• frezik@midwest.social
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    14
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    5 days ago

    Did they model their meows, or did they have a trait that happened to work in a new environment and then pass it on?

    • lugal@sopuli.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      20
      ·
      5 days ago

      From my understanding, wild cats only meow when little and domesticated cats keep this juvenile trait into adulthood

      • TheFogan@programming.dev
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        5 days ago

        To my knowledge that’s a lot of how domestication winds up being.

        What I found interesting was a study when they tried to domesticate silver foxes for the fur industry (because basically they didn’t take to being raised in fur farms well). So basically they were selectively bread for not being aggressive to humans.

        Which worked, but the drawbacks were effectively… all of their childlike traits remained. IE their ears stayed floppy, and they stopped growing the silver coat that was the whole reason the fur industry wanted them.

        Basically I think it could be said that effectively… most domestication traits are more or less, keeping childlike mentality for life in animals.