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Domestication of the cat. An example of a domesticated, indoor cat. A domestic tabby cat. The domestic cat originated from Near-Eastern and Egyptian populations of the African wildcat, Felis sylvestris lybica. The family Felidae, to which all living feline species belong, is theorized to have arisen about ten to eleven million years ago and is ...
May 24, 2024 · The oldest archaeological evidence for cat domestication is a 9,500-year-old grave, discovered in Cyprus in 2004, in which a Paleolithic-era human was buried with their feline pet. There is scant ...
- How Do You Make A Domestic Cat?
- Commensal Relationships
- Cat History and Archaeology
- Cats in Egypt
- Cats in China
- Breeds and Varieties and Tabbies
- Scottish Wildcat
- Sources
There are two difficulties inherent in determining when and how cats were domesticated: one is that domesticated cats can and do interbreed with their feral cousins; the other is that the primary indicator of cat domestication is their sociability or docility, traits not easily identified in the archaeological record. Instead, archaeologists rely o...
Commensal behavior is the scientific name for "hanging around with humans": the word "commensal" comes from Latin"com" meaning sharing and "mensa" meaning table. As applied to different animal species, true commensals live entirely in houses with us, occasional commensals move between houses and outdoor habitats, and obligate commensals are those t...
The oldest archaeological evidence for cats living with humans is from the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, where several animal species including cats were introduced by 7500 B.C. The earliest known purposeful cat burial is at the Neolithic siteof Shillourokambos. This burial was of a cat buried next to a human between 9500-9200 years ago. The arch...
Up until very recently, most sources believed that domesticated cats became widespread only after the Egyptian civilization took its part in the domestication process. Several strands of data indicate that cats were present in Egypt as early as the predynastic period, nearly 6,000 years ago. A cat skeleton discovered in a predynastic tomb (ca. 3700...
In 2014, Hu and colleagues reported evidence for early cat-human interactions during the Middle-Late Yangshao (early Neolithic, 7,000-5,000 cal BP) period at the site of Quanhucun, in Shaanxi province, China. Eight F. silvestris cat bones were recovered from three ashy pits containing animal bones, pottery sherds, bone and stone tools. Two of the c...
Today there are between 40 and 50 recognized cat breeds, which humans created by artificial selection for aesthetic traits they preferred, such as body and facial forms, beginning about 150 years ago. The traits selected by cat breeders include coat color, behavior, and morphology—and many of those traits are shared across breeds, meaning they were...
The Scottish wildcat is a large tabby cat with a bushy black ringed tail that is native to Scotland. There are only about 400 left and are thus among the most endangered species in the United Kingdom. As with other endangered species, threats to the wildcat's survival include habitat fragmentation and loss, illegal killing, and the presence of fera...
Bar-Oz G, Weissbrod L, and Tsahar E. 2014. Cats in recent Chinese study on cat domestication are commensal, not domesticated. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences111(10):E876.Bertolini F, Gandolfi B, Kim ES, Haase B, Lyons LA, and Rothschild MF. 2016. Evidence of selection signatures that shape the Persian cat breed. Mammalian Genome27(3):144-155.Dodson J, and Dong G. 2016. What do we know about domestication in eastern Asia? Quaternary Internationalin press.Fredriksen A. 2016. Of wildcats and wild cats: Troubling species-based conservation in the Anthropocene. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space34(4):689-705.Jun 1, 2009 · Even today most domesticated cats are free agents that can easily survive independently of humans, as evinced by the plethora of feral cats in cities, towns and countrysides the world over ...
In 2004, the unearthing of an even older site at Cyprus, in which a cat had been deliberately buried with a human, made it even more certain that the island's ancient cats were domesticated, and ...
Aug 14, 2023 · Scientific American reports that people allowed cats’ wild ancestors on their property to get rid of mice. That initial domestication eventually resulted in our house pets. According to research by Casey Smith, DNA analysis shows that kitties lived near people for thousands of years before opting to become cuddly pets.
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Domesticated cats have several behavioral traits that distinguish them from their wild ancestors. For example, they tend to be more social and affectionate towards humans, and they often seek out human attention. Domesticated cats also tend to be more tolerant of living in crowded environments, such as homes and cities.
