Claws and effect highlighted at museum exhibit

Friday, June 11, 2004 | 10:09 a.m.

What: "Cats! Wild to Mild."

When: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily, through December.

Where: Las Vegas Natural History Museum, 900 Las Vegas Blvd. North.

Admission: $6; $5 for seniors, military and students; $3 for children ages 3 to 11; free for children under 2.

Information: 384-3466.

Cats are fastidious, maternal, athletic, languorous, sinuous and carnivorous.

They're objects of worship, creatures with excellent hearing, luminous eyes, elegant whiskers and big canine teeth.

This we are told in a three-minute video at the Las Vegas Museum of Natural History that attempts to answer the deeply philosophical question, "What is a cat?"

Welcomed into households 4,000 years ago to rid them of rats, these mammals have become stigmatized over the years as persnickety prima donna house bosses that in some cases prefer bottled water to tap.

But there is so much more, which is why the museum on Las Vegas Boulevard North took in the touring exhibit "Cats! Wild to Mild," created by the Los Angeles Museum of Natural History.

"People are just really fascinated by cats," said Marilyn Gillespie, director and founder of the museum, which opens "Cats! Mild to Wild" today.

"People love cats or hate them. There is no in between."

"Wild to Mild," which runs through December, examines the history, biology and evolution of the Felidae. It looks at coat color, mating rituals, ancient burial rituals, cats in popular culture, claw retraction and why cats sleep so much.

"We are just so thrilled with it," Gillespie said. "There's so many interactive things with this exhibit. There's so much content."

This is the second large-scale exhibit created by the Los Angeles museum and hosted by the Las Vegas Natural History Museum. "Wild to Mild" takes up 5,000 square feet, includes sensors that trigger rumbling growls and purrs and interactive displays to quiz knowledge of cats.

A map details how cats spread from the Middle East and Egypt to other parts of the world in three phases. One board exhibits the 36 breeds recognized by Cat Fanciers Association, and a large section of the exhibit is geared toward the decline of endangered wild cats, including the tiger.

"We are in grave danger of losing this animal because of the (loss of) habitat and in part because of the animals being used for different parts," Gillespie said.

Pointing to a leopard, she added, "This talks about the usefulness of having a patterned coat. But because of these beautiful coats it's made them very vulnerable to humans who want the coats."

A small section is reserved for cats who have been given acting careers, appeared in musicals, comic strips and poetry. There is even mention of "Jingle Cats," the CD of cats meowing the best of Christmas songs.

Some believe that the millions of cats destroyed in the 12th and 13th centuries by superstitious Christians helped spread the black plague that wiped out much of Europe.

South American shamans believed they could turn into jaguars, "probably from all the hallucinogenics they took," Gillespie said.

But a warning to the faint-hearted. Among the stuffed and mounted bobcats, Canadian lynx, snow leopard, clouded leopard and small wild species are stuffed domestic cats.

Oddly, the amount of corpses available for this kind of display is indirectly connected to the pet responsibility portion of the exhibit that points to the high amount of homeless cats in the United States and a display about neutering that details how one non-neutered cat and her offspring can have up to 30,000 cats in two years.

In conjunction with the message, Lied Animal Shelter will hold cat adoptions at the museum on Saturdays.

"We've had relations with the domestic cat for about 8,000 years," Gillepsie said. "Four thousand years ago the household cat came into being."

Now, she said, "It's the No. 1 companion pet in America."