Experts Say Living With Humans Has Had A Strange Impact On Cats
We all know that our pet cats are relatives of some of the world’s most ferocious hunters. But as they became tame, they changed in some interesting ways compared to their wild counterparts. Yes, many cats will still chase a mouse if they see one. And they’re very much like the wildcats that they descended from in some respects. Yet they differ from them in an important way that’s likely to surprise you.
Lots of cats
There are certainly a lot of cats in the United States. In fact, nearly 60 million of the animals call the Land of the Free their home. More than a quarter of U.S. households have a pet cat, and most of those owners have more than one. They’re a fixture in our lives, for sure, with so many of us welcoming them into our families.
Descent of the species
All of those cats have descended from one ancestor species. That’s the North African/Southwest Asian wildcat, whose scientific name is Felis sylvestris lybica. But the long time that they’ve spent with us humans has brought about a peculiar change in our furry friends. And it all relates to something that they don’t need because they have us.
Ancient friends
When we say cats have been with us for a long time, we mean a long time. They first became domesticated during the Neolithic era — or New Stone Age. That was in the Fertile Crescent of Southwest Asia, though it was the ancient Egyptians who really took to the furry beasts.
They lived among us
But what may surprise you is that cats had been our neighbors for millennia before we first tamed them. That’s right: wildcats lived among us even though we weren’t feeding them. And in the time that they’ve stayed near us, their genetic make-up has hardly altered, except that they’ve evolved the tabby coat.
