Land Mammals, features and articles | Educational Science

Sep 4, 2015

Sorry, Cat Lovers: Felix Doesn't Need You

Dogs have owners, cats have staff. Though the old joke is a stereotype of a feline's independent nature, that trope may have some scientific backing. Cats do not form the childlike dependence on humans that dogs do, new research suggests. That doesn't mean people's feline friends don't bond with them,...

Oct 2, 2015

Tracking Cats from Space: Satellites Estimate Feral Ranges

How far feral cats roam can now be estimated from space, a new study finds. No, satellites haven't become so sensitive as to be able to follow the movements of individual felines. But a new study finds that the productivity of a landscape — measured by vegetation-tracking satellites — determines...

Nov 15, 2015

House Cats Are as Big as Ping-Pong Tables (If You Count Their Hair)

Here's a mental image: The surface area of a cat, including all the fur, is roughly equivalent to the surface area of a Ping-Pong table. If you're wondering what possible value such a factoid could have, this comparison was the result of a new study examining how animals clean themselves....

Jan 15, 2016

Ligers and Tigons, Oh My! Cat Lineage Littered with Interbreeding

Modern-day felines may be the ultimate mutts. Different species of cats mated with each other at several points in history, a new genetic study of felines reveals. These ancient cat hybrids may have shaped the course of feline evolution, researchers said. The new cat family tree could also help explain...

Mar 23, 2016

Photos: The Secret Lives of Borneo's Mysterious Marbled Cats

Curious cats (Image credit: A.J. Hearn and J. Ross)Little is known about Borneo's marbled cat (Pardofelis marmorata), so researchers set up camera traps to get a better idea of these felines' population densities. They found more marbled cats in the undisturbed lowland forests than in disturbed lowlands and undisturbed forests...

Mar 23, 2016

Elusive Marbled Cats Secretly Photographed in Borneo

A secret photo shoot deep in the forests of Malaysian Borneo is helping researchers determine just how many marbled cats — rare, tree-climbing felines — live in the region, according to a new study. Marbled cats (Pardofelis marmorata) are extremely elusive creatures. To get a better idea of the cats'...

Apr 21, 2016

Why Do Cats Stretch So Much?

If there were an Olympic event for stretching, cats would win gold. They're constantly stretching their muscles, likely for many of the same reasons that people do, experts told Live Science. The main reasons? It feels good and increases blood flow, said Andrew Cuff, a postdoctoral researcher of anatomy at...

Jun 15, 2016

Why Are Cats Such Picky Eaters?

When Fluffy turns her nose up at the bowl of food you've placed in front of her, don't take it personally. Your seemingly high-maintenance cat has evolution to blame for her picky eating. Cats as it turns out are driven to eat foods with a preferred ratio of protein to...

Sep 9, 2016

Who Knew? Cats Like to Work for Their Food

News flash to cat owners: Your indoor kitty is probably profoundly bored and unchallenged by its bottomless food bowl. But it's relatively easy to spice up kitty's life with an engaging food puzzle, a new review finds. Food puzzles are contraptions that make cats work for their food. The puzzles...

Sep 22, 2016

Early Cats Traveled with Vikings and Farmers

The early origins of domesticated cats are shrouded in mystery, but a new genetic analysis suggests that felines traveled the world with farmers and Vikings. The News section of Nature reports that the broadest genetic analysis to date of ancient cats reveals two waves of cat expansion. In the first...

Sep 28, 2016

Why the Breeding of Mutant Cats Should Be Banned (Op-Ed)

This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Cats are one of the world’s favorite pets, but in our efforts to breed more attractive felines, we are metaphorically loving them to death. Like British Bulldogs and extreme...

Nov 7, 2016

Saber-Toothed Cat Had a Huge Skull, But a Puny Bite

A newly described fossil skull from one of the largest of the saber-toothed cats, Machairodus horribilis, is the biggest saber-toothed skull ever found, and is helping scientists understand the diversity of killing techniques used by these extinct and fearsome predators. The skull was excavated from the Longjiagou Basin in Gansu...

Nov 28, 2016

Hair Ball! How Cats' Tongues Get Them So Clean

Cats are famous for their fastidious self-grooming, but the way their tongues are able to get them so clean has remained somewhat of a mystery. Scientists knew that feline tongues were covered in spines, and now a group of engineers has found that the teensy structures are shaped like claws...

Dec 8, 2016

Plague Strikes 6 Cats in Idaho

Half a dozen pet cats in Idaho were infected with plague this year, according to a new report of the cases. In May through July, veterinarians in Idaho tested 12 cats that had gotten sick, checking to see if the animals were infected with plague. Six of the tests came...

Jan 4, 2017

Cat–astrophe! Feral Cats Have Invaded Nearly 100% of Australia

The cat's out of the bag — and all over Australia. A new study finds that feral cats inhabit 99.8 percent of the continent's landmass, including 80 percent of the land that makes up its islands. Feral cats have long been recognized as a grave and widespread threat to vulnerable...