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https://theconversation.com/love-for-cats-lures-students-into-this-course-which-uses-feline-research-to-teach-science-235838>
"
What prompted the idea for the course?
I’m an evolutionary biologist who has spent my career studying the evolution of
small lizards in the Caribbean. I’m also a lifelong cat lover, but it never
occurred to me to do anything scientific with house cats. They’re hard to study
– ever tried to follow your cat around to see what they’re doing? And in
contrast to amply studied lions, tigers and other wild felines, I was under the
impression that there wasn’t any interesting research being conducted on the
domestic representative of the cat clan,
Felis catus.
Twelve years ago, I learned that I was completely wrong. Thanks to John
Bradshaw’s book “Cat Sense” and the BBC’s “The Secret Life of the Cat,” I
discovered that ailurologists were using the same cutting-edge methods – GPS
tracking, genome sequencing, isotopic analysis – to study domestic cats that I
use to study lizards and other researchers use with all manner of other
creatures.
Thus was born my class on the science of cats. I’d lure students in with their
love of felines and then, when they weren’t looking, I’d teach them how
scientists study biodiversity – ecology, evolution, genetics and behavior."
Share and enjoy,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
