this post was submitted on 22 Jun 2024
688 points (98.9% liked)
cats
19204 readers
862 users here now
typical internet cats. videos, pics, memes welcome!
rule 1) be kind
other cat communities midwest.social cats
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
You've taken an apex predator, evolved for the stresses of the tooth and claw natural world, fulfilled their every need and whim, and now all they have left is choir practice and occasional surprise attacks on unwary feet.
Not to be pedantic, but cats are mesopredators.
I think that might be geographic dependent, for instance there's nothing around here that would predate cats, which would suggest they are, locally at least, apex by default.
There aren't many wildcats left here though, maybe if there were we'd see larger predators move in and push cats down the food chain, so I can see the mesopredator argument.
No foxes?
I don't think foxes typically go for cats around here, and, as far as I'm aware, not much eats them either. We don't have any of the larger predators that might kill them just to remove competition either, so I suppose foxes are apex predators here too.
On the other hand, I can see either a cat or a fox being a tasty morsel for a bear, so tge whole apex/meso distinction is certainly location dependent.