[HN Gopher] Why bumblebees love cats and other beautiful relatio...
___________________________________________________________________
Why bumblebees love cats and other beautiful relationships (2021)
Author : mooreds
Score : 145 points
Date : 2023-08-21 11:51 UTC (11 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (longreads.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (longreads.com)
| hhjj wrote:
| Bumblebees don't love cats, they hate mices.
| AlexandrB wrote:
| Even that is a bit simplistic since bumblebees like to nest in
| old rodent burrows.
| MisterBastahrd wrote:
| Reminds me of the neighbors across the street who were too
| lazy to get rid of an old half-barrel planter on their porch
| that was full of dirt and nothing else. It had hundreds of
| holes in the soil. Bumblebee nests. Every day, they'd take
| the chance of getting bopped by one of them as they entered
| or exited their home.
| kbutler wrote:
| That sounds awesome, actually. I'd love to attract
| bumblebees. I like to watch them, and love the sound they
| make, plus all the benefits of native pollinators...
|
| Bumblebees are usually not aggressive, though they can
| sting multiple times (like wasps and unlike honeybees).
| ianburrell wrote:
| Best way to attract bumblebees and other native
| pollinators is plant native flowering plants. There are
| non-native plants, like dandelion, bee balm, and lavender
| that they really like.
| a_e_k wrote:
| I have a lavender bush in my front yard. Besides smelling
| nice to people, bumblebees seem to _love_ it. I often see
| half a dozen to a dozen at least as I go by. Other
| lavender bushes in the neighborhood always have
| bumblebees, too. (And the lavender bush also seems to be
| pretty low maintenance; it was there when we moved in a
| decade ago and seems to be thriving while I 've just left
| it alone.)
| bch wrote:
| It's been so long since I've been stung I don't know
| which hurts more, but it must be noted the reason honey
| bees sting only once is that the stinger is barbed and
| hooks into the skin of its victim. The bee might leave,
| but will not live to fight another day - the bee is
| essentially disemboweled, as the stinger-attached organ
| producing/pumping venom is pulled from its guts to leave
| behind with the embedded stinger, continuing to pump
| venom into the unfortunate recipient.
| kbutler wrote:
| Yes - it hurts you, but it kills the bee. Honeybees don't
| want to sting you, but will if they need to.
|
| Note also that the "continuing to pump venom" is why you
| shouldn't pinch a stinger to remove it - scrape it out w/
| a fingernail or other item to avoid injecting yet more
| venom into the sting.
| pfdietz wrote:
| This sounds like an excellent thing to have in a garden!
| throwbadubadu wrote:
| And how often did that then actually happen? Maybe they
| left it there intentionally?
| yomlica8 wrote:
| Bumblebees always seemed pretty docile in my experience.
|
| Come to think of it, I can't recall ever being stung by
| an actual bee. Asshole wasps are another story.
| mromanuk wrote:
| They are docile, until you step near their nest and they
| became super hostile. We were walking with my two
| daughters and that happen by accident. They stung my
| older daughter 7 or 8 times and me 2 times. I thought the
| stings would be painful, but in fact, they were not so
| painful, like a horsefly. Those guys chased us for 50
| meters (or yards)
| RandallBrown wrote:
| I got stung by a bumblebee while hiking once. My friend
| and I had stopped to chat with some other hikers and this
| big slow fuzzy bee buzzes over, lands on my arm, stings
| me, then just flys away. There was no sudden movement, we
| hadn't just invaded their nest, or really any reason for
| it to sting me that I could see.
|
| It hurt as bad as any other sting I've ever had.
| Andrex wrote:
| Maybe he didn't like whatever subject you and your friend
| were discussing. :P
| JohnFen wrote:
| I was stung once, as a child, when I stepped on a bee.
|
| Even in the moment, I thought "fair enough".
|
| Wasps are just embodied evil.
| [deleted]
| lioeters wrote:
| Yea, got stung by a bumblebee when I was a child, because
| I grabbed it in the palm of my hand. It hurt, I cried,
| but I also understood, fair enough.
| nerdponx wrote:
| I remember my dad actually petting one that was busy
| collecting nectar from one of our garden plants, with his
| bare finger. I've never been brave enough to repeat that
| particular experiment but my experience too is that
| bumblebees are usually very docile.
