Dfds (2025)

10/02/2023

The origin of the English word cat, Old English catt, is thought to be the Late Latin word cattus, which was first used at the beginning of the 6th century.[21] It was suggested that cattus is derived from an Egyptian precursor of Coptic ϣⲁⲩ šau, 'tomcat', or its feminine form suffixed with -t.[22] The Late Latin word may be derived from another Afro-Asiatic[23] or Nilo-Saharan language. The Nubian word kaddîska 'wildcat' and Nobiin kadīs are possible sources or cognates.[24] The Nubian word may be a loan from Arabic قَطّ‎ qaṭṭ ~ قِطّ qiṭṭ.
However, it is "equally likely that the forms might derive from an ancient Germanic word, imported into Latin and thence to Greek and to Syriac and Arabic".[25] The word may be derived from Germanic and Northern European languages, and ultimately be borrowed from Uralic, cf. Northern Sami gáđfi, 'female stoat', and Hungarian hölgy, 'lady, female stoat'; from Proto-Uralic *käďwä, 'female (of a furred animal)'.[26]
The English puss, extended as p***y and p***ycat, is attested from the 16th century and may have been introduced from Dutch poes or from Low German puuskatte, related to Swedish kattepus, or Norwegian pus, pusekatt. Similar forms exist in Lithuanian puižė and Irish puisín or puiscín. The etymology of this word is unknown, but it may have arisen from a sound used to attract a cat.[27][28]
A male cat is called a tom or tomcat[29] (or a gib,[30] if neutered). A female is called a queen[31] (or a molly,[32][user-generated source?] if spayed), especially in a cat-breeding context. A juvenile cat is referred to as a kitten. In Early Modern English, the word kitten was interchangeable with the now-obsolete word catling.[33] A group of cats can be referred to as a clowder or a glaring.[34]

10/02/2023

The cat (Felis catus) is a domestic species of small carnivorous mammal.[1][2] It is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae and is commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat to distinguish it from the wild members of the family.[4] Cats are commonly kept as house pets but can also be farm cats or feral cats; the feral cat ranges freely and avoids human contact.[5] Domestic cats are valued by humans for companionship and their ability to kill rodents. About 60 cat breeds are recognized by various cat registries.[6]
The cat is similar in anatomy to the other felid species: it has a strong flexible body, quick reflexes, sharp teeth, and retractable claws adapted to killing small prey. Its night vision and sense of smell are well developed. Cat communication includes vocalizations like meowing, purring, trilling, hissing, growling, and grunting as well as cat-specific body language. Although the cat is a social species, it is a solitary hunter. As a predator, it is crepuscular, i.e. most active at dawn and dusk. It can hear sounds too faint or too high in frequency for human ears, such as those made by mice and other small mammals.[7] It also secretes and perceives pheromones.[8]
Female domestic cats can have kittens from spring to late autumn, with litter sizes often ranging from two to five kittens.[9] Domestic cats are bred and shown at events as registered pedigreed cats, a hobby known as cat fancy. Population control of cats may be achieved by spaying and neutering, but their proliferation and the abandonment of pets has resulted in large numbers of feral cats worldwide, contributing to the extinction of entire bird, mammal, and reptile species.[10]
It was long thought that cat domestication began in ancient Egypt, where cats were venerated from around 3100 BC,[11][12] but recent advances in archaeology and genetics have shown that their domestication occurred in Western Asia around 7500 BC.[13]
As of 2021, there were an estimated 220 million owned and 480 million stray cats in the world.[14][15] As of 2017, the domestic cat was the second most popular pet in the United States, with 95.6 million cats owned[16][17][18] and around 42 million households owning at least one cat.[19] In the United Kingdom, 26% of adults have a cat, with an estimated population of 10.9 million pet cats as of 2020.[20]

