4 ms·

I think the 'why' isn't really explained in the article. 'Cats are less social aware' seems to be the tldr summary followed by call for more research.

• tpmx 6y ago
  > 'Cats are less social aware' That seemed like speculation in the article ("what seems most likely").
• devenson 6y ago
  Somewhat explained: because they were solitary hunters before domestication, unlike dogs who hunt in groups.
  • wut42 6y ago
    Is it? There is some sociability in feral cats.
    • egeozcan 6y ago
      Feral cat is an un-owned domestic cat
      • bserge 6y ago
        I think "feral" here refers to cats completely unaccustomed to humans. I know from experience that they will run away or bite and scratch the shit out of you until you back off, and they have no interest in getting to know you. If you give them food, they'll wait until you're gone, then take it and run. I guess not many people have witnessed them. They're not sick, that's just how they are. They probably can get accustomed to humans after a while, but it would definitely take longer than with feral dogs.
        • sitkack 6y ago
          I have owned, if you can call it that, a couple ex feral cats. One we only managed to pickup a couple times. And if it was feeling really social it might hang out within 2-5 meters. And it was constantly aware and would run if anything unexpected happened. In this case, I think it was both feral and treated poorly, so that made its behavior even more un housecat like. They do feel rather wild, and it is interesting to see how shallow domestication really is, even in ourselves.
      • wut42 6y ago
        As bserge said, it was what I was referring to. But maybe theses abandonned cats, over a couple generation, still get the "socialization" ? I have no idea to be honest. I was referring to herds of cats in Russia or some other country, saw a documentary about it a couple of years ago -- they developed quite a society.
      • deleted 6y ago
        [deleted]
    • nicklecompte 6y ago
      The article points out that cats do clearly have some sophisticated social behavior with humans, it just does not seem to be as well-developed as it is with dogs. It makes sense that cats in the wild would be “somewhat social” for grooming / shelter / care when for kittens, and feral cats do form somewhat matriarchal colonies. But there isn’t anything like the hierarchical pack structure of feral dogs.
• rjzzleep 6y ago
  Your "social aware" is very different from they are not "social pack" animals like dogs. The tldr isn't what you just made up. It's we don't know. It's literally summarized in the last paragraph: > Despite their popularity, we still know relatively little about how cats think. Future research might show cats’ understanding of humans is even more limited than we currently realise. Alternatively, it might turn out that cats are better able to recognise human social dynamics in different contexts. But if I were to judge a cat as a little furry human. I wouldn't find that much sympathy for someone that imprisoned me. I guess we have different understandings of how we define little furry humans to begin with.
  • whimsicalism 6y ago
    Sort of a misleading conclusion given the title.