Some of us are cat people, others are dog people, many of us are both. In the UK, in 2021, there were 10.8 million pet cats spread across 26% of households, plus thousands of un-counted, un-owned strays and feral cats. Also in 2021, there were an estimated 220 million owned and 480 million stray cats on the planet, and that’s what we call an awful lot of kitties. So why do we love these animals so much? Let’s delve deep into the domestic animals who have stolen our hearts since they first domesticated us – yes, it’s that way around! – about 12,000 years ago.
How cats domesticated themselves
There are only 40-50 breeds of domesticated cat, which makes them unusual from the get-go since we’ve transformed most domesticated animals into anything from 65 to 100 genetically distinct types.
Dog breeds vary a lot. A Yorkie and a Great Dane couldn’t be more different. But cats are all much the same, and always have been. Why is that? Studies reveal it’s because cats decided to become domestic, whether humans liked it or not, which is why the genetics of their wild ancestors are so similar to modern house cats.
Cats, being solitary animals, were not very good candidates for domestication in the first place. They decided to live near the homes of farmers and sailors in ancient times, attracted by the mice, rats and other prey that hang around our homes.
Despite loosely teaming up with us, cats remained unchanged over thousands of years until the Middle Ages, when we began to breed them selectively. There was no need to do it, there was no purpose behind changing the look of cats, it was just a human thing, a creative thing, a fun thing to do. To this day, unlike dogs, cats have never really joined in with human society. They simply like to live close to us.
Cats – an unusual domesticated animal
Cats all have one thing in common – they originated with the North African / Southwest Asian wild cat called Felis silvestris lybica, who first allied itself with humans in Neolithic times then domesticated itself a second time in ancient Egypt.
Today’s modern cats are genetically descended from one or more of 4-5 separate wild cats: the Sardinian wildcat, European wildcat, Central Asian wildcat, sub-Saharan African wildcat and perhaps even the Chinese desert cat, all distinctive subspecies of the original Felis silvestris lybica, the genetic ancestor of all modern domestic cats.
Adding to the mystery, signs have been found of leopard cat domestication in China, separate from domestications elsewhere, but it didn’t last long, something we know because there’s no evidence of any present day domesticated cat being related to leopard cats. Maybe it was a flash in the pan, a short-lived trend. Maybe the cats themselves said ‘no’.
So how did domestic cats spread around the globe? One study of ancient cat DNA from cities with ports hints that cats were taken on board ships, probably to kill the rats and mice who otherwise ate the sailors’ food supplies and caused dangerous diseases. Interestingly, the recessive gene found in most tabby cats, which gives them their distinctive patterning, didn’t arrive until medieval times when we first began messing with them.
The relationship between cats and humans
‘Commensal behaviour’ is the official scientific term for ‘spending time with humans’, something domestic cats seem to enjoy even though they’re solitary animals in the wild.
The oldest archaeological evidence comes from the island of Cyprus, where cats turned up in around 7500 BC. The oldest cat burial found on the island so far is at a Neolithic site called Shillourokambos, where a cat was buried along with its pet human around 9500 years ago. There was also a sculpture in the grave that looks a lot like a combination of cat and human, hinting that the animals were closely associated with us, maybe even worshipped or revered in some way.
Head for Hacliar in Turkey, roll back time to 6000BC or so, and the people back then made little figurines of women carrying cats – or creatures that look a lot like cats. For hard evidence of cat domestication we need to go back around 5000 years to the Tell Sheikh Hassan al Rai Mesopotamian site in Lebanon.
So what about cats in ancient Egypt?
We used to think domestic cats became widespread thanks to the ancient Egyptians’ love of the animals. Now we know cats were hanging around humans in Egypt in much earlier pre-dynastic times, almost 6000 years ago. A clear case of commensal living has been found in a tomb dating back to those early times, a young male cat with healed broken bones, genetically related to the reed cat Felis chaus rather than the usual Felis silvestris. Other digs at the same burial site uncovered six cats who’d been buried together around 5800 years ago: an adult male and female plus four kittens from two different litters, all related to Felis silvestris.