|
| The only time I've ever heard of someone getting a
| bumblebee sting is when they actually got one caught
| inside their shirt and got three or four good zaps. They
| are like wasps in that their stingers don't fall out when
| they sting, so they can keep going as long as they have
| venom left.
|
| Apparently they are somewhat less docile when it comes to
| other bees, apparently they can be fairly aggressive and
| too many bumblebees around can outcompete local
| honeybees.
| angiosperm wrote:
| The best thing to do about wasps involves a vacuum
| cleaner.
| toss1 wrote:
| The yellow jacket wasps in the ground can be dealt with
| using a clear bowl and some dirt. In the evening (when
| they are dormant), place the clear bowl over the
| entrance, and seal the edges with the dirt. Be sure that
| there is still plenty of clear glass/plastic. With the
| clear 'window' area, they will keep trying to get out,
| but if it is fully covered, they will be motivated to dig
| a new entrance/exit hole. After about 3 days, there will
| be no activity.
|
| The vacuum method is useful when they are in a building.
| Use a strong shop-vac. Mount the hose a few inches from
| the outlet, and turn it on for an hour each day. If you
| turn it on more than that, they'll learn to avoid it.
| This took about a week to terminate the hive.
|
| I've done both, but only reluctantly when they are a real
| hazard (minimize cruelty; these aren't quick deaths). The
| nest will die out anyway in the autumn, except for the
| queen and then it will move for the next year.
| euroderf wrote:
| Went on a wasp jihad as a teenager. Waited til dusk, hit
| all the nests with bug spray, used a stick to knock'em
| into coffee cans, added gasoline and torched'em up. Oddly
| satisfying.
| angiosperm wrote:
| Seems worth mention here that wet baking soda makes a
| sting stop hurting immediately.
| xp84 wrote:
| I didn't even know those big black bumblebees were bees.
| I remember catching and gently playing with one and my
| grandma telling me it was a bumblebee! It never harmed
| me.
| Propelloni wrote:
| I have to stand up for the poor, misunderstood wasp ;)
| First of, most kinds of wasps are not especially
| aggressive, for example consider the hornet or any of the
| solitaries. The ones you are probably thinking of when
| you say "asshole wasps" are the Common Wasp, the German
| Wasp and the Yellowjacket, which are all social nest
| builders. They are also very well adapted to human
| habitats, so we often occupy the same space. I had to
| spend two seasons with nests of German Wasps near my
| porch (they are a protected species and only moved if
| absolutely necessary) before they were driven out by
| hornets (another social wasp).
|
| Thus I can only talk about the Common and the German
| Wasps with confidence. Those are not assholes most part
| of their short lives. They are animals and as such show
| predictable behaviour. Corner them, squeeze them, go near
| their nest, or suffocate them (e.g. breath on them) and
| they defend themselves. Otherwise, a busy worker wasp
| will just ignore you, just like a bee would.
|
| Unfortunatly worker wasps are only busy 9/10 if their
| lives. The last 1/10 are a spent in a drunken stupor.
| Once the nest closes down the worker wasps suddenly
| become homeless and unemployed. Devoid of purpose, they
| spend their remaining days binging on sugar and fat,
| looking for brawls (a little bit like football
| hooligans). Unfortunatly the hunger for sugar and fat
| brings them even more in contact with humans, because we
| are a ready source for all of this.
|
| Still, we can manage, most of us are smarter than them.
| If you have a fixed position, e.g. a porch, take
| packaging paper and rumple it into a football sized
| contraption resembling a social wasps nest and hang it
| somewhere visible. Wasps try to avoid other nests. If you
| are lucky hornets nest nearby. Hornets are usually
| docile, very easy to spot and avoid, but they are fierce
| nest protectors. They also like to snack on wasps.
|
| When camping, sacrifice a beer or other sugary substance
| by putting it very accessible in a bowl a 5 or so metres
| away from where you are sitting. Coordinate with your
| neighbors if it is crowded ;) Even hooligan wasps prefer
| the troublefree beverage to zipping around other
| troublesome animals (i.e. us). Last but not least, you
| can almost always wave individual wasps aside. Take a
| sheet of paper or handheld fan and slowly produce an
| airstream to keep them away from that sugary pie-hole in
| your face.
|
| I have only been stung once in the last 10 years or so
| and only because the poor thing got entangled in my shirt
| and panicked.
