Nearly 10,000 years ago, humans settling in the Fertile Crescent, the areas of the Middle East surrounding the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, made the first switch from hunter-gatherers to farmers. They developed close bonds with the rodent-eating cats that conveniently served as ancient pest-control in society’s first civilisations.
A new study (Heredity) found this lifestyle transition for humans was the catalyst that sparked the world’s first domestication of cats, and as humans began to travel the world, they brought their new feline friends along with them. while horses and cattle have seen various domestication events caused by humans in different parts of the world at various times, the analysis of feline genetics in the study strongly supports the theory that cats were likely first domesticated only in the Fertile Crescent before migrating with humans all over the world, says a release.
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’.
Unlike dogs and other domesticated animals, humans haven’t really changed the behaviours of cats that much during the domestication process, and so if left into the wild, they would likely still hunt vermin and be able to survive and mate on their own due to their natural behaviours, says Leslie A. Lyons from the University of Missouri-Columbia.
