LSM1303 Animal Behaviour Student Blog : cat

Inhuman Doctors: Zoopharmacognosy and Self Medicating Animals

Vigneshwaran Shunmugam — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 15:15:00 GMT

Many major cultures around the globe have developed some form of medical science. The Indians have Ayurveda, the Chinese have TCM and of course there is Western medicine. What these fields have in common is that they are derived from the process of observing the effects of certain herbs or foods on the health of the imbiber and thus correlating cause and effect. While medical science and its practitioners have long been held to be at the forefront of human intellectual pursuits, we now realise that this was no great achievement at all. In fact, even monkeys do it.

Observe this Orang Utan for example.

Right. This is just a monkey opening a packet of powder. Nothing fancy. However, monkeys DO develop their own medical techniques to deal with their own health issues. This is known as Zoopharmacognosy which is basically the animal form of Medical Science. Many species of animals use various techniques to deal with their maladies.

If you have seen your dog or cat eating grass you may have been puzzled at their sudden vegetarianism. They do have good reason for doing so. Eating grass "stimulates either retching or the rapid expulsion of worms in diarrhea" (Hart and Hart 1985). Compare this with the Tamil proverb which claims that a Tiger would not eat grass, no matter how hungry.

Medicine is not a purely mammalian pursuit either.Snakes too have herbological knowledge! "According to Chinese folklore, many centuries ago a farmer in the Yunnan district found a snake near his hut. Fearful for his life, he beat it senseless with a hoe and left it for dead. A few days later, the same snake returned. Again he tried to kill it, but again it returned. After he had beaten it a third time, the farmer followed the severely wounded snake as it crawled into a clump of weeds, started feeding on them, and thereby rapidly cured the worst of its injuries. The plant in the story was Panex notoginseng, which now forms the main ingredient in the herbal formulation 'Yunnan bai yao', a white powder that cauterizes cuts and stems external bleeding immediately. It was standard issue in the Vietnam War, for use when soldiers were wounded far from conventional medical treatment. "(Reid 1987).

Our closest cousins, the Great Apes have various methods by which they keep themselves in the pink of health.

Above we see a chimpanzee(Pan troglodytes) chewing on the bitter pith of the Vernonia Amygdalina plant. Chewing on the pith allows the chimp to extract the bitter juice that is within. THe chimpanzees use this method to kill parasites in their intestinal tracts. Interestingly, chimps do not usually eat this leaf due to it being slightly toxic to them. Thus, they only eat this leaf for medicinal purposes! This paper has extensive information on this phenomenon, complete with graphs. The author Michael Huffman is an eminent figure in the field of Zoopharmacognosy.

Chimps sometimes consume the leaves of the Aspilia plant, which they got to great lengths to obtain. The leaves are covered in stiff hairs and are swallowed whole, despite the difficulty of doing so. "Huffman doesn't doubt that there is a medicative function behind leaf swallowing behavior. His theory about how it gets rid of worms revolves around the hairiness of the leaves. Huffman found live worms in chimp *** stuck "like Velcro" to leaf hairs and trapped within the folds. He speculates that worms may become attached to the leaves or somehow enticed into the folds during digestion, taking a "magic carpet ride" through the gastrointestinal tract, eventually to be excreted from the body. Chemicals in the plant may also decrease the ability of the parasites to adhere to the intestine, making it easier for them to be swept out by the leaves."

Perhaps the animal use of medicines to treat themselves is not such a surprising phenomenon. In fact post-Darwinists should have predicted it regardless of evidence. Using medical methods enables an animal to prevent its death,prolong its life, to heal faster and have a survival advantage. This is an advantage that would allow those animals who use it to be more successful than those who dont. In the abscence of a consequent negative selection pressure, animals who self-medicate would definitely outsurvive those who do not. Thus, Zoopharmacognosy is not surprisingly prevalent in the animal kingdom.

Not only do animals consume herbs and plants as medicines, but they also consume certain types of soil(geophagy) and insects for the same purpose.

Even more interesting than the fact that animals employ medical science is the fact that many of the herbs and techniques employed by animals are similarly employed by humans. This highlights the cross pollination of medical knowledge from the animal kingdom to ours.

To learn more on the exciting field of Zoopharmacognosy, this book might help.

"Really Wild Remedies—Medicinal Plant Use by Animals" by Jennifer A. Biser. Zoogoer, January/February 1998

Huffman, M.A. 2001. Self-Medicative Behavior in the African Great Apes: An Evolutionary Perspective into the Origins of Human Traditional Medicine. Bioscience, 51(8):651-661.

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Cats and Dogs: Living in Harmony?

CHAN SHER LIN — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 15:26:00 GMT

Think of this scene, the dog chasing the cat, and the cat chasing the rat and how the cycle will go on and on forever. Here, let us focus our attention on the cat and the dog. How many of you still hold on the belief that the coexistance of cats and dogs is impossible? Although such situations do happen in real life, but it is still possible for a cat and a dog to live together.