10/02/2023

The Euphrates softshell turtle (Rafetus euphraticus), also known as the Mesopotamian softshell turtle,[4] is a species of softshell turtle in the family Trionychidae. It is found throughout much of the Euphrates–Tigris river basin in Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Khūzestān Province of Iran. Historically it has also been reported from Israel, but this likely involves confusion with the very similar Trionyx triunguis (the two typically require in-hand examination to be separated).[5]
The Euphrates softshell turtle is an endangered species that primarily is threatened by habitat loss and alteration, especially the building of dams,[5] but to lesser extent also pollution and killing by fishermen.[6]
History
The turtle was originally called Testudo rafcht by Guillaume-Antoine Olivier, who shot a three-foot-long specimen in June 1797 when crossing the Euphrates near Anah[7]
The Euphrates softshell turtle became known to the western science when the French naturalist Guillaume-Antoine Olivier shot a specimen while crossing the Euphrates near Anah in June 1797.[7] The local residents told him that the meat of this animal was not good to eat, but its fat was considered an excellent medication for a variety of skin diseases. Olivier named the species Testudo rafcht, because, as he said "the Arabs called it rafcht".[8]
Olivier's book did not explain what the name meant in Arabic; however a number of modern Arabic web pages say that the turtle is known locally as al-rafš (الرفش), which is translated in standard dictionaries as "the spade" or "the shovel", and perhaps refers to the shape of the creature's carapace.[9] Olivier passed the information about the creature to François Marie Daudin, who described it in his Histoire des reptiles (1801).[8][10]
Later naturalists apparently often misread Olivier's rafcht as rafeht.[11] The name Rafetus euphraticus, and the genus Rafetus itself, were proposed by John Edward Gray in 1864, who mentions in his work that the species had been variously known as Trionyx euphraticus, Testudo euphraticus, Trionyx rafeht, Tyrse rafeht, or Testudo rafeht.[12]
Appearance
This freshwater turtle can weigh up to 20 kg (44 lb),[4] and it has a smooth leathery shell that can reach up to 68 cm (2.2 ft) in length.[5] The sexes are apparently alike in size and general appearance.[5] The upperparts are typically dull olive in colour, sometimes with an indistinct spotted pattern, especially on the head.[5] There are some minor variations in the colour pattern,[4] and rarely individuals may be dark brown or even black above.[5]
Habitat
The Euphrates softshell turtle has been found in a wide range of freshwater habitats such as rivers, streams, lakes, ponds, reservoirs and marshlands.[5] It prefers areas with shallow and calm water, sandy banks and many fish (especially cyprinids).[13] Although it mainly resides in shallow calm water, this is typically adjacent to deep fast-flowing water.[5] In the fast-flowing Euphrates it generally avoids the main stem, instead occurring in side-branches or backwaters. In parts of the Tigris River with a slower flow, it occurs even in the main stem.[5] They bask on or at the banks of rivers, with some remaining in shallow water to avoid being on land.[4] They sometimes bury themselves into the bottom.[4]

10/02/2023

Outdoor cats are active both day and night, although they tend to be slightly more active at night.[100] Domestic cats spend the majority of their time in the vicinity of their homes but can range many hundreds of meters from this central point. They establish territories that vary considerably in size, in one study ranging from 7 to 28 hectares (17–69 acres).[101] The timing of cats' activity is quite flexible and varied, which means house cats may be more active in the morning and evening, as a response to greater human activity at these times.[102]

Cats conserve energy by sleeping more than most animals, especially as they grow older. The daily duration of sleep varies, usually between 12 and 16 hours, with 13 and 14 being the average. Some cats can sleep as much as 20 hours. The term "cat nap" for a short rest refers to the cat's tendency to fall asleep (lightly) for a brief period. While asleep, cats experience short periods of rapid eye movement sleep often accompanied by muscle twitches, which suggests they are dreaming.[103]

Sociability
The social behavior of the domestic cat ranges from widely dispersed individuals to feral cat colonies that gather around a food source, based on groups of co-operating females.[104] Within such groups, one cat is usually dominant over the others.[105] Each cat in a colony holds a distinct territory, with sexually active males having the largest territories, which are about 10 times larger than those of female cats and may overlap with several females' territories. These territories are marked by urine spraying, by rubbing objects at head height with secretions from facial glands, and by defecation.[93] Between these territories are neutral areas where cats watch and greet one another without territorial conflicts. Outside these neutral areas, territory holders usually chase away stranger cats, at first by staring, hissing, and growling and, if that does not work, by short but noisy and violent attacks. Despite this colonial organization, cats do not have a social survival strategy or a pack mentality, and always hunt alone.[106]

Life in proximity to humans and other domestic animals has led to a symbiotic social adaptation in cats, and cats may express great affection toward humans or other animals. Ethologically, a cat's human keeper functions as if a mother surrogate.[107] Adult cats live their lives in a kind of extended kittenhood, a form of behavioral neoteny. Their high-pitched sounds may mimic the cries of a hungry human infant, making them particularly difficult for humans to ignore.[108] Some pet cats are poorly socialized. In particular, older cats show aggressiveness toward newly arrived kittens, which include biting and scratching; this type of behavior is known as feline asocial aggression.[109]