| [deleted]
| jack_pp wrote:
| Are modern cats even that good at killing rats anymore? Haven't
| we mostly bred cats that have very rarely even seen a rat their
| entire life?
| __s wrote:
| My parents are taking care of my cat while I'm away. Little
| black cat. They let me know she killed a bat that'd gotten into
| the house last night. Woke them up. She's an indoor cat
| uncletaco wrote:
| I've come home to a rat body missing its head and even letting
| my indoor cats into the backyard might yield a dead bird or
| lizard on the kitchen floor.
| prmoustache wrote:
| kitchen floor? you are lucky. Some cats will offer you the
| dead birds on your bed.
| euroderf wrote:
| The inspiration for the horse head in The Godfather ?
| forinti wrote:
| If you get a normal cat, not on of those weird breeds with
| short legs or flat faces, they are great athletes and terrific
| hunters.
|
| I have a couple of cats that are quite old: about 16 years. The
| male spends most of the day on the bed, but he can still jump
| about 5x his height.
| VoodooJuJu wrote:
| My cat is good at killing birds, chipmunks, bunnies, and mice.
| I doubt she could deal with a rat - probably too big.
| adriand wrote:
| Put a bell on your cat! Outdoor cats are responsible for a
| huge amount of ecological devastation, the least you can do,
| if you insist on your predator roaming freely outdoors, is
| put a bell on it to try and give local species a warning.
| VoodooJuJu wrote:
| Cats don't cause ecological devastation.
|
| Cats as a species kill an emotionally large sum of birds
| and small mammals, but they don't radically transform
| ecosystems. It's human industry and habitat expansion that
| devastates ecologies, not their garden prowlers plucking
| the occasional bird or chipmunk.
|
| I'd never bell the lad.
| alexo67 wrote:
| Do not put a bell on your cat, like ever. It is harmful to
| your cat's health.
| Garrrrrr wrote:
| It _could_ be harmful to your cat 's health if they don't
| like the noise of the bell. Not all cats are bothered by
| it though
| nomel wrote:
| The risk isn't the sound, it's catching on something.
| But, there are bells that are integrated into the collar,
| to prevent this.
| wkat4242 wrote:
| They don't even work anyway. The cats are so good at
| walking without wobbling and the bells aren't loud
| anyway.
| postsantum wrote:
| Seconding this. OP, by letting your pet to roam around and
| have fun you are contributing to the local fauna's
| extinction. I hate to see how Australia[1] is responding to
| this issue but something needs to be done
|
| [1] https://theconversation.com/australian-shelters-and-
| pounds-k...
| kian wrote:
| Only do this if you are certain that zero predators live in
| your surrounding area.
| thfuran wrote:
| Where do you live that rats are bigger than rabbits?
| VoodooJuJu wrote:
| I'm talking about bunnies, not adult rabbits, and this is
| Northeast U.S.
| dredmorbius wrote:
| The Norwegian rat (a/k/a brown rat, of Black Death fame)
| grows up to 28 cm (11 in) long, and weighs 140 -- 500 g
| (4.9 -- 17.6 oz, just over a pound).
|
| Some individuals might be the size of adult rabbits of
| smaller species, certainly of juveniles.
| dylan604 wrote:
| I'm sort of laughing at the concept that we feel it strange
| that cats don't want to kill rats because of the size of
| the rats rather than the conversation leaning towards what
| are we doing that have caused rats to become so large.
| whynotminot wrote:
| In middle eastern cities I rarely see rats. But I see a
| lot of free roaming cats.
|
| In western cities I see rats but no cats.
|
| I suppose we've made our choice.
| [deleted]
| 8note wrote:
| I see plenty of cats and rats around western cities.
|
| The cats tear through the local bird population, rather
| than the rats
| distortionfield wrote:
| My house cat is a natural mouse killer. Idk what cars you've
| seen but they're very much still hunters.
| glxxyz wrote:
| Adopted my cat at ~9 months, 8 years in an apartment, moved
| to a rural property and he knew exactly what to do with mice
| and how to stalk them. Even losing 3 of his 4 fangs didn't
| slow him down.
| mytailorisrich wrote:
| And they are very good at eating them as well.
|
| My cat often brings mice and actually eat them. It's quite
| interesting, if gruesome, to observe because there seems to
| be a precise technique and it is very clean. He always starts
| with the head and usually there is nothing left apart from a
| very cleanly cut stomach, no blood, no mess.