Cats and dogs are naturally mistrustful of each other and it is really difficult for them to accept each other. Most dogs are natural predators, and they are designed by nature to chase and catch smaller animal for food. Even though dogs are domesticated for thousands of years, this predatory instinct still stay within. On the contrary, the cats automatically defend themselves against larger predators. They climb trees, and will try to scare the enemy by spitting and hitting, or launch a counter attack with its claws and teeth. Therefore, it takes a great deal of patience and effort on the part of the pet owner to train and persuade the dogs and cats to learn to live in harmony with each other.

There are several ways of training both the dog and the cat to coexist with one another.

Training of the Dog

First, teach the dog that the cat is off limits altogether and shall not be disturbed under any circumstances. This can be done by placing the cat within the dog's visual range and then taking the dog through several short daily sessions and insist that the cat cannot be approached in any way. Repeat this procedure every day, bringing the cat a little closer each time, and if the dog makes a lunge for the cat, jerk him back immediately and order him to LEAVE the cat. When the dog sits calmly or ignores the cat even when it is right next to him, let it walk around the room while the cat is present. BUT, always keep a lookout and pull the dog away IMMEDIATELY if it shows signs of a chase. REMEMBER TO ALWAYS REWARD THE DOG FOR OBEYING YOU AND IGNORING THE CAT!

Training of the Cat

Cats are highly territorial and antisocial in nature and thus, it can be difficult to introduce new dog or puppies to a resident cat. Therefore, constant reinforcement of positive social behavior will be encouraged. Cats are not like dogs, where you can take it for an obedience course to teach them how to deal with a dog. Give them some space and time to accept the new 'friend'.

In addition, cats should not be introduced to a home with dogs that have chased and tried to kill cats. These dogs will probably find it difficult to see cats as anything other than prey, and even if they do not actually manage to catch the cat they can make his life pretty miserable. Similarly, a puppy have to be protected from a territorial bully of a cat that has, by virtue of his prior experiences, a lifelong hatred of dogs. Sometimes a dog in such a situation will learn to avoid a dangerous, unequable cat. In other instances, the cat may spend his life in trepidation of the dog. Neither of these situations is desirable be avoided by prevention or rehoming of one or other of the feuding parties.

If you are thinking of mixing species, ask whether they are predatory, aggressive, territorial, solitary, or gregarious. It will give you the genetic drift on what to expect. Then ask, how the species was raised, with whom, by whom, where, and when. Next you should also look into and additional information about prior interspecies interactions of the species in question.

Here is a clip to show that IT IS POSSIBLE for a cat and a dog to live together in harmony. Here, it shows how an adult dog attend to a kitten who had just lost its mother.

Here is another video showing how Lacey, a 14 week old puppy, and Hannah, a 8 month old cat, get along together.

Always give the cat and the dog their own territory. Do not force them together to let them settle down at their own speed. You will need time and patience if these two animals from entirely different species are to become friends. It probably will happen eventually, but until you are absolutely sure, DO NOT LEAVE THEM ALONE TOGETHER!

References:
Cats and Dogs: Peaceful Coexistance, Cat Care Tips, Retrieved on 19 March 2008
Cats Living with Dogs, Petplace.com, Retrived on 20 March 2008
Cat meets Dog, will they live together peacfully?, Gwen Bailey, Retrieved on 19 March 2008
Call Me Friend, A Kitten and a Dog, Retrived 19 March 2008
Are Cats and Dogs really Enemies?, Retrieved 29 March 2008
Cat and Dog Best Friend, Retrieved 30 March 2008

Showing the Other Side some Love

ROBERTS SHARON JANE — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 08:32:00 GMT

I was searching some online news sites a while ago when I came across this very interesting story. Now, it is not surprising to hear of "special" offspring being the result of intimate physical encounters, such as the Liger, a combination of a Lion and a Tiger, or even a Zorse, the result of a Horse and a Zebra's past-time activities (Hemmy.Net, 2006). However, this really takes the cake for me. What on earth would you call these very special children of a, I can only assume, proud Mother Cat? Dats? Cogs?

Picture by National Geographic <http://new.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/11/photogalleries/wip-week4/photo3.html>

Yes, this is supposedly the result of a Dog and Cat having intercourse.

This article, featured in such credible sources as the National Geographic and other online news sites, tells of a woman in Brazil, Cassia Aparecida de Souza, who claims these cat-pups among her litter of six are a result of her cat, Mimi, mating with a neighbourhood dog three months earlier. Three of the animal offspring in the litter were such cat-pups, while the other three, with more feline features, died a while after birth. (National Geographic, 2006).

This story created much hype and media attention (WayOdd, 2006). However, most of the responses ran along the same lines.

When two organisms are inter-bred to make a "new" organism, the new organism is termed a hybrid. Hybrids of different types of dogs are not uncommon as the parents ultimately still belong to the same species (WashU, 1996). However, as many of the professionals put forth,

    "the two organisms crossed must be very closely related to produce any offspring...they must at least be in the same genus, although often that is not even enough...crossing animals from different genera will not produce offspring" (WashU, 1996).

