Why are Cats Loners?
CrowdScience
BBC
4.8 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 18 February 2017
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A few weeks ago, CrowdScience asked if it pays to be nice. We found that the answer is yes – if you’re a human. But if being social is so great, why aren’t all animals doing it?
That’s what our US listener Tony wants to know. After listening to ‘Does it Pay to be Nice?’ he rightly pointed out that cats lead mostly solitary lives - but don’t seem any worse off for it. So why have they taken this path? And are they any less advanced than a social species as a result?
Presenter and naturalist Tim Cockerill heads to the rainforests of Madagascar in search of answers. After lots of trekking through the undergrowth, he finds out why so many animals choose group living and what’s different about cats to make them go it alone.
But does it matter which way of life an animal takes? Tim discovers that for humans at least, being social has given us much more than we imagine.
Do you have a question we can turn into a programme? Email us at crowdscience@bbc.co.uk
Presenter: Tim Cockerill Producer: Anna Lacey
(Photo: Cat lying on floor. Credit: Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the Crowd Science Podcast on the BBC World Service. |
| 0:06.2 | I'm Tim Cockrell and we're here to answer your questions big and small |
| 0:10.7 | about life, the universe and everything else too. Now a few weeks ago we had a question from |
| 0:16.1 | a listener in the US. |
| 0:18.1 | Hi crowd science, I'm Tony Samarra and I'm calling you from Champaign, Illinois. And my question for today's program is, does it pay to be nice? |
| 0:29.0 | Now, if you haven't heard, does it pay to be Nice and would like to, then head to BBC. |
| 0:34.5 | K.k.k.k. crowd science and find it there. |
| 0:38.4 | But for those of you who don't have a spare 26 minutes, here's a quick rundown. |
| 0:42.9 | Does it pay to be nice? |
| 0:44.4 | Yes, at least if you're human. |
| 0:46.8 | We found that cooperative group living has helped us to defend ourselves, win wars, hunt, and generally find an evolutionary path to success. |
| 0:55.0 | So we put all that to question a Tony. |
| 0:58.0 | Now Tony, what did you think to that program? |
| 1:00.0 | Well, I've found it provocative frankly I thought it brought up a lot of things I hadn't |
| 1:07.5 | thought about and it made me think and and made me explore a little bit actually. |
| 1:13.0 | Okay, this is a good start, but our conclusion about it paying to be nice raised a few issues. |
| 1:19.0 | I've just seen a program on our public TV that talked about dogs and cats and how they were so different |
| 1:27.7 | and how dogs live cooperative lives and packs and things and cats live solitary lives and it seems they've done really well cats have |
| 1:39.0 | and it didn't seem as if the first program addressed that at all. |
| 1:44.8 | So I leave it to you. |
| 1:46.8 | Well we'll certainly do our best to find out. |
| 1:48.9 | Okay, so I'm here with producer Anna, what do you think about cats? |
... |
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