gh CATS WALKING BY THEMSELVES

The way of life of domestic cats that became wild and the way they distribute the territory between themselves - that was the subject of investigation carried out by a zoologist from the Institute for Ecology and Evolution Problems, Russian Academy of Sciences jointly with the colleagues from the Institute of Forest Biology and Hunting Preserve. The observations focused on the cats inhabiting Solling province in the environments of the castle near Gottingen. Radio transmitters were fixed on seven male cats and one female to track their travel and activity twenty-four hours a day.

The observations have proved that individual lots of adult male cats are pretty large, the square varying from 34.5 through 158 hectares (the lots are smaller in case of females and young males). The lots are overlapping: male cats treat the neighbors tolerantly, but do not establish any relationships and move around the territory absolutely independently. The exception is the cats' mating period in March-April when males are striving to copulate with as many females as possible. The cats' 'conjugal ties' are inconstant, after a short period of close relations they separate: mating with a new partner is pending. Some females manage to give birth to kittens three times a year.

What locations do the 'domestic cats living by themselves' (referred so by zoologists) prefer? They often drop into villages in search of food (the natives usually leave food out in the street for their domestic cats and dogs, so stray cats know where to find sustenance). In summer cats willingly visit grain-crop fields where mice and small birds are in abundance. Once the harvesting is over, the cats lose interest in the fields. Domestic cats can be met in the park near the castle, in the meadows, forest belt, brushwood, strolling along country roads, but they hardly ever drop in the forest.

The researchers wondered if domestic cats could mate with wild ones: it is assumed that due to hybridization with domestic cats wild forest cats may gradually disappear. However, the researchers have made sure that domestic and wild cats prefer different locations. Wild cats consider woods as their native home, and domestic cats hardly ever go there. Wild cats, in turn, almost never drop in the villages. So, wild and domestic cats' encounters are infrequent although possible - in the fields, meadows and on the roads. Most probably, the wild forest cats' gene pool is under no threat so far.

***