this post was submitted on 08 May 2025
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I’m pretty sure we provided them food and shelter because they catch rodents, not because they “mimic babies” (??)
Mimicry in nature is never intentional on the conscious part of the mimic though (ok exception is maybe octopi). It evolves like that because it works. Perhaps cats are evolving to become more cute.
Mimicry not, but a lot of "cute" behaviour is absolutely learned. If our dog wants something, she pokes you with her paw while making a cute face. Must have learned that from her previous owners. Our previous dog (who we had for much longer) never did that. That shit is 100% conscious effort, as in she observed humans tapping each other on the shoulder and figuring out that it works for her as well.
They probably are, but that’s because of selective breeding.
I think baby-like facial features are just a part of the domestication syndrome. There has been this long-going domestication experiment with silver foxes that could show that when only selected for tameness the foxes still expressed most of the traits found in other domesticated animals, too.