Cat domestication likely initiated as a symbiotic relationship between wildcats and the peoples of developing agrarian societies in the Fertile Crescent. As humans transitioned from hunter-gatherers to farmers around 12,000 years ago, bold wildcats likely capitalized on increased prey density, i.e., rodents. To refine the site of cat domestication, a team of researchers from the University of Missouri and elsewhere analyzed DNA from over 1,000 random-bred cats of primarily Eurasian descent.
Fragment of a polychrome tomb-painting (before 1350 BCE, today in the British Museum) representing Nebamun, standing in a small boat, fowling and fishing in the marshes, his wife stands behind and his daughter sits beneath, he holds a throw-stick in one hand and three decoy herons in the other, his cat is shown catching three of the numerous birds. Image credit: Marcus Cyron / British Museum.
The domestication and the geographical origins of the household cat (Felis silvestris catus) have been partially reconstructed from archaeological discoveries, cultural and artistic depictions, and genetics evaluations of ancient and modern felids.
The cat’s domestication process likely initiated around 12,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent — a crescent-shaped region that spans the modern-day countries of Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine and, for some scholars, Egypt — with the initial contact between the African wildcat (Felis silvestris lybica) and farmers.
The advent of agriculture altered human culture from nomadic hunter-gatherers to more sedentary lifestyles, leading to the establishment of increasingly larger settlements.
Grain stores and refuse from developing societies attracted mice, which led to a synanthropic trinity between humans, rodents, and felids.
To refine the site of cat domestication, University of Missouri’s Professor Leslie Lyons and his colleagues collected and analyzed DNA from cats in and around the Fertile Crescent area, as well as throughout Europe, Asia and Africa, comparing nearly 200 different genetic markers.
“One of the DNA main markers we studied were microsatellites, which mutate very quickly and give us clues about recent cat populations and breed developments over the past few hundred years,” Professor Lyons said.
“Another key DNA marker we examined were single nucleotide polymorphisms, which are single-based changes all throughout the genome that give us clues about their ancient history several thousands of years ago.”
“By studying and comparing both markers, we can start to piece together the evolutionary story of cats.”
“While horses and cattle have seen various domestication events caused by humans in different parts of the world at various times, our analysis of feline genetics strongly supports the theory that cats were likely first domesticated only in the Fertile Crescent before migrating with humans all over the world.”
“After feline genes are passed down to kittens throughout generations, the genetic makeup of cats in western Europe, for example, is now far different from cats in southeast Asia, a process known as isolation by distance.”
“We can actually refer to cats as semi-domesticated, because if we turned them loose into the wild, they would likely still hunt vermin and be able to survive and mate on their own due to their natural behaviors.”
“Unlike dogs and other domesticated animals, we haven’t really changed the behaviors of cats that much during the domestication process, so cats once again prove to be a special animal.”
A paper on the findings was published in the journal Heredity.
_____
S.M. Nilson et al. 2022. Genetics of randomly bred cats support the cradle of cat domestication being in the Near East. Heredity 129, 346-355; doi: 10.1038/s41437-022-00568-4