Other responses:

    Danelle Karth: "science fiction, hopeful dreams, or silly antics of fun loving people" (Karth et al., 2008).

    Sarah Blaskey: "the location of a gene is not in the same place on the same chromosome between species...They could never match up"
    (Karth et al., 2008).

   Morgan Drake Eckstein: "It can not happen" (Karth et al., 2008).

One was a little more hopeful, a little.

"There actually is a very, very, very small chance of a hybrid organism being able to mate and produce offspring. This has to do with the manner in which the hybrid's chromosomes are shuffled in producing gametes (sperm or egg cells). There is a very small chance of producing a gamete which has all the same chromosomes which that hybrid got from one parent, and such a gamete would be compatible with a mate that is of the same species as the parent whose chromosomes are in that gamete. The odds of this happening are 1 in (2 raised to the power or N), where N is the number of pairs of chromosomes that the organism has in each cell", (Blaylock, 2004) (which is a lot).

My personal favourite comes from a lady called Santi Meintjes who responded :

"Can humans and dogs cross-breed and procreate?...So why is it acceptable to pose such a question for other animals? Both man and dog being animals as most people should know by now. I simply can not imagine the kind of moral and ethical status of the mind that comes up with this kind of trash" (Karth et al., 2008)

In short, they didn't believe it for a second.

One of the major motivatiors for agricultural cross-breeding is the perceived benefit of improving the performance of the whole production system by crossing complementary breeds to produce animals with desirable traits inherited from both parents and overall greater performance levels (Kennedy, 2003). The vision that immediately comes to my mind upon reading this is of a doctor mixing the genes of Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt and Josh Hartnett into a foetus to produce one of the most perfect human beings on the planet. As exciting, and a little warped, as that sounds, cross-breeding also poses risks of increased genetic disorders due to unnatural gene manipulation, new strains of disease and even extinction as often, such animals are unable to produce viable offspring of their own (Kennedy, 2003).

The theory that Mimi actually gave birth to cat-pups was eventually debunked through a blood test and explained away by the fact that sometimes mammals will nurse the young of another species (WayOdd, 2006). (We must be proud of the not-so-gullible members of society quoted above). I initially found it interesting that noone was willing to admit the possibility in this world of amazing, unexplainable occurences.

Although we are now certain that dogs and cats, or any other two species so distantly related, cannot procreate, this article helped shed some light for me on issues such as genetic variation (different species have a copletely different genetic make-up), inheritance (traits are passed on) and even imprinting, a form of learning where the organism is exposed to a certain key stimuli very early in their development and form an association with it (Manning and Dawkins, 1998), which may be a possible explaination for the puppies attachment to Mimi. More importantly though, this prompts us to look deeper into the issue of animals nursing the offspring of a different species (why? are they aware of the difference? will there be complications as the "foreigners" develop?, etc.), the possibility of such cross-breeding, as well as teaches us not to be so quick to belive a scientific miracle.

This article touches mainly on the issue of cross-breeding and genetic variation.

Here is an interesting related video of a "dog-bunny" (calgirl2, 2006). Weird but cute.

References:

     Blaylock, Bob. "Is it possible for a dog and cat to mate and procreate?" answerbag. 25 Feb 2004. Demand Media. 15 Mar. 2008. <http://www. answerbag.com/q_view/3422>.

    "Brazil Cat-Puppies Theory Debunked." WayOdd. 21 Nov. 2006. AHN MediaCorp. 15 Mar. 2008. <http://www.wayodd.com/brazil-cat-puppies-theory-debunked/v/5797/>.

    calgirl2. "dog-bunny hybrid animal jumping around my bed." YouTube. 7 Mar. 2006. YouTube. 15 Mar. 2008. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOR3c-nf_o4>.

    Karth, Denelle, Blaskey, Sarah, Pagay, Mary, Eckstein, Morgan Drake and Meintjes, Santi. "Can cats and rabbits cross-breed and pro-create?" Helium. 2008. Helium, Inc. 15 Mar. 2008. <http://www.helium.com/items/581345-quite-frankly-hypothetical-question>.

    Kennedy, Delma. "Crossbreeding." Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. 5 Dec. 2003. Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. 15 Mar. 2008. <http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/livestock/sheep/facts/xbreed.htm>.

    Manning, A and Dawkins, M. S. An Introduction to Animal Behaviour. UK: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

    "National Geographic News." National Geographic. 15 Nov. 2006: Week in Photos: November 10-November 16, 2006: 3. USA: National Geographic Society. 15 Mar. 2008. <http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/11/photogalleries/wip-week4/photo3.html>.

    "Top 10 Hybrid Animals." Hemmy.Net. 19 June 2006. Hemmy Inc. 15 Mar. 2008. <http://www.hemmy.net/2006/06/19/top-10-hybrid-animals/>.

    WashU, Michael Onken. "Re: cross breeding." MadSci Network: Genetics. 30 May 1996. Washington University. 15 Mar. 2008. <http://www.madsci.org/archives/1996-05/831665023.Ge.r.html>.