Nowhere to put these except in the last post of the day. You’ll recognize the manul (Pallas’s cat), which I consider the world’s cutest wild felid:
And do you recognize this species?
h/t: Su
Leftover cats
September 9, 2014 • 2:38 pm
Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
The Pallas’s cat looks like a plush toy cat! Too cute!
me thinks it’ an ocelot
Yeah ocelot.
How do you titillate an ocelot?
Oscillate its tit a lot.
A serval?
Yeah it’s a serval. I’ve seen this before, pretty sure it was a serval.
I agree, though the ocelot fun is punny.
Egyptian Mau.
Oops…that’s a breed, not a species.
It’s not quite clear what the jumper is. It’s either a Serval or it’s a Savannah cat. The Savannah cat is a cross breed of the Serval and a domestic cat. I think it more likely it’s a serval.
I’m thinking serval.
So I’ve never heard of Savannah cats before, I think. Interestingly the “hybrids”, as the article calls them, are quite fertile. But this ought to let Jerry off the biological species hook:
“F1 generation Savannahs are very difficult to produce, due to the significant difference in gestation periods between the serval and a domestic cat (75 days for a serval and 65 days for a domestic cat), and sex chromosomes. Pregnancies are often absorbed or aborted, or kittens are born prematurely. Also, servals can be very picky in choosing mates, and often will not mate with a domestic cat.” [My bold]
I don’t like that breeding program, it is unnecessary cruel.
The picture of the Pallas cat looks cute because it has cute long whiskers and its feet and legs seem stubby with all their fur.
And he looks like he’s smiling with his whole face.
Sub
Leaping Twit
Kangaroo with a nightjar in its pouch? 🙂
(My guess is a Serengeti.)
Ocicat, perhaps.
I kind of want to pick up the Pallas’s Cat and give it a hug, but I don’t really need stitches.
Serval leaping.
Hey! I see a face in the picture of the second cat. Before it jumps. On the upper parts of its front legs.
Looks like an alien! I can haz flying saucer of milk now?
Definitely serval. Probably used to breed Savannahs. Saw the video on Youtube.
I dunno…Baihu’s awfully wild….
b&
I keep seeing that kitty as a statue up on the dresser before it jumps.
Yeah, I’ve seen cat statues like that. It looks somehow Egyptian to me, I don’t know why.
I thought it was hili . . .
Did anybody post about this before now?
http://singularityhub.com/2014/09/09/when-do-we-get-catbots-we-have-the-technology/
We can all use an animal companion from time to time—a comforting presence that’s relatively low maintenance, warm, and furry. Pets offers no-drama company that’s hard to find in humans. Still, they come with a few extra responsibilities. You’ve got to find them a petsitter when you’re away, walk and feed them every day, clean up after them.
The answer? Robotic pets. And not just pets. Robotic cats. I know. The cat-dog debate has been going on for eons. It won’t be resolved here. All I’m saying is cats are already independent and low maintenance—imagine if you made them into robots.
We’re in a new era in which robots provide services once reserved for organic life forms. That increasingly includes companionship. Many companion bots look like—well, they look like robots. But not everyone wants the same kind of metal companion.
A 2008 study revealed that unlike extroverts who prefer human-like robot companions, introverts tend toward unobtrusive, mechanical-looking robots, basically “more like a box on wheels with a metal head.” Sounds kind of like a cat to me.
So, if we want catbots—and let’s just assume everyone does—we’ll have to reverse engineer cat-kind. Besides sleeping away the day, something robots do well already when charging their batteries, what feline behaviors would a robot need to mimic? It has to walk and run like a cat, respond to touch, groom itself, and be playful.
Let’s see where we’re at with the technology
[at link]
Wrong direction : making robots into cats is likely to be technically challenging. Making cats into robots is likely to get your ear chewed off (here, if nowhere else) and your face clawed off by your unwilling subjects. Plus there’s the known deep connection between cats and Quantum which is murky territory into which no-one delves without forethought, planning and a chocolate-coated manhole cover. No-one knows what really happened to Schroedinger. Including Schroedinger.
Methinks it isn’t like a weasel.
Other than that,
Ocelot – smaller, shorter legs, face looks “bigger”
Serval – superlong legs, smaller face, fits the picture better.
Oh wow, didn’t know about Pallas’s Cat before. That photo is amazing. I want to hug it!
Checking the god Wiki their eyes have circular pupils unlike felids… Interesting.
Serval, without a doubt. I’d recognize that leaping feline anywhere.
I didn’t know you could tame them, though.
Said serval may well agree with you. Just because it occasionally sits on a dresser doesn’t mean that it’s tame.
We’ve got a couple (if not more) of hammerheads cruising around the boat, and they’re suspiciously camera-shy. If they’re camera shy, then they have spent significant time around humans. So they’re tame.
Fancy going for a swim and approaching them with your sharkly reasoning?
I might not object to swimming with hammerheads. I wouldn’t try to swim at them or otherwise harass them, but I don’t think I’d get upset at sharing the water with them. Usual caveats about apex predators with altered states of mind apply — mating behavior, feeding, young to defend, etc.
Great Whites…no thank you.
b&
The cutest – yes, perhaps. But the most beautiful: the caracal.
The caracal certainly is gorgeous with those awesome long hairs on its ears!
Wikipedia tells me the manul separated from its nearest cat relative almost 6 million years ago. Holy schlamoly! I would never have guessed.
That’s about the same amount of time that separates house cats from the puma, and half the time that separates the both from lions and tigers. Lions and tigers are only about 3.7 MYA from each other.
b&
all pallas cats all of the time (or at least until 2008)
http://www.pallascat.com/