Feline Behaviour and Welfare

Providing a veterinary perspective as well as an ethological one, this book looks at the feline genus as a whole. Focusing on identifying normal behaviour from the cat's perspective, it has a welfare theme running throughout; as normal behaviour provides evidence of good welfare, abnormal behaviour can be an indicator of poor welfare. Cats are the world's most popular domestic pet, as well as being wild animals. This comprehensive book on feline behaviour explores both the familiar domesticated animal and wild relatives such as the leopard, tiger and lynx to examine the Felidae family as a whole, allowing for fascinating comparisons between wild and domestic species and explanations of behaviour in pet cats with evolutionary origins. Fraser's work helps increase readers' understanding of cat behaviour - why they behave as they do, for what purpose and why. The focus is on identifying normal behaviour from the cat's perspective, with a welfare theme running throughout; as exhibitions of normal behaviour provide evidence of good welfare, and abnormal behaviour can be an indicator of poor welfare. Providing a veterinary perspective - by including coverage of feline physiology, life stages and reproduction - as well as an ethological one, this is an important read for veterinarians, shelter workers, animal behaviourists and students of veterinary medicine and animal welfare, while also being of interest to pet owners.