Fitness - "Wild"cats

    Fitness is how successful an individual organism is at reproducing and thus creating more of their genetic material. The better the individual is able to adapt and survive in their environment, the better they are able to reproduce and potentially care for their young. The more they reproduce, the more they will be able to create more of their specific genes. Their offspring can in turn reproduce, given the right conditions, and thus further strengthen their genetic fitness.

    To measure fitness, I would look at the genetic frequency or specific frequency of an allele in a population. I would select an allele and genotype that corresponded to a particular phenotype. 

    Let’s make a hypothetical situation to demonstrate how we can measure the fitness of cats - I say hypothetical because this should definitely not be done IRL; everyone needs to spay/neuter their cats. Let’s put them out in the country in an area full of squirrels, birds, rats, and coyotes. The cats have plenty of resources, but they do have predators. Let’s place an equal frequency of common cats (like tabbies, grey cats, calico cats, white cats), Maine Coon cats (generally fluffier, slightly large, and have stripe-like patterns on their bodies including an ‘M’ on their forehead), and pure Siamese cats (white bodies with colorings on their paws, faces, ears, and the tips tails). None of the original cats should be entirely black - I’ll explain that in a second. Each cat and their offspring will be easy to identify based on the coloring and markings of their coats. Additionally, Maine Coon cats are generally slightly larger in build while Siamese are usually more slender in build. The cats will be allowed to hunt, reproduce, and be free-range. Cats have relatively short generational periods, so it will be easy to observe new generations relatively quickly. With the conditions of their environment, I want to observe which coat-color phenotypes are best suited to this “wild” environment.

    All the cats can breed with one another, thus mixing/combining allele frequencies more or less. When a Siamese cat breeds with another cat that is not Siamese, their offspring will be black and generally also slenderly built. That is why no black cats will be introduced initially. Additionally, knowing that the color pattern for Siamese cats comes from a pair of homozygous genes, we can still determine the genotype from the observed phenotype of the offspring of F2 and potentially F3 generations - as long as we stay observant.

    There are several factors to consider for the survival of the cats. They will need to be able to hunt, so it can be hypothesized that the slightly bigger Maine Coon cats will be better able to hunt, especially when easier prey such as rats become scarce. The cats will have to evade predators. Coyotes become more active at night, so cats with darker colored coats will be better able to evade coyotes. This means that the Siamese P1 and F2 generations may have lower fitness, but the black, half-Siamese cats of the F1 generation will, in theory, be better protected than the other cats in the population. This means the Siamese allele will still be present, but the phenotype will be different.

    I have no idea what the allele frequencies or general cat population would look like after a couple of generations. I would guess that a half-Siamese, half-Maine Coon cat would fare well with dark coloring, potentially longer hair, and normal stature. I would guess that in the end, the common cats would do very well, especially after breeding with Siamese cats and/or Maine Coons. This means that the common cat allele will be more prolific, but there would still be Siamese and Maine Coon alleles present. I’m sure there is a way to simulate this on a computer somehow. It’s just interesting to think about. Especially because the subject is cats ;) .




Side note: The prompt asked, “How would you measure fitness in a natural population?” Are humans considered a natural population?
    My answer would be no because we have means to overcome infertility and reproduce somewhat artificially. Although we can select based on appearance, behavior, and social class, that doesn’t necessarily mean that other people will be selected against all the time. If anything, selection for positive traits such as perfect eyesight has become null because of our innovations and technologies to enhance ourselves and our capabilities. Please comment what you think down below.

Here is a video of my cat Eve and me. We think she is part Siamese.

She loves to be up high on the towel shelf.

Sorry, not sorry for all the pictures.