Redirected aggression is a common form of aggression which can occur in multiple cat households. In redirected aggression there is usually something that agitates the cat: this could be a sight, sound, or another source of stimuli which causes a heightened level of anxiety or arousal. If the cat cannot attack the stimuli, it may direct anger elsewhere by attacking or directing aggression to the nearest cat, dog, human or other being.[110][111]

Domestic cats' scent rubbing behavior toward humans or other cats is thought to be a feline means for social bonding.[112]

10/02/2023

Cats have excellent night vision and can see at only one-sixth the light level required for human vision.[64]: 43 This is partly the result of cat eyes having a tapetum lucidum, which reflects any light that passes through the retina back into the eye, thereby increasing the eye's sensitivity to dim light.[80] Large pupils are an adaptation to dim light. The domestic cat has slit pupils, which allow it to focus bright light without chromatic aberration.[81] At low light, a cat's pupils expand to cover most of the exposed surface of its eyes.[82] The domestic cat has rather poor color vision and only two types of cone cells, optimized for sensitivity to blue and yellowish green; its ability to distinguish between red and green is limited.[83] A response to middle wavelengths from a system other than the rod cells might be due to a third type of cone. This appears to be an adaptation to low light levels rather than representing true trichromatic vision.[84] Cats also have a nictitating membrane, allowing them to blink without hindering their vision.

Hearing
The domestic cat's hearing is most acute in the range of 500 Hz to 32 kHz.[85] It can detect an extremely broad range of frequencies ranging from 55 Hz to 79 kHz. It can hear a range of 10.5 octaves, while humans and dogs can hear ranges of about 9 octaves.[86][87] Its hearing sensitivity is enhanced by its large movable outer ears, the pinnae, which amplify sounds and help detect the location of a noise. It can detect ultrasound, which enables it to detect ultrasonic calls made by rodent prey.[88][89] Recent research has shown that cats have socio-spatial cognitive abilities to create mental maps of owners' locations based on hearing owners' voices.[90]

Smell
Cats have an acute sense of smell, due in part to their well-developed olfactory bulb and a large surface of olfactory mucosa, about 5.8 square centimetres (29⁄32 square inch) in area, which is about twice that of humans.[91] Cats and many other animals have a Jacobson's organ in their mouths that is used in the behavioral process of flehmening. It allows them to sense certain aromas in a way that humans cannot. Cats are sensitive to pheromones such as 3-mercapto-3-methylbutan-1-ol,[92] which they use to communicate through urine spraying and marking with scent glands.[93] Many cats also respond strongly to plants that contain nepetalactone, especially catnip, as they can detect that substance at less than one part per billion.[94] About 70–80% of cats are affected by nepetalactone.[95] This response is also produced by other plants, such as silver vine (Actinidia polygama) and the herb valerian; it may be caused by the smell of these plants mimicking a pheromone and stimulating cats' social or sexual behaviors.[96]

10/02/2023

The cat skull is unusual among mammals in having very large eye sockets and a powerful specialized jaw.[64]: 35 Within the jaw, cats have teeth adapted for killing prey and tearing meat. When it overpowers its prey, a cat delivers a lethal neck bite with its two long canine teeth, inserting them between two of the prey's vertebrae and severing its spinal cord, causing irreversible paralysis and death.[65] Compared to other felines, domestic cats have narrowly spaced canine teeth relative to the size of their jaw, which is an adaptation to their preferred prey of small rodents, which have small vertebrae.[65]

The premolar and first molar together compose the carnassial pair on each side of the mouth, which efficiently shears meat into small pieces, like a pair of scissors. These are vital in feeding, since cats' small molars cannot chew food effectively, and cats are largely incapable of mastication.[64]: 37 Although cats tend to have better teeth than most humans, with decay generally less likely because of a thicker protective layer of enamel, a less damaging saliva, less retention of food particles between teeth, and a diet mostly devoid of sugar, they are nonetheless subject to occasional tooth loss and infection.[66]

