To quote Wikipedia (I know quoting it is not the best thing to do HAHA, but still it can be a good source of general information) but anyways:
But the cat at the canteen today simply did not catch the rat- in fact, it thought of it more as a toy or something, chasing it around the canteen. It was more like curiosity rather than it actually 'hunting'. Perhaps you could say that the cat was not very hungry but I doubt it had eaten much, since it's the term break & probably no one came to feed it. The cat continued to follow the rat. In the end, the cat did not catch the rat and watched it scurry away.Even well-fed domestic cats may hunt and kill, mainly catching small mammals, but also birds, amphibians, reptiles, fish and invertebrates.[128][161] Hunting by domestic cats may be contributing to the decline in the numbers of birds in urban areas, although the importance of this effect remains controversial.[162] In the wild, the introduction of feral cats during human settlement can threaten native species with extinction.[157] In many cases controlling or eliminating the populations of non-native cats can produce a rapid recovery in native animals.[163] However, the ecological role of introduced cats can be more complicated: for example, cats can control the numbers of rats, which also prey on birds' eggs and young, so in some cases eliminating a cat population can
actually accelerate the decline of an endangered bird species in the presence of a mesopredator, controlled by cats.[164]
Maybe cats no longer actually catch rats/insects/etc, or hardly ever. Haha does this discount them as 'useful pets'? Hehe... Perhaps this is also due to human intervention; the cats no longer 'hunt' because they're fed by cat-lovers???
Just an assumption and food for thought! ^^"
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