Alan Boyle has an interesting article about differences between their hunting styles. Dogs are built more for endurance, cats for stealth. And it notes one other thing that’s obvious once pointed out — dogs are much more domesticated than cats are, because we’ve been coevolving for a lot longer. Dogs have been helping humans hunt for tens of thousands of years, whereas cats only got involved with us with the advent of agriculture (when they came to the granaries for rodent hunting, and decided to stick around). so that explains why the dog is “man’s best friend.” Cats haven’t been as interactive with us, and haven’t done it for as long, which is why they’re much more independent.
5 thoughts on “Dogs And Cats”
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Uh, wolves are social animals who have to co-operate when hunting in packs. A lone wolf has a very hard time killing an elk for example. Actually, elks sometimes kill hunting dogs with their front hooves, and no doubt hurt wolves too.
On the other hand, cats hunt prey that is much smaller and weaker than them. They are solitary.
So it’s not just because of coevolution. Canines have had to become social to survive and thrive.
That social setting within a pack can then be applied quite directly in a human family.
Some cats have become quite social, though. My two siamese cats (the old apple headed kind, not the super deformed wedge heads breeders have now produced) remind me of this every day.
I didn’t mean to imply that cats aren’t social at all — ours is very much so, but only with us. Just that they’re not dogs, who are miserable without human (or other dog) company.
I’m all in favor of scientific measurement, but what exactly do evolutionary anthropologists measure when they “show that cats could reduce the muscular work required to move forward by no more than 37 percent as they pursued their prey”? Ditto, dogs, 70%? [Good doggie!] If I’m thinking about this correctly, moving forward on level ground with 100% efficiency shouldn’t require any work input at all (other than overcoming aerodynamic drag!) So what exactly is the baseline from which the 37% is deducted? I’m confused by what they measured and what I’m supposed to think about it.
BBB