Claws

Shed claw sheaths
Cats have protractible and retractable claws.[67] In their normal, relaxed position, the claws are sheathed with the skin and fur around the paw's toe pads. This keeps the claws sharp by preventing wear from contact with the ground and allows for the silent stalking of prey. The claws on the forefeet are typically sharper than those on the hindfeet.[68] Cats can voluntarily extend their claws on one or more paws. They may extend their claws in hunting or self-defense, climbing, kneading, or for extra traction on soft surfaces. Cats shed the outside layer of their claw sheaths when scratching rough surfaces.[69]

Most cats have five claws on their front paws and four on their rear paws. The dewclaw is proximal to the other claws. More proximally is a protrusion which appears to be a sixth "finger". This special feature of the front paws on the inside of the wrists has no function in normal walking but is thought to be an antiskidding device used while jumping. Some cat breeds are prone to having extra digits ("polydactyly").[70] Polydactylous cats occur along North America's northeast coast and in Great Britain.[71]

Ambulation
The cat is digitigrade. It walks on the toes, with the bones of the feet making up the lower part of the visible leg.[72] Unlike most mammals, it uses a "pacing" gait and moves both legs on one side of the body before the legs on the other side. It registers directly by placing each hind paw close to the track of the corresponding fore paw, minimizing noise and visible tracks. This also provides sure footing for hind paws when navigating rough terrain. As it speeds up from walking to trotting, its gait changes to a "diagonal" gait: The diagonally opposite hind and fore legs move simultaneously.[73]

Balance
13:37
Comparison of cat righting reflexes in gravity and zero gravity
Most breeds of cat are notably fond of sitting in high places, or perching. A higher place may serve as a concealed site from which to hunt; domestic cats strike prey by pouncing from a perch such as a tree branch. Another possible explanation is that height gives the cat a better observation point, allowing it to survey its territory. A cat falling from heights of up to 3 meters (9.8 ft) can right itself and land on its paws.[74]

During a fall from a high place, a cat reflexively twists its body and rights itself to land on its feet using its acute sense of balance and flexibility. This reflex is known as the cat righting reflex.[75] A cat always rights itself in the same way during a fall, if it has enough time to do so, which is the case in falls of 90 cm (2 ft 11 in) or more.[76] How cats are able to right themselves when falling has been investigated as the "falling cat problem".[77]

10/02/2023

The origin of the English word cat, Old English catt, is thought to be the Late Latin word cattus, which was first used at the beginning of the 6th century.[21] It was suggested that cattus is derived from an Egyptian precursor of Coptic ϣⲁⲩ šau, 'tomcat', or its feminine form suffixed with -t.[22] The Late Latin word may be derived from another Afro-Asiatic[23] or Nilo-Saharan language. The Nubian word kaddîska 'wildcat' and Nobiin kadīs are possible sources or cognates.[24] The Nubian word may be a loan from Arabic قَطّ‎ qaṭṭ ~ قِطّ qiṭṭ.

However, it is "equally likely that the forms might derive from an ancient Germanic word, imported into Latin and thence to Greek and to Syriac and Arabic".[25] The word may be derived from Germanic and Northern European languages, and ultimately be borrowed from Uralic, cf. Northern Sami gáđfi, 'female stoat', and Hungarian hölgy, 'lady, female stoat'; from Proto-Uralic *käďwä, 'female (of a furred animal)'.[26]

The English puss, extended as p***y and p***ycat, is attested from the 16th century and may have been introduced from Dutch poes or from Low German puuskatte, related to Swedish kattepus, or Norwegian pus, pusekatt. Similar forms exist in Lithuanian puižė and Irish puisín or puiscín. The etymology of this word is unknown, but it may have arisen from a sound used to attract a cat.[27][28]

A male cat is called a tom or tomcat[29] (or a gib,[30] if neutered). A female is called a queen[31] (or a molly,[32][user-generated source?] if spayed), especially in a cat-breeding context. A juvenile cat is referred to as a kitten. In Early Modern English, the word kitten was interchangeable with the now-obsolete word catling.[33] A group of cats can be referred to as a clowder or a glaring.[34]

10/02/2023

The cat (Felis catus) is a domestic species of small carnivorous mammal.[1][2] It is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae and is commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat to distinguish it from the wild members of the family.[4] Cats are commonly kept as house pets but can also be farm cats or feral cats; the feral cat ranges freely and avoids human contact.[5] Domestic cats are valued by humans for companionship and their ability to kill rodents. About 60 cat breeds are recognized by various cat registries.[6]

