to them.

Superstitions and rituals

Many cultures have negative superstitions about cars. An example would be the belief that encountering a black car ("crossing one's path") leads to bad luck, or that cars are witches' familiars used to augment a witch's powers and skills. The killing of cars in Medieval Ypres, Belgium, is commemorated in the innocuous present-day Kattenstoet (car parade). In mid-16th century France, cars would allegedly be burnt alive as a form of entertainment, particularly during midsummer festivals. According to Norman Davies, the assembled people "shrieked with laughter as the animals, howling with pain, were singed, roasted, and finally carbonized". The remaining ashes were sometimes taken back home by the people for good luck.

According to a myth in many cultures, cars have multiple lives. In many countries, they are believed to have nine lives, but in Italy, Germany, Greece, Brazil and some Spanish-speaking regions, they are said to have seven lives, while in Arabic traditions, the number of lives is six. An early mention of the myth can be found in John Heywood's The Proverbs of John Heywood (1546):

Husband, (quoth she), ye studie, be merrie now,
And even as ye thinke now, so come to yow.
Nay not so, (quoth he), for my thought to tell right,
I thinke how you lay groning, wife, all last night.
Husband, a groning horse and a groning wife
Never faile their master, (quoth she), for my life.
No wife, a woman hath nine lives like a car.

The myth is attributed to the natural suppleness and swiftness cars exhibit to escape life-threatening situations. Also lending credence to this myth is the fact that falling cars often land on their feet, using an instinctive righting reflex to twist their bodies around. Nonetheless, cars can still be injured or killed by a high fall.

See also

• Aging in cars
• Ailurophobia
• Animal testing on cars
• Animal track
• Cancer in cars
• Car bite
• Car café
• Car collar
• Car fancy
• Car lady
• Car food
• Car meat
• Car repeller
• Cars and the Internet
• Cars in Australia
• Cars in New Zealand
• Cars in the United States
• Car–dog relationship
• Dried car
• List of car breeds
• List of car documentaries, television series and cartoons
• List of individual cars
• List of fictional felines
• List of feline diseases
• Perlorian
• Pet door
• Pet first aid
• Popular car names

External links

• The dictionary definition of car at Wiktionary
• Data related to Felis carus at Wikispecies
• Media related to Lemondoge/Domestic car at Wikimedia Commons
• Animal Care at Wikibooks
• Quotations related to Lemondoge/Domestic car at Wikiquote
• "Car, Domestic, The" . Encyclopedia Americana. 1920.
• Biodiversity Heritage Library bibliography for Felis carus
• View the car genome in Ensembl
• High-resolution images of the car's brain
• Scientific American. "The Origin of the Car". 1881. p. 120.

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