this with a great deal of crooning, rubbing and especially writhing on the ground. The males still sit around watching her, and from time to time manage to muster enough enthusiasm to mount her once more.
Eventually it is all over and the chances of a female cat returning home unfertilized after such an event are utterly remote.
Why does the tom grab the female by the scruff of the neck when mating?
At first sight this appears to be a piece of macho brutality, in similar vein to the cartoon caveman grabbing his mate by her hair and dragging her off to his cave. Nothing could be further from the truth.
In sexual matters it is the female, not the male, who is dominant, where cats are concerned. Toms may fight savagely among themselves, but when they are sexually aroused and attempting to mate with the queen they are far from bossy. It is the female who swipes out and beats the toms. The bite on the back of her neck may look savage, but in reality it is a desperate ploy on the part of the male to protect himself from further assault.
This protection is of a special kind. It is not a matter of forcibly holding down the female so that she cannot twist round and attack him.
She is too strong for that. Instead it is a 'behaviour trick' played by the male. All cats, whether male or female, retain a peculiar response to being grabbed firmly by the scruff of the neck, dating back to their kitten days. Kittens have an automatic reaction to being held in this way by their mother. She uses it when it is necessary to transport the kittens from an unsafe to a safe place. It is crucially important that the kittens do not struggle on such occasions, where their very lives may be at stake. So felines have evolved a 'freeze' reaction to being taken by the scruff of the neck – a response which demands that they stay quite still and do not struggle. This helps the mother in her difficult task of moving the litter to safety. When they grow up, cats never quite lose this response, as you can prove to yourself by holding an adult pet cat firmly by the skin of its neck.
It immediately stops moving and will remain immobile in your grasp for some time before becoming restless. If you grasp it firmly on some other part of its body the restlessness is much quicker to occur, if not instantaneous. This 'immobilization reaction' is the trick the toms apply to their potentially savage females. The females are so claw-happy that the toms badly need such a device. As long as they hang on with their teeth, they have a good chance that the females will be helplessly transformed into 'kittens lying still in their mother's jaws'. Without such a behaviour trick the tom would return home with even more scars than usual.
Why does the female scream during the mating act?
As the tom finishes the brief act of copulation, which lasts only a few seconds, his female twists round and attacks him, swiping out savagely with her claws and screaming abuse at him. As he withdraws his penis and dismounts he has to move swiftly, or she is liable to injure him.
The reason for her savage reaction to him at this point is easy to understand if you examine photographs of his penis taken under the microscope. Unlike the smooth penis of so many other mammals, the cat's organ is covered in short, sharp spines, all pointing away from the tip.
This means that the penis can be inserted easily enough, but when it is withdrawn it brutally rakes the walls of the female's vagina. This causes her a spasm of intense pain and it is this to which she reacts with such screaming anger. The attacked male, of course, has no choice in the matter. He cannot adjust the spines, even if he wishes to do so.
They are fixed and, what is more, the more sexually virile the male, the bigger the spines. So the sexiest male causes the female the most pain.
This may sound like a bizarre sado-masochistic development in feline sex, but there is a special biological reason for it. Human
Eventually it is all over and the chances of a female cat returning home unfertilized after such an event are utterly remote.
Why does the tom grab the female by the scruff of the neck when mating?
At first sight this appears to be a piece of macho brutality, in similar vein to the cartoon caveman grabbing his mate by her hair and dragging her off to his cave. Nothing could be further from the truth.
In sexual matters it is the female, not the male, who is dominant, where cats are concerned. Toms may fight savagely among themselves, but when they are sexually aroused and attempting to mate with the queen they are far from bossy. It is the female who swipes out and beats the toms. The bite on the back of her neck may look savage, but in reality it is a desperate ploy on the part of the male to protect himself from further assault.
This protection is of a special kind. It is not a matter of forcibly holding down the female so that she cannot twist round and attack him.
She is too strong for that. Instead it is a 'behaviour trick' played by the male. All cats, whether male or female, retain a peculiar response to being grabbed firmly by the scruff of the neck, dating back to their kitten days. Kittens have an automatic reaction to being held in this way by their mother. She uses it when it is necessary to transport the kittens from an unsafe to a safe place. It is crucially important that the kittens do not struggle on such occasions, where their very lives may be at stake. So felines have evolved a 'freeze' reaction to being taken by the scruff of the neck – a response which demands that they stay quite still and do not struggle. This helps the mother in her difficult task of moving the litter to safety. When they grow up, cats never quite lose this response, as you can prove to yourself by holding an adult pet cat firmly by the skin of its neck.
It immediately stops moving and will remain immobile in your grasp for some time before becoming restless. If you grasp it firmly on some other part of its body the restlessness is much quicker to occur, if not instantaneous. This 'immobilization reaction' is the trick the toms apply to their potentially savage females. The females are so claw-happy that the toms badly need such a device. As long as they hang on with their teeth, they have a good chance that the females will be helplessly transformed into 'kittens lying still in their mother's jaws'. Without such a behaviour trick the tom would return home with even more scars than usual.
Why does the female scream during the mating act?
As the tom finishes the brief act of copulation, which lasts only a few seconds, his female twists round and attacks him, swiping out savagely with her claws and screaming abuse at him. As he withdraws his penis and dismounts he has to move swiftly, or she is liable to injure him.
The reason for her savage reaction to him at this point is easy to understand if you examine photographs of his penis taken under the microscope. Unlike the smooth penis of so many other mammals, the cat's organ is covered in short, sharp spines, all pointing away from the tip.
This means that the penis can be inserted easily enough, but when it is withdrawn it brutally rakes the walls of the female's vagina. This causes her a spasm of intense pain and it is this to which she reacts with such screaming anger. The attacked male, of course, has no choice in the matter. He cannot adjust the spines, even if he wishes to do so.
They are fixed and, what is more, the more sexually virile the male, the bigger the spines. So the sexiest male causes the female the most pain.
This may sound like a bizarre sado-masochistic development in feline sex, but there is a special biological reason for it. Human
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