The cat is similar in anatomy to the other felid species: it has a strong flexible body, quick reflexes, sharp teeth, and retractable claws adapted to killing small prey. Its night vision and sense of smell are well developed. Cat communication includes vocalizations like meowing, purring, trilling, hissing, growling, and grunting as well as cat-specific body language. Although the cat is a social species, it is a solitary hunter. As a predator, it is crepuscular, i.e. most active at dawn and dusk. It can hear sounds too faint or too high in frequency for human ears, such as those made by mice and other small mammals.[7] It also secretes and perceives pheromones.[8]

Female domestic cats can have kittens from spring to late autumn, with litter sizes often ranging from two to five kittens.[9] Domestic cats are bred and shown at events as registered pedigreed cats, a hobby known as cat fancy. Population control of cats may be achieved by spaying and neutering, but their proliferation and the abandonment of pets has resulted in large numbers of feral cats worldwide, contributing to the extinction of entire bird, mammal, and reptile species.[10]

It was long thought that cat domestication began in ancient Egypt, where cats were venerated from around 3100 BC,[11][12] but recent advances in archaeology and genetics have shown that their domestication occurred in Western Asia around 7500 BC.[13]

As of 2021, there were an estimated 220 million owned and 480 million stray cats in the world.[14][15] As of 2017, the domestic cat was the second most popular pet in the United States, with 95.6 million cats owned[16][17][18] and around 42 million households owning at least one cat.[19] In the United Kingdom, 26% of adults have a cat, with an estimated population of 10.9 million pet cats as of 2020.[20]

10/02/2023

The Euphrates softshell turtle (Rafetus euphraticus), also known as the Mesopotamian softshell turtle,[4] is a species of softshell turtle in the family Trionychidae. It is found throughout much of the Euphrates–Tigris river basin in Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Khūzestān Province of Iran. Historically it has also been reported from Israel, but this likely involves confusion with the very similar Trionyx triunguis (the two typically require in-hand examination to be separated).[5]

The Euphrates softshell turtle is an endangered species that primarily is threatened by habitat loss and alteration, especially the building of dams,[5] but to lesser extent also pollution and killing by fishermen.[6]

History

The turtle was originally called Testudo rafcht by Guillaume-Antoine Olivier, who shot a three-foot-long specimen in June 1797 when crossing the Euphrates near Anah[7]
The Euphrates softshell turtle became known to the western science when the French naturalist Guillaume-Antoine Olivier shot a specimen while crossing the Euphrates near Anah in June 1797.[7] The local residents told him that the meat of this animal was not good to eat, but its fat was considered an excellent medication for a variety of skin diseases. Olivier named the species Testudo rafcht, because, as he said "the Arabs called it rafcht".[8]

Olivier's book did not explain what the name meant in Arabic; however a number of modern Arabic web pages say that the turtle is known locally as al-rafš (الرفش), which is translated in standard dictionaries as "the spade" or "the shovel", and perhaps refers to the shape of the creature's carapace.[9] Olivier passed the information about the creature to François Marie Daudin, who described it in his Histoire des reptiles (1801).[8][10]

Later naturalists apparently often misread Olivier's rafcht as rafeht.[11] The name Rafetus euphraticus, and the genus Rafetus itself, were proposed by John Edward Gray in 1864, who mentions in his work that the species had been variously known as Trionyx euphraticus, Testudo euphraticus, Trionyx rafeht, Tyrse rafeht, or Testudo rafeht.[12]

Appearance
This freshwater turtle can weigh up to 20 kg (44 lb),[4] and it has a smooth leathery shell that can reach up to 68 cm (2.2 ft) in length.[5] The sexes are apparently alike in size and general appearance.[5] The upperparts are typically dull olive in colour, sometimes with an indistinct spotted pattern, especially on the head.[5] There are some minor variations in the colour pattern,[4] and rarely individuals may be dark brown or even black above.[5]

Habitat
The Euphrates softshell turtle has been found in a wide range of freshwater habitats such as rivers, streams, lakes, ponds, reservoirs and marshlands.[5] It prefers areas with shallow and calm water, sandy banks and many fish (especially cyprinids).[13] Although it mainly resides in shallow calm water, this is typically adjacent to deep fast-flowing water.[5] In the fast-flowing Euphrates it generally avoids the main stem, instead occurring in side-branches or backwaters. In parts of the Tigris River with a slower flow, it occurs even in the main stem.[5] They bask on or at the banks of rivers, with some remaining in shallow water to avoid being on land.[4] They sometimes bury themselves into the bottom.[4]

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