The Interesting History of Domestic Cat

Long long ago, there was a common ancestor of cat and dog, named Miacis. Scientists find this through the analysis of the fossils. Miacis is a kind of life in 55 ~ 60 million years ago. It is the ancestor of all existing carnivores. And the bears, canines, and felines have evolved from this branch.

When did domestic cat start accompanying with human being？

According to the traditional classification, there are 5 kinds of Felis silvestris in the world. But only Felis silvestris lybica is the ancestor of domestic cat. In 2007, U.S. researchers found that Felis silvestris lybica which live in the deserts of Iran, UAE and Saudi Arabia have almost the same genes with domestic cat through mitochondrial DNA analysis.
 

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Felis silvestris lybica are thought to have lower alertness and are likelier to cohabit with humans. Others, such as Felis silvestris silvestris and Felis silvestris bieti, are very alert. They cannot live with humans even if we use rats as bait. In addition, Felis silvestris lybica live closer to the settlement of original mankind - Mesopotamia. So they step ahead of other Felis silvestris to begin the adventure of conquering human being.
  

According to the information and records handed down, the domestic life of domestic cat and humans dates back to 3,600 years ago in ancient Egypt. However, in 2004, there was a discovery on the island of Cyprus - the burial of domestic cats was unearthed from the grave of 9,500 years ago. This discovery is very amazing.

In general, livestock are able to follow the basic instructions of humans and are social animals such as cows, sheep, chickens, ducks and dogs, even their ancestors live in groups. The benefit of group activities is that they can jointly resist natural enemies and prey on animals. Animals adapted to social groups are easily domesticated by humans.

However, domestic cats are different. In addition to lion, all felid are loners and only have a short time of intercourse when they mate. Unlike cattle and sheep that can survive on a vegetarian diet, felid only eat meat from birth. For early humans, obtaining meat is much more difficult than obtaining forage. Generally, there is no room for feeding cat. 

So how do domestic cats enter the lives of humans?  

The answer is through rats and garbage. 

When the glacial epoch ended, the earth became warmer gradually and humans began the long-term settled farming life. Many of the relics from about 10,000 years ago can explain this change. With the cultivation and storage of crops by humans, thieves have emerged. The rats invaded the warehouse where the crops were stored. Iran has unearthed a 10,000-year-old warehouse site and discovered the bones of rats in it. This is the oldest barn site unearthed. 

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Early humans did not have landfill technology, nor would they waste fuel on burning garbage. So most of them would just throw it away. As a result, the Felis silvestris were attracted by food. They found that they can not only refuse the garbage, but also catch rats  in human areas. Incidentally, they can avoid nature predators with humans. Gradually, cat and human began a "cohabitation life." 

From this point of view, human did not tame the Felis silvestris but the Felis silvestris chose living with human.