The Representation of Behavioural Patterns of a Male Cat (Felis Domesticus), in Kolkata, India

According to Lehner (1987) ethogram is the catalogue of descriptions of the discrete, species-typical behaviour patterns that form the basic behaviuoral repertoire of the species. My pet cat "Pussy"(Sex : male, Age : 5 years old) was taken as a specimen for watching the behavioural patterns, and I constructed a behavioural catalogue and then an ethogram of that pet cat based on the observations on 6^th September,2005 was prepared.

METHOD OF STYDY

Cat (Felis domesticus) is a member of infraclass Eutheria and known as a well available domestic animal through the whole Kolkata city of India.

For the construction of the ethogram firstly I reported all the behavioural components of my pet cat through 12 hours (from 6.30 A.M. to 6.30 P.M.) of the stated day of the study. After that I prepared a time allotment chart with different behaviours observed to study that how much time was spent for a particular behavioural component within the total specified time. From this study I got the ideas about the ethological patterns of that animal for a certain period. During the whole study period the cat was capable of free movements. The cat slept on my bed, and ate the food that was kept for him on my dining table like everyday.

RESULTS

A. Behavioural patterns as shown by the specimen cat during observation period :

1. Sleeping,licking himself, cleaning body etc. = Maintenance behaviour.

2. Rubbing, loafing, yawning etc. = Comfort behaviour.

3. Eating, drinking = Feeding behavior.

4. Watching opposite sex, courting etc. = Reproductive behaviour.

5. Agonistic, spending time or playing with other cats etc. = Social behaviour.

6. Alarming, shouting at enemy etc. = Defense behaviour.

B. The list of the behaviours with the time ranges (within 12 hours) is given below :

TYPES OF BEHAVIOURTIMERANGES

1. Maintenance behaviours -------------------------------- 5 Hours 35 minutes

2. Comfort behaviuors -------------------------------- 3 Hours 43 minutes

3. Feeding behavoiurs --------------------------------- 1 Hour 05 minutes

4. Reproductive behaviours --------------------------------- 1 Hour 15 minutes

5. Social behaviours --------------------------------- 0 Hour 10 minutes

6. Defence behaviours --------------------------------- 0 Hour 12 minutes

C. Ethogram preparation :

A pie diagram is drawn on the basis of time ranges reported for each behaviour. (Pie diagram is given as a photograph at the side of the text)

The individual time of each behaviour is divided by the total time taken for this work. Thus I got a percentage when I multiply 100 with the dividing result for each behaviour.

DISCUSSION

It was seen from the behavioural catalogue and ethogram structure that on the study day and during the study time the Cat spent of his maximum time in Maintenance behaviours (47%) that includes sleeping, cleaning his body etc. Additionally I must state that according to my observations it was revealed that that Cat was busy mostly in sleeping through the whole study period (4 hours 53 minutes). It may be due to it was a domestic pet cat, so, without having a tension in his mind to search food. But these features are also quite same to other cats also. Besides these comments I must mention one thing that cats are very lovable by human through the whole world, that's may helped them to adapt this tendency to prefer these type of behaviours because the tension of food search is almost absent in their minds as they get foods by people (in some cases they steal foods from home of the people)

Some examples of likeness of cat is given below :

1. People take cats on their laps to love them by touching their polished hairy body surface. It is so nice. The cats also gladly accept the love of people by closing their eyes.
2. Office returning tired people occasionally choose cats as an entertainmental thing to tell it 'Hi! Hello....'etc.
3. Cats are lovable by women because the sweetness and youngness of Cats give them a touch of a little child.
4. Children like cats as their playing object.

After maintenance behaviour the second type of behaviour performed preferably was comfort behaviour (31%) during my 12 hours observations on 6^th September,2005. Reproductive and feeding behaviour were given about same preferences that is 10 % and 9 % respectively. This percentage of reproductive behaviour may be changed during the period when the animal is not interested to its opposite sex, but feeding behaviour will be given the same or more preference because as we know that eating is more essential than the willing of perpetuation. It was seen that the above mentioned time durations for each behaviour is more or less same trough the different years where maintenance behaviour and comfort behaviour were given the highest preferences than other type of behaviours by my pet cat. This data ranges were also found more or less same in case of others cats of my locality and also in others areas of Kolkata, India.