The impact of paternity and early socialisation on cats' behaviour to people and novel objects

McCune studied how genetics and early experience shape feline friendliness, comparing kittens from bold versus shy fathers and kittens that were handled versus unhandled early in life. Both paternity and early socialisation independently influenced how cats later responded to people and novel objects, and their effects combined: well-socialised kittens from bold fathers were the most confident. The study demonstrated that temperament is shaped by both heritable predisposition and the sensitive socialisation period in early kittenhood. It is a classic reference for understanding feline boldness and fearfulness, with direct implications for breeding, hand-rearing, shelter socialisation programs and predicting which cats will cope well with human contact.