Description

The past present and future of the worlds most popular and beloved pet from a leading evolutionary biologist and great cat lover

Engaging and wideranging The Age of Cats is a readable and informed exploration of the wildcat that lurks within Fluffy Washington Post

Why dont lions meow Why does my cat leave a dead mouse at my feet And why is a pet ocelot a bad idea

Jonathan B Losos unravels the secrets of the cat using all the tools of modern technology from GPS tracking youll be amazed where they roam and genomics what is your socalled Siamese cat really to forensic archaeology He tells the story of the cats domestication if you can call it that and gives us a catseye view of the world today Along the way we also meet their wild cousins whose behaviours are eerily similar to even the sweetest of house cats
Drawing on his own research and life in his multicat household Losos deciphers complex science and history and explores how selection both natural and artificial over the millennia has shaped the contemporary cat
Yet the cat ever a predator still seems to have only one paw out of the wild and readily reverts to its feral ways as it occupies new habitats around the world Looking ahead this charming and intelligent book suggests what the future may hold for the special bond between Felis catus and Homo sapiens