The first time a cat turned up in a collar was in an illustration on an Egyptian tomb dating back to around 2500BC or earlier. By 1976-1793 BC they were clearly and definitely domesticated, appearing in numerous murals and paintings, and widely mummified in tombs. It’s no surprise they ultimately became goddesses, with the cat goddesses Mafdet, Mehit, and Bastet frequently appearing in the art of the time.
The remains of domesticated cats in China, dating back to early Neolithic times at sites in Quanhucun, Shaanxi province, were about the right size for domesticated animals. They’re related to Felis silvestris, clearly a different domestication than the earlier leopard cat-like remains found in China. It looks like this separate ‘domestication event’ happened around 6500 years ago.
Modern cat breeds
Today’s official cat breeds all started life around 150 years ago, when humans finally became interested in controlling natural selection for fur colour, behaviour, and body shapes. Manx cats are one of the most extreme, bred without long tails, just a short stub. Persian longhair cats have flat faces, some breeds have no hair at all, others have huge ears. Like dogs, the most extreme breeds sometimes come with genetically-related behavioural issues, and can be vulnerable to illnesses and infections as well as finding it hard to breathe.
The internet and cats
These days, cats are the darling of the internet. Some people even say, only half-jokingly, that the internet was created so people could share cat content.
In 2010 someone who was clearly bored estimated that there were 1.3 billion or so cat pictures online. Now it’s probably more like 6.5 billion. More than 2 million cat videos were posted on YouTube during 2014 alone, attracting a mighty 26 billion views. Now tens of millions of cat vids are posted on YouTube every year. A survey in 2015 showed cats were responsible for around 15% of all internet traffic. Add TikTok and the numbers really start to blow your mind; one cat video on TikTok has had more than 15 million views.
Now there’s wearable catcam tech to fit to our pets, cats are busy creating their own content. Take Mr Kitters, who has more than a million followers on Instagram. These days roughly 4.66 billion people regularly used the internet and 699 million search the web for cat related content every single month.
And all that explains why cat animal footstools are so popular. Why not buy one – then see how long it takes your cat to climb on board!
Cat footstools – Celebrating the independent moggy we all love
Some of us are cat people, others are dog people, many of us are both. In the UK, in 2021, there were 10.8 million pet cats spread across 26% of households, plus thousands of un-counted, un-owned strays and feral cats. Also in 2021, there were an estimated 220 million owned and 480 million stray cats on the planet, and that’s what we call an awful lot of kitties. So why do we love these animals so much? Let’s delve deep into the domestic animals who have stolen our hearts since they first domesticated us – yes, it’s that way around! – about 12,000 years ago.
How cats domesticated themselves
There are only 40-50 breeds of domesticated cat, which makes them unusual from the get-go since we’ve transformed most domesticated animals into anything from 65 to 100 genetically distinct types.
Dog breeds vary a lot. A Yorkie and a Great Dane couldn’t be more different. But cats are all much the same, and always have been. Why is that? Studies reveal it’s because cats decided to become domestic, whether humans liked it or not, which is why the genetics of their wild ancestors are so similar to modern house cats.
Cats, being solitary animals, were not very good candidates for domestication in the first place. They decided to live near the homes of farmers and sailors in ancient times, attracted by the mice, rats and other prey that hang around our homes.
Despite loosely teaming up with us, cats remained unchanged over thousands of years until the Middle Ages, when we began to breed them selectively. There was no need to do it, there was no purpose behind changing the look of cats, it was just a human thing, a creative thing, a fun thing to do. To this day, unlike dogs, cats have never really joined in with human society. They simply like to live close to us.
Cats – an unusual domesticated animal
Cats all have one thing in common – they originated with the North African / Southwest Asian wild cat called Felis silvestris lybica, who first allied itself with humans in Neolithic times then domesticated itself a second time in ancient Egypt.
Today’s modern cats are genetically descended from one or more of 4-5 separate wild cats: the Sardinian wildcat, European wildcat, Central Asian wildcat, sub-Saharan African wildcat and perhaps even the Chinese desert cat, all distinctive subspecies of the original Felis silvestris lybica, the genetic ancestor of all modern domestic cats.
