Read Catwatching for Free Online Page B

them with great interest.
    If they are not threatening, what do the territorial scent-marks signify? What signals do they carry? The answer is that they function rather as newspapers do for us. Each morning we read our papers and keep up to date with what is going on in the human world. Cats wander around their territories and, by sniffing at the scent-marks, can learn all the news about the comings and goings of the feline population.
    They can check how long it has been since their own last visit (by the degree of weakening of their own last scent-spray) and they can read the odoursigns of who else has passed by and sprayed, and how long ago.
    Each spray also carries with it considerable information about the emotional state and the individual identity of the sprayer. When a cat decides to have another spray itself, it is the feline equivalent of writing a letter to The Times, publishing a poem, and leaving a calling card, all rolled into one jet of urine.
    It might be argued that the concept of scent-signalling is far-fetched and that urine-spraying by cats is simply their method of getting rid of waste products from the body and that it has no other significance whatsoever. If a cat has a full bladder it will spray; if it has an empty bladder it will not spray. The facts contradict this. Careful observation shows that cats perform regular spraying actions in a set routine, regardless of the state of their bladder. If it happens to be full, then each squirt is large. If it is nearly empty, then the urine is rationed out. The number of squirts and the territorial areas which are scent-marked remain the same, no matter how much or how little liquid the cat has drunk. Indeed, if the cat has completely run out of urine, it can be seen continuing its scent-marking routine, laboriously visiting each scent-post, turning its back on it, straining and quivering its tail, and then walking away. The act of spraying has its own separate motivation, which is a clear indication of its importance in feline social life.
    Although it is not generally realized, females and neutered cats of both sexes do spray jets of urine, like tom-cats. The difference is that their actions are less frequent and their scent far less pungent, so that we barely notice it.
     

How large is a cat's territory?
     
    The wild counterpart of the domestic cat has a huge territory, with males patrolling up to 175 acres. Domestic cats which have gone wild and are living in remote areas where there is unlimited space also cover impressively large areas. Typical farm cats use nearly as much space, the males ranging over 150 acres. Female farm cats are more modest, using only about fifteen acres on average. In cities, towns and suburbs, the cat population becomes almost as overcrowded as that of the human citizens. The territories of urban cats shrink to a mere fraction of the home range enjoyed by their country cousins. It has been estimated that cats living rough in London, for example, enjoy only about one-fifth of an acre each. Pampered pet cats living in their owners' houses may be even more restricted, depending on the size of the gardens attached to the houses. The maximum density recorded is one pet cat per one-fiftieth of an acre.
    This degree of variation in the size of feline territories shows just how flexible the cat can be. Like people, it can adjust to a massive shrinkage of its home ground without undue suffering. From the above figures it is easy to calculate that 8,750 crowded pet cats could be fitted into the territory of one wild cat living in a remote part of the world. The fact that the social life of the crowded cats does not become chaotic and vicious is a testimony to the social tolerance of cats. In a way this is surprising, because people often speak of the sociability of dogs, but stress that cats are much more solitary and unsociable. They may be so by choice, but given the challenge of living whisker-by-tail with other cats, they manage