{"id":10675,"date":"2022-04-28T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-04-28T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lafayettepark.org\/staging_5\/?p=10675"},"modified":"2022-04-28T13:39:39","modified_gmt":"2022-04-28T13:39:39","slug":"like-cats-and-dogs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lafayettepark.org\/staging_5\/like-cats-and-dogs\/","title":{"rendered":"LIKE CATS… AND DOGS"},"content":{"rendered":"
BY\u00a0KIERAN LINDSEY, PhD<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/h5>\n
Gazing blearily through coffee steam, a ghostly figure wafting through the early morning haze caught my neighbor’s eye. \u201cAt first, it was just a ginger-orange and white shadow,” she told me, “and I thought, Oh, no\u2026 another stray cat.\u201d<\/h5>\n
The specter became more substantial as it moved closer. \u201cI saw that it wasn\u2019t a cat after all. It stopped at the edge of my patio and began to watch me<\/em>. There we sat, two redheads\u2014one natural, one augmented\u2014staring straight into each other\u2019s eyes.\u201d<\/h5>\n
I reassured her this was an understandable case of mistaken identity. The red fox (Vulpes vulpes<\/em>) has some strikingly feline features: a sleek, slender-boned physique; long, sensitive whiskers; flexible paws with partially retractable front claws; thin, dagger-like canine teeth; and a tail that accounts for 1\/3 of the animal\u2019s total length all contribute to the illusion. Add to that eyes with vertically slit pupils and you start to understand why foxes are known as the \u201ccatlike canids.\u201d<\/h5>\n

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Their hunting strategy is felid, too. Wolves, coyotes, and related wild dogs tend to rely less on stealth than on their keen detection abilities, particularly scent, as well as endurance. Canids often hunt in packs, using a tag-team approach to run down prey.\u00a0 Cats, with the exception of African lions (Panthera leo<\/em>), are solitary hunters who stalk and ambush prey with an explosion of speed. Dogs are relay runners; cats\u2014and foxes\u2014are sprinters who dispatch dinner with a quick, sustained bite, in contrast to the multi-wound or bite-and-shake method employed by most canines.<\/h5>\n

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Biologists suggest that the behavioral similarities between foxes and cats are the result of convergent evolution<\/em>: the development of an identical trait in unrelated lineages. Comparable adaptations, they explain, arise when species occupy similar niches \u2014 insect, bird, and bat flight is a commonly sited example. Foxes and small wild felines prey on the same species, so one would expect to see analogous hunting strategies.<\/h5>\n
Seems reasonable enough\u2026 but it\u2019s harder to explain some of the red\u2019s other felid behaviors. Their young hiss and spit like kittens, while adult vocalizations include cat-like shrieks and mewing cries. And then there\u2019s the \u201clateral threat display.\u201d You know it as the classic Halloween scaredy-cat pose \u2014 back arched, fur erect. See it and you immediately think, “cat!\u201d not \u201cdog!\u201d<\/h5>\n

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But we humans like categories. You\u2019re hip-hop or honky-tonk, freak or geek, fact or fiction, apple or orange. Pick your pigeonhole, please, and kindly stay in it. So what are we to do about a creature who refuses to comply with our “either\/or” worldview?<\/h5>\n
If you\u2019re an urban wildlife enthusiast, you smile and shake your head in wonder at the boundless diversity of this bright blue gem of a planet, and count yourself lucky to have landed on it.<\/h5>\n
If you\u2019re a taxonomist, you lay awake at night, grinding your teeth.<\/h5>\n

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\n
\u00a9 2010 Next-Door Nature\u2014no reprints without written permission from the author (I\u2019d love for you to share my work. Just ask first.). Thanks to these photographers for making their work available through a Creative Commons license:\u00a0 Glen Bowman<\/a>, Eric B\u00e9gin<\/a>, Douglas Sprott<\/a>, Pat Gaines<\/a>, and Helen Haden<\/a>.
<\/em><\/h5>\n

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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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