The Tribe of Tiger: Cats and Their Culture
by By Thomas, Elizabeth Marshall and Williams, Jared Taylor (ILT)
Category: Science , General

Elizabeth Marshall Thomas has an instinct for animals and for what makes them behave the way they do. This time her subject is felines - housecats and their wild siblings. "As the cherub is to the angel, so the cat is to the tiger," she writes, "and although today we tend to put the relationship the other way around, saying that tigers are a kind of cat rather than that cats are a kind of tiger, the fact is that cats and tigers do represent the two extremes of one family, the alpha and omega of their kind."The story of this graceful, resourceful tribe begins with what cats are: meat-eaters, first and foremost. But as Thomas shows, within that stark equation abides an astonishing range of experience and expression. Contrary to popular belief, cats - even tigers - are not solitary beings, but are homebodies who "own" property much as we do and favor extended clans when food supplies permit. They communicate eloquently with one another and with us - although they interpret our idioms better than we do theirs. Like dogs, they include us in their family structures, but while dogs treat us as friends and equals, cats relate to us hierarchically, as parents or children, and we tend to reciprocate. Most crucially, cats are, like us, individuals who - instinct notwithstanding - pass on, adapt, and invent codes of deportment as circumstances require.Cats, in other words, have culture. Whether they live among us or in the wild, as solo hunters or in circus troupes, they sustain an intricate, elegant, ever-changing web of community with us, among themselves, and with the other creatures, great and small, who dwell in the world.