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> Rattling off statistics that she has internalized as a volunteer, Ms. Adams points out that eight out of 10 street kittens die within their first six months.

> Rattling off statistics that she has internalized as a volunteer, Ms. Adams points out that eight out of 10 street kittens die within their first six months. Those that survive are often disease-ridden. Winters here can be deadly for a species that originated in the Mediterranean climate of North Africa. And traffic takes a big toll. I wonder if those kitties show genetical adaptions specific to their challenging environment? Is their population and breeding speed enough to allow for useful (micro) mutations to appear?

londons_explore 3y ago
I would guess yes. A species can change pretty quickly when you have a new generation every year, a population of thousands, and some factor that kills ~50%. After all, these moths[1] evolved their markings to match polluted industrial cities in just a few decades (and just 7 years in a follow up experiment) [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peppered_moth_evolution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peppered_moth_evolution
canjobear 3y ago
Given the push to sterilize and kill them, their best bet is to evolve away from being friendly to humans.
- throwaway_99999 3y ago
  That would be counter-productive. The main driver of cat population are humans. Cats evolving to being hostile to humans might in the end diminish public opposition to extermination programs.
leviathant 3y ago
When I lived in a, erm, more eventful part of Philadelphia, three kittens popped out of my neighbor's shed. We kept one, brought another into the office, and the third one was too wild for us to manage. We've since moved, but when we lived there, we did trap and release for dozens of cats. The one kitten we kept has distinctive fear reactions to sirens and gunshot type sounds (we live next to 95 and deliberately backfiring your exhaust is, for some reason, a popular choice) in ways that our other cats don't. It's noticeable enough that we've joked about it being epigenetic.

londons_explore 3y ago

I would guess yes. A species can change pretty quickly when you have a new generation every year, a population of thousands, and some factor that kills ~50%. After all, these moths[1] evolved their markings to match polluted industrial cities in just a few decades (and just 7 years in a follow up experiment) [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peppered_moth_evolution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peppered_moth_evolution

canjobear 3y ago

Given the push to sterilize and kill them, their best bet is to evolve away from being friendly to humans.

throwaway_99999 3y ago
That would be counter-productive. The main driver of cat population are humans. Cats evolving to being hostile to humans might in the end diminish public opposition to extermination programs.

leviathant 3y ago

When I lived in a, erm, more eventful part of Philadelphia, three kittens popped out of my neighbor's shed. We kept one, brought another into the office, and the third one was too wild for us to manage. We've since moved, but when we lived there, we did trap and release for dozens of cats. The one kitten we kept has distinctive fear reactions to sirens and gunshot type sounds (we live next to 95 and deliberately backfiring your exhaust is, for some reason, a popular choice) in ways that our other cats don't. It's noticeable enough that we've joked about it being epigenetic.