Feral cats: their role in the population dynamics of Felis catus

The so-called domestic cat occupies a unique position within the truly dome stic animals since it freely interbreeds with feral populations, and there is considerable gene flow in both directions. This is possible because the likelihood of an individual cat forming a relationship with people is stron gly affected by its experiences during the socialisation period (3-8 weeks of age), although this does not preclude differences between owned and fera l populations in the relative frequencies of alleles which affect social be haviour towards humans. We suggest a hitherto unconsidered reason why a sep arate domesticated population of cats (apart from pedigree breeds) has not yet emerged: the unusual and stringent nutrient requirements of the cat may historically have militated against successful breeding on a completely hu man-provided diet, and led to the retention of the ability to achieve a nut ritionally complete diet by scavenging and/or hunting. More recently, the w idespread availability of nutritionally complete manufactured foods and vet erinary care in western countries appears to be leading towards a rapid cha nge in the population dynamics and population genetics of both owned and fe ral cats. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.