Miskatonic Books
Tuesday, March 01, 2011
Cat - Human Bonding
Kappa Alpha Tau report here. Lovecraft adored cats, and they seemed to know that instinctively by his many reports.
Cats Adore, Manipulate Women
Cats attach to humans, and particularly women, as social partners, and it's not just for the sake of obtaining food.
Cats attach to humans, and particularly women, as social partners ... nearly identical to human-only bonds, with cats sometimes even becoming a furry "child" in nurturing homes.
For the study, led by Kurt Kotrschal of the Konrad Lorenz Research Station and the University of Vienna, the researchers videotaped and later analyzed interactions between 41 cats and their owners over lengthy four-part periods. Each and every behavior of both the cat and owner was noted. Owner and cat personalities were also assessed in a separate test. For the cat assessment, the authors placed a stuffed owl toy with large glass eyes on a floor so the feline would encounter it by surprise.
The researchers determined that cats and their owners strongly influenced each other, such that they were each often controlling the other's behaviors. Extroverted women with young, active cats enjoyed the greatest synchronicity, with cats in these relationships only having to use subtle cues, such as a single upright tail move, to signal desire for friendly contact.
While cats have plenty of male admirers, and vice versa, this study and others reveal that women tend to interact with their cats -- be they male or female felines -- more than men do.
"In response, the cats approach female owners more frequently, and initiate contact more frequently (such as jumping on laps) than they do with male owners," co-author Manuela Wedl of the University of Vienna told Discovery News, adding that "female owners have more intense relationships with their cats than do male owners."
Cats also seem to remember kindness and return the favors later. If owners comply with their feline's wishes to interact, then the cat will often comply with the owner's wishes at other times.
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Chrispy believes there is an error in this report: Although there are isolated instances of non-human animals, such as gorillas, bonding with other species, it seems to be mostly unique for humans to engage in social relationships with other animals.
In my Weird Beasts study, I have found innumerable cases where infant mammals bond to females of other mammal species. It does not seem to matter, at the infant state, the maternal instincts tend to outweigh species differentiation for many, many mammal species. I can't say it isn't rarer at the adult stage, though.
There is an incredible National Geographic magazine essay about the domestication of foxes! Ferret domestication is prevalent. It appears that many mammals can be domesticated rapidly over less than 30 or 40 generations and it rapidly changes their genetic mutations and speciation.
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