Adding to the mystery, signs have been found of leopard cat domestication in China, separate from domestications elsewhere, but it didn’t last long, something we know because there’s no evidence of any present day domesticated cat being related to leopard cats. Maybe it was a flash in the pan, a short-lived trend. Maybe the cats themselves said ‘no’.
So how did domestic cats spread around the globe? One study of ancient cat DNA from cities with ports hints that cats were taken on board ships, probably to kill the rats and mice who otherwise ate the sailors’ food supplies and caused dangerous diseases. Interestingly, the recessive gene found in most tabby cats, which gives them their distinctive patterning, didn’t arrive until medieval times when we first began messing with them.
The relationship between cats and humans
‘Commensal behaviour’ is the official scientific term for ‘spending time with humans’, something domestic cats seem to enjoy even though they’re solitary animals in the wild.
The oldest archaeological evidence comes from the island of Cyprus, where cats turned up in around 7500 BC. The oldest cat burial found on the island so far is at a Neolithic site called Shillourokambos, where a cat was buried along with its pet human around 9500 years ago. There was also a sculpture in the grave that looks a lot like a combination of cat and human, hinting that the animals were closely associated with us, maybe even worshipped or revered in some way.
Head for Hacliar in Turkey, roll back time to 6000BC or so, and the people back then made little figurines of women carrying cats – or creatures that look a lot like cats. For hard evidence of cat domestication we need to go back around 5000 years to the Tell Sheikh Hassan al Rai Mesopotamian site in Lebanon.
So what about cats in ancient Egypt?
We used to think domestic cats became widespread thanks to the ancient Egyptians’ love of the animals. Now we know cats were hanging around humans in Egypt in much earlier pre-dynastic times, almost 6000 years ago. A clear case of commensal living has been found in a tomb dating back to those early times, a young male cat with healed broken bones, genetically related to the reed cat Felis chaus rather than the usual Felis silvestris. Other digs at the same burial site uncovered six cats who’d been buried together around 5800 years ago: an adult male and female plus four kittens from two different litters, all related to Felis silvestris.
The first time a cat turned up in a collar was in an illustration on an Egyptian tomb dating back to around 2500BC or earlier. By 1976-1793 BC they were clearly and definitely domesticated, appearing in numerous murals and paintings, and widely mummified in tombs. It’s no surprise they ultimately became goddesses, with the cat goddesses Mafdet, Mehit, and Bastet frequently appearing in the art of the time.
The remains of domesticated cats in China, dating back to early Neolithic times at sites in Quanhucun, Shaanxi province, were about the right size for domesticated animals. They’re related to Felis silvestris, clearly a different domestication than the earlier leopard cat-like remains found in China. It looks like this separate ‘domestication event’ happened around 6500 years ago.
Modern cat breeds
Today’s official cat breeds all started life around 150 years ago, when humans finally became interested in controlling natural selection for fur colour, behaviour, and body shapes. Manx cats are one of the most extreme, bred without long tails, just a short stub. Persian longhair cats have flat faces, some breeds have no hair at all, others have huge ears. Like dogs, the most extreme breeds sometimes come with genetically-related behavioural issues, and can be vulnerable to illnesses and infections as well as finding it hard to breathe.
The internet and cats
These days, cats are the darling of the internet. Some people even say, only half-jokingly, that the internet was created so people could share cat content.
In 2010 someone who was clearly bored estimated that there were 1.3 billion or so cat pictures online. Now it’s probably more like 6.5 billion. More than 2 million cat videos were posted on YouTube during 2014 alone, attracting a mighty 26 billion views. Now tens of millions of cat vids are posted on YouTube every year. A survey in 2015 showed cats were responsible for around 15% of all internet traffic. Add TikTok and the numbers really start to blow your mind; one cat video on TikTok has had more than 15 million views.
Now there’s wearable catcam tech to fit to our pets, cats are busy creating their own content. Take Mr Kitters, who has more than a million followers on Instagram. These days roughly 4.66 billion people regularly used the internet and 699 million search the web for cat related content every single month.
And all that explains why cat animal footstools are so popular. Why not buy one – then see how long it takes your cat to climb on board!