| shaftoe wrote:
| Same with my cat. The instincts seem deeply rooted.
| vlunkr wrote:
| Yeah, we don't really see rats where I live, but every cat
| I've ever owned has occasionally brought mice home.
| fouc wrote:
| If you take a kitten away from its mother within the first 2
| weeks, and then keep it indoors 100% of the time, it might not
| get a chance to develop its hunting instincts.
| [deleted]
| dillydogg wrote:
| I know you specifically asked about rats but domestic cats are
| killing machines.
|
| https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23360987/
|
| We estimate that free-ranging domestic cats kill 1.4-3.7
| billion birds and 6.9-20.7 billion mammals annually.
| twic wrote:
| You missed a crucial bit of the abstract (my emphasis):
|
| > We estimate that free-ranging domestic cats kill 1.4-3.7
| billion birds and 6.9-20.7 billion mammals annually. _Un-
| owned cats, as opposed to owned pets, cause the majority of
| this mortality._
|
| From the text of the paper, "majority" means 69% for birds
| and 89% for mammals. Feral cats kill a lot of animals,
| because that's what they eat. Pet cats do not. "Domestic cat"
| here means F. catus, not cats that live in homes.
|
| Also, i wouldn't attach complete confidence to this paper.
| Firstly, it was written by bird conservationists, who have a
| dog in this fight (as it were). Secondly, it contains some
| dubious numbers (eg bird return rate per owned cat per year
| of 4.2 - 18.3 in US and Europe studies - and yet my mum's
| cats all brought in 0 - 1 per year). I'm not saying ignore
| it, but don't treat it as gospel - and it would be great to
| see responses to it, and other work on this subject.
| jboy55 wrote:
| The last cat I had that was allowed to go outside was a
| fearsome mouser, delighted in toying with them and was
| quite the biology teacher, showing off their inner anatomy
| to us kids.
|
| However, birds mercilessly teased him as he had no clue how
| to catch one, surrounding him while he lay on the grass,
| chirping, then flying just far enough away when he'd move
| towards them.
| wilburTheDog wrote:
| A neighbors cat was being harassed by a bird once. It
| would dive bomb the cat then fly away quickly. It did
| this multiple times while I watched. The cat got tired of
| it after a while and stood perfectly still. The bird
| swooped down toward it and, just as it was close enough,
| the cat leapt in the air twisting its body upside down
| mid leap and grabbed the bird from the air. It was the
| first time I saw how a normal cat could be such an
| effective natural killer.
| euroderf wrote:
| Seagulls hang in the air at the Helsinki market square,
| opportunistically snatching french fries and ice cream
| and such from tourists. It has occurred to me that any
| person as focused as that cat could lunge and grab one of
| these winged vermin out of the air. I myself would not
| try it because I'd be afraid of losing an eye to a
| panicking bird with a quite long beak.
| cevn wrote:
| Isn't this more of an example of "suicide by cat"? My cat
| gets dive bombed by crows occasionally but I think they
| are mostly playing on both sides...
| hn_throwaway_99 wrote:
| Not quite sure I understand the point you're trying to
| make, because getting back to the original question,
| though, "Are modern cats even that good at killing rats
| anymore?" - the answer is yes, absolutely.
|
| There is no real _genetic_ difference, as a total
| population, between feral cats and cats owned as pets.
| Absolutely, as you point out, owned cats who know they 'll
| get fed inside will murder outdoor animals just for fun,
| and they don't need to eat them to survive - but that's a
| learned behavior, nothing they were bred for. You take a
| normal tabby and leave it to have its litter outside,
| unowned, and those cats will turn into feral cats.
|
| Many animal rescue organizations have developed "Barn cat
| programs" for feral cats. These cats have not been
| socialized to be around humans so they make bad pets, but
| they're happy to live in a barn and ensure it says rat-
| free: https://www.austinpetsalive.org/programs/barn-cat-
| program.
| Perz1val wrote:
| A wild cat would have parasites, a few still healing wounds,
| one eye and one of it's legs has bones did not heal quite
| straight. This is a cat that "naturally" hunts mice and
| birds. Compare that to a suburbian cat which is healthy, well
| fed and it's biggest health risk is obesity
| RosanaAnaDana wrote:
| That's my porch cat, Sable. She just showed up one day and
| made herself at home. Real sweet cat. I've taken her to the
| vet a few times for bad wounds.
