How Cats Became Domestic

Dogs were domesticated by humans more than fifteen thousand years ago, but the history of the house cat is quite different. Genetic studies show that all domestic cats are descended from a wildcat that still lives in North Africa and the Middle East. Unlike dogs, however, cats were probably not deliberately tamed by people. Instead, they seem to have largely domesticated themselves.

The process probably began around ten thousand years ago, when people in the Middle East started farming and storing grain. Stored grain attracted mice and rats, and these rodents in turn attracted wildcats. Farmers had good reason to accept these hunters, since they reduced the number of pests. Over many generations, the wildcats that were least afraid of humans were the most successful at living near villages, and the population gradually became tamer.

Some of the oldest evidence of a close bond between people and cats comes from the island of Cyprus, where archaeologists found a person buried with a cat about 9,500 years ago. Because wildcats are not native to Cyprus, the animal must have been brought there by boat. Interestingly, domestic cats today are still genetically very similar to their wild relatives, which may help explain why many of them remain fairly independent.