Domestic Predator

While all cats show hunting behavior, each cat's hunting skills are learned.

 Learning by observation is most effective, ethologist Paul Leyhausen found that the most important factor in a cats preferences and success as a hunter is its mother.

Some mothers teach their kittens to hunt birds, while others teach them to hunt rodents. The cat's natural diet consists of small rodents and birds, usually only big enough to feed one small stomach.

This one factor, more than any other, is the most potent reason for the cat to be independent, to be a lone hunter. In spite of this evolution as a solitary hunter, cats can live in close proximity if food is plentiful.

This is clearly seen in some city parks, where cat lovers provide daily food for feral cats, in fishing ports, where cats will gather to eat the unwanted part of the catch, and in our homes. Free of the need to defend a hunting territory, cats are able to socialize.