4 ms·

Do you suggest the presence of humans reduces the reproductive success of non-domesticated cats? Otherwise, how do you understand evolutionary pressure?

aetherson 12y ago
Presence of humans increases the reproductive success of domesticated cats (because they get supplemental food and shelter and protection from predators), and decreases the success of non-domesticated cats (because humans are happy to kill antisocial feral cats).
- puzzlingcaptcha 12y ago
  Do you honestly think that some agricultural community hundreds of years ago had nothing better to do than hunt down anti-social cats? It's speculation, and sources suggest the opposite is true, the cats were were simply tolerated: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2702791/#__sec6title http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2702791/#__sec6t... Increase of reproductive success is not an evolutionary pressure and is irrelevant in the context of the comment I was replying to.
  - GFK_of_xmaspast 12y ago
    Lots of teenage boys in agricultural communities today seem to have plenty of time to hunt down and kill cats.
    - junto 12y ago
      To be fair it is only in the last 200 years that teenage boys were not working harder than we can even imagine. Take a look at the 'workhouses' in the UK at the start of the industrial revolution. Children worked and worked hard. There was no time for frivolity. People died young and it was hard to put food on the table. If anything cats, feral or not would be happily hunted for a little extra meat.
      - GFK_of_xmaspast 12y ago
        I'm in agreement with you, but I think the dark satanic mills were a bit of a low point.
  - aetherson 12y ago
    I didn't say they "hunted them down," I said they were happy to kill them. And increase of reproductive success of a very similar population puts all kinds of evolutionary pressure on the less-advantaged population, as they compete for the same things. But more to the point, regardless of the exact words that your parent poster used, they clearly did not mean a very narrow definition of evolutionary pressure.

aetherson 12y ago

Presence of humans increases the reproductive success of domesticated cats (because they get supplemental food and shelter and protection from predators), and decreases the success of non-domesticated cats (because humans are happy to kill antisocial feral cats).

puzzlingcaptcha 12y ago
Do you honestly think that some agricultural community hundreds of years ago had nothing better to do than hunt down anti-social cats? It's speculation, and sources suggest the opposite is true, the cats were were simply tolerated: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2702791/#__sec6title http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2702791/#__sec6t... Increase of reproductive success is not an evolutionary pressure and is irrelevant in the context of the comment I was replying to.
- GFK_of_xmaspast 12y ago
  Lots of teenage boys in agricultural communities today seem to have plenty of time to hunt down and kill cats.
  - junto 12y ago
    To be fair it is only in the last 200 years that teenage boys were not working harder than we can even imagine. Take a look at the 'workhouses' in the UK at the start of the industrial revolution. Children worked and worked hard. There was no time for frivolity. People died young and it was hard to put food on the table. If anything cats, feral or not would be happily hunted for a little extra meat.
    - GFK_of_xmaspast 12y ago
      I'm in agreement with you, but I think the dark satanic mills were a bit of a low point.
- aetherson 12y ago
  I didn't say they "hunted them down," I said they were happy to kill them. And increase of reproductive success of a very similar population puts all kinds of evolutionary pressure on the less-advantaged population, as they compete for the same things. But more to the point, regardless of the exact words that your parent poster used, they clearly did not mean a very narrow definition of evolutionary pressure.