|
| Was on the porch the other night and saw her take a 15 foot
| dump out of a tree with a rat ( big one too). She landed on
| top and made short work of the rat. She's an excellent
| ratter.
| [deleted]
| FirmwareBurner wrote:
| They don't make 'em like they used to.
| bbarnett wrote:
| And thabk god they do, or we'd have our grain silos eaten
| bare in weeks.
|
| No, I'm not joking.
|
| https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-57698822
| connicpu wrote:
| Yeah, there's a HUGE difference in behavior between a house
| cat that gets all of its meals every day at home, and one
| that has to go out hunting for at least some of its food. The
| laziness of an indoor cat is a learned behavior.
| agloe_dreams wrote:
| This. Domestic cats are some of the most specialized killing
| machines in nature. Everything is raw murder machine. Massive
| muscle to weight ratio, optimized for extreme agility. 30mph
| top speed blows the doors off nearly anything it may
| encounter in nature. Tail allows for balance while running.
| Able to jump multiple times its own height. Able to fall a
| multiple of it's jump height. 20 built-in claws also act as
| tools to assist in movement and extreme climbing ability.
| Bite force enables additional attack vectors. Night vision.
| Ability to track small objects. Insane paw-eye coordination.
| Cats (big and small) are best predator.
|
| All to sleep on your lap.
|
| Edit: Also did I mention their incredible sense of smell and
| their built-in instinct to hide their tracks? Every. Single.
| Detail. Murder.
| HappySweeney wrote:
| The ultra-high upper frequency limit of their hearing also
| allows them to detect the hypersonic communications of
| mice, which is why they always seem to know where one is.
| Dogs cannot hear this high.
| david927 wrote:
| > _Able to fall a multiple of its jump height_
|
| My understanding is that it's higher than their terminal
| velocity, which makes any height fairly low risk. They can
| be expected to survive falling out of an airplane, for
| example.
| a_e_k wrote:
| Direct registering walking, too
| (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8riT_b8xbxg). Whiskers to
| feel air currents, sense prey close to their face, and
| estimate the dimension of holes. Swiveling ears to
| precisely locate faint scurrying sounds. Raspy tongues to
| hold prey. 200-degree visual fields with crazy-good motion
| detection.
|
| I love my cats, but I often think about how utterly
| terrifying they'd be if I were prey-sized. (I.e., Adjusting
| for scales, I'd probably rather take my chances with a
| Xenomorph than a good mouser domestic cat.)
| joe__f wrote:
| I think the fact that they are generally well fed and well
| cared for compared to wild animals makes a big difference
| as well
| nullc wrote:
| The fact that we feed them breaks their equilibrium with
| their prey. Normally a predator starts running out of
| food as it wipes out its prey, but not domestic cats. And
| not just pets, we also feed the ferals.
| 2ICofafireteam wrote:
| You made the sale.
| tamimio wrote:
| Except the chonky ones, who would only stares back at you.
| tomjen3 wrote:
| >Cats (big and small) are best predator.
|
| And yet it is illegal for humans to hunt lions, but not for
| lions to hunt human (though unwise in the extreme).
| agloe_dreams wrote:
| Edit 2: Did I mention absolute stealth and, in some breeds,
| camouflage?
| pb7 wrote:
| Also absurdly fast reaction time means even a snake is not
| a threat.
| jwells89 wrote:
| I've read that they also attack reptiles in a way that
| exploits a reptilian weakness, which is their greatly
| reduced (relative to mammals) capacity for dealing with
| lactic acid buildup. They goad snakes, etc into repeated
| dramatic movements which causes their muscles to quickly
| saturate with lactic acid, greatly reducing their
| mobility.
| euroderf wrote:
| They also evolved in the wild as prey. This helps explain
| why they like bunkers like cardboard boxes.
|
| But think about it. If you were constantly on the alert as
| both predator and prey, you'd be pretty nutso too.
| euroderf wrote:
| In most urban environs I'd assume they're mostly killing off
| vermin (big win) and urban birds like pigeons and seagulls,
| so it's like: What, Me Worry?
| jakubmazanec wrote:
| As others said, the hunting instinct is ever present in cats.
