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Comment by zebraflask | Hacker News Reader

Some are smarter than others, but I think, in terms of animal behavior or ecology, cats are basically carnivorous rabbits.

That's not to say anyone who has had a trainable cat doesn't like them - mine have their moments - but I think it's worthwhile to consider that.

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In what way do you see a similarity to rabbits? I think of them as being pretty different, with cats being less social and more likely to take risks.

rabbits are just prey animals and that shows in their behavior and attitude, whereas cats do a lot of predation themselves.

However, cats are far from the top of the food chain themselves, which is reflected in a lot of their behaviors.

House cats and big cats don't behave very differently.

https://lithub.com/house-cats-and-wild-cats-arent-actually-t...

Uh, that article is not about house cats vs big cats. The still-extant ancestral species of the domestic cat, F. lybica, is a small wildcat, as were its ancestors, and as such a predator but not an apex predator. Big cats, which typically are apex predators in their respective ecosystems, are a wholly separate branch of the felid family.

Recent research showed that house cats share nearly 95 or was it 96% of their DNA with big cats

The same is true of humans and orangutans, that comparatively small percentage can clearly account for massive differences in behavior and intelligence.

Sounds like a lot, until you realize they share 90% with humans.

Some rabbits (or rather hares) are pretty hardcore.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Backcountry/comments/ul61y6/snow_ra...

I’m disappointed that this isn’t a reference to Monty Python.

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