CATS RULE
Posted on 06/29/2007 8:02:15 AM PDT by DogByte6RER
Scientists believe cats 'sort of domesticated themselves'
THE WASHINGTON POST
June 29, 2007
WASHINGTON – Your hunch is correct. Your cat decided to live with you, not the other way around. The sad truth is, it may not be a final decision.
But don't take this feline diffidence personally. It runs in the family. And it goes back a long way – about 12,000 years, actually.
Those are among the inescapable conclusions of a genetic study of the origins of the domestic cat, being published today in the journal Science.
The findings, drawn from the analysis of nearly a thousand cats around the world, suggest that the ancestors of today's tabbies, Persians and Siamese wandered into Near Eastern settlements at the dawn of agriculture. They were looking for food, not friendship.
They found what they were seeking in the form of rodents feeding on stored grain. They stayed for 12 millennia, although not without wandering off now and again to consort with their wild cousins.
The story is quite different from that of other domesticated animals – cattle, sheep, goats, horses, and dogs, cats' main rivals for human affection. It may even provide some insight on the behavior of the animal that, if not man's best friend, is certainly his most inscrutable.
“It is a story about one of the more important biological experiments ever undertaken,” said Stephen O'Brien, a molecular geneticist at the National Cancer Institute's laboratory in Frederick, Md., and one of the supervisors of the project.
“We think what happened is that cats sort of domesticated themselves,” said Carlos Driscoll, the University of Oxford graduate student who did the work, which required him, among other things, to befriend feral cats on the Mongolian steppes.
There are today 37 species in the family Felidae, ranging from lions through ocelots down to little Mittens. All domestic cats are descended from the species Felis sylvestris (“cat of the woods”), which goes by the common name “wildcat.”
The species is indigenous to Europe, the Middle East and East Asia. The New World, Japan and Oceania lack wildcats. Their closest counterpart in North America is the lynx.
There are five subspecies of wildcats and they look very much like many pet cats, particularly nonpedigree ones. The Scottish wildcat, for example, is indistinguishable from a barn cat with a mackerel tabby coat. These animals, however, are true wild species. They are not escaped pets that have become “feral,” or reverted to the wild.
Driscoll and his collaborators, who included Oxford zoologist David Macdonald, took blood samples and ear punch biopsies from all wildcat subspecies, and from fancy-breed cats, ordinary pet cats, and feral cats. They analyzed two different kinds of genetic fingerprints.
One was nuclear DNA, which carries nearly all of an animal's genes and reflects inheritance from both parents. The other was mitochondrial DNA, which exists outside the cell nucleus, carries only a few genes, and descends through the generations only from the mothers, never from fathers.
Both fingerprints showed that domesticated cats all around the world are most closely related to the wildcat subspecies (called lybica) that lives in the Near East.
One might think that people in each region would have domesticated their local wildcats. In that case, European pet cats today would genetically most closely resemble European wildcats and Chinese cats would be descended from East Asian wildcats. But that isn't the case.
Why not?
Genetics can't answer the question, but history and archaeology can provide a good guess.
Large-scale grain agriculture began in the Near East's “Fertile Crescent.” With the storage of surplus grain came mice, which fed on it and contaminated it.
Settled farming communities with dense rodent populations were a new habitat. Wildcats came out of the woods and grasslands to exploit it. They may have lived close to man – but not petting-close – for centuries.
Eventually, though, natural selection favored individual animals whose genetic makeup by chance made them tolerant of human contact. Such behavior provided them with them with things – a night indoors, the occasional bowl of milk – that allowed them to out-compete their scaredy-cat relatives in town.
How much does hunting down, capturing, and neutering cost? I'll grant that there are even more ridiculous ways to waste money (even confining the subject to the population control of animals), but it's positively absurd... just like capturing and sterilizing deer.
And morally? Only if you've decided that it is so and incorporated it into your moral code - most commonly by people that confuse "Bambi" with a real deer. Most animals place in life is to be torn apart and eaten. That we choose to amuse ourselves with a relationship with some of them is an exception, and our care on this account should be limited to those we have an actual relationship with. The "immoral" part of this is the support and over-regulation of harvesting of an invasive species, and the wasting of perfectly good protein. ...not that I have any good recipes.
If I have a pet, others shouldn't harm it, for in doing so, they harm me. For people to revel specifically in the pain and suffering of others, including animals, is problematic. ...but to freak out because every life-form in the universe isn't going to live a painless life and death is itself problematic. ...And this whole argument mirroring the "how can we bring a child into a world with war and poverty, and Nixon?" thing is just sophistry.
To quote myself: "Sophistry...it sounds like thinking." --lepton
There's some evidence that humans have developed some special way of understanding dogs too...in other words, it goes both ways. Humans and dogs have been linked for a very long time, and dogs very distinctly incorporate humans into their pack structure.
No doubt in my mind. The little felchers. I too am a dog person. My sister however, has 7 of the little boogers. On the counters, on the table. I try to be nice. I really do. Even pet the little varmints from time to time. Wouldn’t own one though. Just not my type of critter.
Not kosher; bound to be bad for you.
What you do with you're cat is your business!
But if you were trying to not use a bad word you just stumbled onto an even worse one. I recommend you not look it up.
Each one is unique with their own distinctive personality.
I grew up with dogs but I’ve grown to love cats too!
“For whatever reason, she is constantly putting it in her water bowl then the thing squeeks nonstop till it dries out.”
Both our cats do that! It drives me nuts. We have their food in the kitchen and it’s a hardwood floor. I’ll pass on redoing the floor. Debbie likes to “paddle” in the water. Thomas our orange tabby likes to drop toys in it. When Debbie “talks” to me which she does allot I call it “squeak talk”. We love them!
Back in the ‘50s, my dad told of a jeweler in town whose only security system was two territorial Persian cats, and they were very effective.
Correction: cats are little tyrants in fur coats.
If the cat comes back, keep it indoors.
My manx does the same thing. Toys, stuff, lizards, anything goes in the water. She also has to drink running water. When she has made a “kill” she puts it in my shoe then goes thru the house making this loud throaty cry.
My other cat is sorta dumb, so he has been trained to heel, come, jump over barriers, run in circles if I tell him to. He does all the basic obedience work. Including running into the wall when I tell him to. All I need is my laser light.
The manx has taught him the basics of opening drawers and doors. (put your paws under it and move it back and forth till the latch pops.) So I have to have child latches on the important stuff. Sigh....... She does understand the principle of door knobs and I have caught her standing on her hind legs with her paws on the knob trying to work it. So far no luck, but who knows.
I have been taught to sit, stay. Sometimes a cat just needs a lap. I do what I am told.
Our Luna sticks her paw in her water bowl and drags it around. Both of our cats has spilled their water so much that we had to buy a very heavy one that will stay put. She doesn’t have a normal meow either. I don’t know what to call it, although she rarely “speaks.”
Not only is this old news, we also know that cats are not really domesticated.
LOL!
Hmmm. This makes me curious. Under which dietary law do cats fall?
My cats see it as they have ‘catesticated’ me ... they are threfore I serve them.
I only know one set, and that just barely. Clearly no hooves. Doesn’t chew cud. No thanks!
Half my employees got sick from eating crab/shrimp goop (that really smelled good) the other day -— I was golden.
I lost my 15 year old Tabby to kidney failure Tuesday morning. He was with me through the most traumatic events I’ve had to face yet, I can tell you I miss that sweet little furry face running up to greet me when I come home!
You've been to Rainbow Bridge, I assume.
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