| Our indoor-only cat is always hunting flies or moths; the flies
| are very fast, but she manages to catch them under her paw, and
| play with them before eating them. Sometimes the fly escapes,
| but the cat catches it again.
| euroderf wrote:
| And there's that phenom where the fly is buzzing loudly in
| the cat's mouth and the cat is not really crunching down on
| it yet.
| colechristensen wrote:
| Cats not raised to maturity by their mothers with significant
| outdoors access will be _worse_ at hunting on average, as some
| of it is taught or just learned at a young age. They all still
| have hunting instincts.
| Bradlinc wrote:
| Mine loves killing mice... rats may be a bit too big for her.
| hunson_abadeer wrote:
| Yes. There's plenty of rodents in urban and suburban areas, but
| above all, cats have an inborn instinct to murder small
| critters for fun, and don't need to be taught that.
|
| Rodents are their strong preference, but if bored, they will go
| after bugs, small birds, lizards... or engage in relentless
| "murder practice" using pieces of paper or cloth.
|
| This is very different than with dogs, which often have to be
| trained for specific tasks. Source: lived with 10+ cats (not at
| the same time).
| cameronh90 wrote:
| The strength of those instincts does vary from cat to cat
| though.
|
| I have two cats, and one is a cold blooded killer that'll
| attack anything that moves, including my toes. The other will
| just sniff spiders and cuddles rabbits and hamsters. It did
| once chase a small mouse, but once it had it cornered, it
| didn't do anything.
| cantrevealname wrote:
| > _cats have an inborn instinct to murder small critters for
| fun, and don 't need to be taught that_
|
| If a cat has never seen mice before and no one has taught it
| to chase mice (and if it's not even hungry), then I simply
| can't imagine how this instinct is passed on through
| genetics. Is there a DNA encoding for "chase and kill small
| moving objects, preferably mouse-like objects"? Does anyone
| know how DNA would carry information like that?
| adversaryIdiot wrote:
| yes thats what instincts are. theyre urges that you cant
| explain
| vinhcognito wrote:
| I've always had trouble with reconciling the jump from DNA
| to behaviours. These behaviours can be affected by a
| complex combination of genetics and epigenetic
| modifications leading to changes like modified neuronal
| patterning in the brain or changes in neural circuitry that
| can affect how readily certain neural patterns are forged
| which is further influenced by biological factors (learned
| behaviours and experiences).
| svachalek wrote:
| Not a biologist, but it looks like it's an urge toward
| certain behaviors that just get reinforced. A mouse tail
| running away from them is very exciting and they want to
| chase it. But a piece of string can trigger the same thing.
| They run towards it, they jump on it, they bite it, if
| they're hungry they might eat it and eventually the whole
| thing becomes a trained behavior in wild cats. A well fed
| domestic cat might get stuck on "let's be play friends
| forever" though.
| jsiepkes wrote:
| I wouldn't say my cats are smart but you can definitely see
| they are natural born killers. Everything they set their eyes
| on dies. Flies, spiders, you name it. Nothing is too quick for
| them.
|
| I keep my cats indoors (we take them in to the garden from time
| to time under supervision) for a variety of reasons one of them
| being fluffy cute little murders who kill birds and such just
| for sport...
|
| There are also birds which are smarter then cats where "killer
| instincts" don't work on. For example I've seen magpies "play"
| with cats to lure them away from their young. From the
| interaction it was clear the magpies were employing strategy
| while the cat was just reacting.
| dnh44 wrote:
| We had a black bird try this with our cat a few weeks ago to
| protect a fledgling in our garden.
|
| I would be more inclined to call the behaviour brave and
| desperate rather than smart because it doesn't always work
| out well for the birds.
| digging wrote:
| > I wouldn't say my cats are smart but you can definitely see
| they are natural born killers. Everything they set their eyes
| on dies. Flies, spiders, you name it. Nothing is too quick
| for them.
|
| Most cats I've known don't kill much. They might pounce on a
| lizard or fly to catch it and play with it, but I can't
| remember the last time I've seen them actually kill
| something. Certainly never gotten the fabled "gift" of a dead
| animal from a disappointed cat who thinks I can't get my own
| food. I wonder what the difference is.
| localplume wrote:
| [dead]
| noneeeed wrote:
| We have two cats and it differs from cat to cat, and with
| age.
