The story of how the wildcat became a domestic cat
How the wildcat became a house catThey purr, meow and stretch. If you want to stroke them, they extend their claws. Cats are unpredictable. Nevertheless, their relationship with humans is a success story - with dark spots in the past.The first cat as a petIn 2004, archaeologists found a 9,500-year-old grave in Cyprus. A human and his cat lay embedded in shells, polished stones and other artifacts. It is the oldest find of a cat as a pet. But since there were no cats native to Cyprus, it is assumed that the cat was brought by boat from the nearby mainland coast in the east. By the way: The European wildcat is not related to the domestic cat. They are often confused with our domestic cats. But wildcats are not wild domestic cats. They roamed our forests when there were no domestic cats here at all. And they also have a different genetic origin.Dogs and cats had a common ancestorEven if they are now assumed to be in constant rivalry, dogs and cats both descend from the same ancestor, Dormaalocyon latouri. It is related to bears, seals, lions, wolves, weasels and tigers, among others. A team from the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences found fossils of the tree-dwelling animal near Dormall in Belgium and examined them closely. They found that Dormaalocyon latouri lived in the rainforests of the early Eocene around 55 million years ago.The researchers classify the ancestral predator as one of the very early representatives of the predators among mammals and see it as the ancestor of cats and dogs. Although it is not the first common ancestor of cats and dogs, it is very close to it. And so the researchers see Dormaalocyon latouri as the earliest known predator with living, direct descendants.The way to a man's heart is through his stomachor at least friendship. Researchers assume that the first cats joined humans around 10,000 years ago. Researchers describe cats as opportunistic hunters. This means that the animals look for their prey where they can find it most easily. This is how they met humans, who were beginning to farm and store their grain. This attracted mice, which in turn were easy prey for the cats. Because this partnership worked so well, people tried to keep the cats by luring them with milk. The former wild cats got used to humans, but to this day they don't actually need the two-legged creatures to survive.Be careful: don't do what our ancestors did! Cats shouldn't be given milk. They can't digest it and get diarrhea or react by vomiting.The original wild cat was actually shy, suspicious and nocturnal. How could it be tamed to tolerate the proximity of humans? Freiburg behavioral researcher Immanuel Birmelin believes that people selected cats for tameness because they saw the benefits: If I have a cat, I don't have rats or mice, and so cooperation was conceivable. Over time, people preferred to breed the animals whose characteristics they liked best. This brought humans and animals a little closer together.In the early Middle Ages, tame cats were still rare, but they were welcome protectors of the house. In writings from the 6th century, Irish monks mentioned cats whose company they valued in their studies. But in this period, cats were not actually cuddly toys and companions, but rather a working animal: as mouse hunters and fur suppliers. Parts of the dead cat's body were used in folk medicine. Until the 12th century, cats were considered good house spirits, but the church launched a campaign against cats. They were demonized and seen by the church as the embodiment of evil. They were wrong, suffered from a cleaning addiction, were a demon of the night, lazy and hypocritical.Their natural behavior, such as silent stalking and nighttime hunting, extensive grooming and loud courting and mating, was the cats' undoing. Added to this was their indomitable nature, which refused to be tamed once and for all. Witches were recognized by the fact that the devil took possession of them in the form of black cats. And together with supposed witches and heretics, countless cats were tortured, drowned and burned at the stake.Fortunately, enough cats escaped this fate and thanks to rapid reproduction they were able to survive this dark era. Living together with humans over the millennia has now left its mark on them: According to a study from November 2014, genetic makeup in domestic cats has changed, which affects, among other things, memory formation, learning through Reward and fear-driven behavior influence our lives. In any case, we can no longer imagine life without house cats: cats are the most popular pet in Germany - far ahead of dogs, which are actually only man's second best friend.We like cats as much as we like sweets, that's just our species, explains media psychologist Frank Schwab from the University of Würzburg. The animals parasitize our human brood care mechanisms: they use exactly the same stimuli that we respond to when we raise children. People are constantly posting pictures of their children online, taking endless photos of them and showing them to everyone - whether they want to or not, says Schwab. Cats are treated in a similar way, which taps into the same mechanisms.And of course, house cats also benefit from the fact that everyone can admire them on the Internet for as long and as often as they want - at any time of day. You can do this to lighten your mood, in psychology this is called mood management, like a little piece of candy, says Schwab. And when you notice that it lifts your mood, you do it again and again - you've already established a little habit. And whoever looks at the picture or video often forwards it. This spreads exponentially - and eventually everyone is inundated with cat pictures and videos.
