h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

"It’s my theory that all feral cat populations will eventually revert to the tabby pattern... Why this reversion, if it’s indeed the case? Perhaps selection for camouflage, although I’m not sure what preys on feral cats."

Predators might differ from one continent or country to another. In much of the U.S. Eastern Seaboard, coyotes are numerous enough to prey on small cats and dogs and even human toddlers. In Scotland, perhaps there are large birds of prey that would do so.

The larger owls are notable for preying on cats, so are golden eagles.

However, from the cat's point of view, an important issue is not being seen by the prey.

Bold tabby markings make it easy for the cat to disappear in the shadowed understructure of brush, "grey like smoke, dappled like shadow".

If the cat's point of view has any bearing on its markings. Chameleons can change color. I've known a cat who could do so, except maybe in a Lloyd Webber musical .

Sorry, I meant "I've *never* known a cat who could do so.

The cat's point of view is manifested in its choice of backgrounds and lurking areas.

They do selectively prefer backgrounds of their own colors and markings patterns.

Though most cat populations in woodland environments revert eventually to grey tabby markings, in grasslands they often revert to an orange tabby pattern and black cats are about equally common in both cases.

In desert environments, there doesn't seem to be any very strong selective advantage for different colors and patterns.

This opens up an evolutionary . Variations should be largely random, so one wonders whether nonrandom variations would pop up that favored survival. If spots and stripes are in a cat's genome, and they reappear given enough generations, I guess it could happen the way you've described. Still, I've often wondered how the body would gravitate in favorable directions. There seems to be a new and promising study of traits that crop up in one generation and seem to recur in the next generation, even though the genetics are identical. For instance, a study of people who were temporarily deprived developed obesity, and their children tended toward obesity too, even though the genetic inheritance favored slimness.