|
| When they were young our female would hunt quite a bit,
| certainly several times a month. Our male was hopeless at
| it, occasionally bringing back a live mouse and then not
| knowing what to do with it.
|
| Now they have got older we have not had so much as a single
| mouse in a couple of years. I'm fairly sure I've seen more
| spiders as well.
| arethuza wrote:
| What I find fascinating is the ability our cat has to mimic a
| crying baby - this really upsets my wife. As I am the main
| cat servant in our household when our cat wants services
| (food, cuddle etc.) it complains to my wife who then issues
| the relevant orders to me.
| dylan604 wrote:
| I've heard this for years with the concept that the cat's
| vocal range developed to be like this. But not once had I
| ever heard a cat sound anything unlike a cat. Until...my
| recent adopted fur baby. He freaks me out how much like a
| kid he sounds. Just the other day, he let out a sound that
| even my coworkers on a meeting call thought I had a kid.
| It's a little unsettling at times
| qbasic_forever wrote:
| Mine has learned exactly what corners to yell into such
| that their cry/meow echoes and reverberates everywhere so
| it can't be ignored. It's kind of impressive how smart
| and adaptable cats are, lol.
| svachalek wrote:
| It's not even necessarily aimed at us. Mountain lions and
| bobcats can sound remarkably human and I'd be shocked if
| they ever had enough human prey for that to be
| intentional.
| dylan604 wrote:
| >I'd be shocked if they ever had enough human prey for
| that to be intentional.
|
| this just made me think of the movie Annihilation where
| the bear like creature got a human like voice. that would
| definitely make a walk in the woods a lot more creepy.
| jamesgreenleaf wrote:
| > Nothing is too quick for them.
|
| Cats even have a faster average reaction time than snakes.
| wkat4242 wrote:
| But they'll never hunt a snake. They have an inbuilt terror
| of them. This is why they jump at cucumbers and hiss
| (trying to scare others with snake sounds)
| maxbond wrote:
| I think the cucumber thing is about being surprised by
| something snake like. They'll absolutely fuck with snakes
| (depending on their personality).
|
| Here's a cat batting at a snake:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptJpLivNyoE
| tsavo wrote:
| Snakes are not a preferred target of cats but they will
| take them out.
|
| From personal experience. Came home on a hot summer day.
| Let the cat loose and it immediately began to act unusual
| and drew our attention to a snake that had made it into
| the house. "Petals" ended the snake in short order
| without much fanfare.
| euroderf wrote:
| A cat that can kill houseflies is a gem.
| toss1 wrote:
| Key bits:
|
| >>Relationships so complex as to connect everything to everything
| in a single network of the living.
|
| >>Playing with something whose working mechanisms are not well
| known is clearly dangerous. The consequences can be completely
| unpredictable. The strength of ecological communities is one of
| the engines of life on Earth. At every level, from the
| microscopic to the macroscopic, it is these communities,
| understood as relationships among the living, that allow life to
| persist.
|
| While climate change rightfully gets huge headlines, it is easier
| to understand than the ecosystem and food web, which is also
| being rapidly broken (in no small part by climate change).
|
| While some effects of climate change can be mitigated, a
| sufficiently broken food web is unlikely to be recoverable on a
| humanity-helpful time scale.
| mschuster91 wrote:
| > History is full of such attempts, almost always gone wrong, to
| modify the presence or the activities of single species.
|
| This kind of cascading side effects can actually work out. The
| best example is the reintroduction of the wolf in Yellowstone
| [1], but similar effects have also been observed in Germany [2].
| Another "key species", at least here in Europe, is the beaver
| [3], because its creation of wetlands aside of rivers creates an
| entire ecosystem for birds and reptiles.
|
| [1] https://www.yellowstonepark.com/things-to-
| do/wildlife/wolf-r...
|
| [2] https://www.quarks.de/umwelt/tierwelt/der-wolf-zurueck-in-
| de...
|
| [3] https://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/natur/artenvielfalt-
| bibe...
| frankhhhhhhhhh wrote:
| Let's do this to food too!
| aniken wrote:
| In appreciation of the irony:
|
| "Humankind's common ancestor with other mammals may have been a
| roughly rat-size animal that weighed no more than a half a pound,
| had a long furry tail and lived on insects."
|
| Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/08/science/common-
| ancestor-o...
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