Portal:Cats/Intro

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Felidae family includes the Lion, the Tiger, the Domestic Cat, and other felines as its members. They are the most strictly carnivorous of the fifteen families in the order Carnivora. The first felids emerged during the Eocene, about 40 million years ago. The most familiar feline is the Domestic Cat or House Cat (Felis silvestris catus), which first became associated with humans about 10,000 years ago. Its wild relatives, the Wildcats, still live in Europe, Africa and western Asia, although habitat destruction has restricted their range.

The Domestic Cat (or simply "cat", although the term can refer to all felids) is a small carnivorous mammal descended from the Desert Wildcat. The cat is a skilled predator and intelligent animal, known to hunt over 1,000 species for food, and capable of being trained (and learning by itself) to obey simple commands and manipulate simple mechanisms (see cat intelligence). It has lived in close association with humans for at least 9,500 years, figuring prominently in the mythology and legends of several cultures.

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