“According to the SPCA, it’s estimated that 74 to 96 million cats are owned by Americans...
Most cat owners know a thing or 2 about their cat’s naturally instinctive habits, like their desire to hunt for prey or the way the rub their face on everything to mark things with their scent. But many cat owners probably aren’t... aware of the complete history of how domesticated cats came to be... researchers have only just discovered new insights about the history of cats in the first large-scale DNA study of ancient cats.
...researchers looked at the DNA from 209 cats from over 30 different archeological sites in the Middle East, Africa, & Europe. The remains of these cats date as far back as 15,000 years ago & lived as recently as the 1700s...
2 waves of growth in the cat population occurred thousands of years ago.
...The first wave of cat population growth took place around 10,000 years ago in the Middle East & the second one occurred thousands of years later as they spread across Eurasia & Africa.
In the first wave, farmers tamed wild cats for their hunting skills to help protect their crops.
By examining the mitochondrial DNA of the 209 cats, researchers identified genetic information passed down through generations of cats that linked cats from early farming communities in the Middle East all the way to ancient cats in the Eastern Mediterranean... Since these farmers’ grain stockpiles were known to attract rodents, which then attracted wild cats, farmers probably saw the benefit of having wild cats around & began to use that to their advantage by taming them.
In the second wave, people took cats on boats to new regions of the world.
...Seeing the benefit of having cats around to protect their food from rodents may have inspired people to travel with them by boat to new regions of the world & use them for their hunting abilities to keep mice & rats under control on their ships.
The Vikings were a fan of what cats could do for them.
...The remains of a cat were discovered at a Viking site in northern Germany, dating back to sometime between the 8th & 11th century. Before this discovery, nobody really knew that Vikings kept cats on their ships to keep rats & mice away from their food...
There may be more cats in American households than dogs, but scientists still know less about how that came to be than they do about dogs..”
Elise Moreau
Oct. 13/2016
care2.com
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