the alliance between humans and felines
is perhaps the most unlikely on earth
proud and self-reliant cats come and go
on their terms
they flourish as scavengers in big
cities and gypsies in rural outposts
over 600 million claim residents in
households across six continents and now
they may have dethroned the dog as a
most popular pet on earth so where did
it come from
in Portugal a team of graduate students
from the University of Porto may be
witnessing in real time how the cat
became domesticated
they track the Wildcat it may appear to
be a common house cat
but this wild cat is its own species
felis Silvestri’s this is the species
from which domesticated cats descended
thousands of years ago normal well cats
are solitary animals they are
territorial and very hostile to other
wild cats that come into their
territories and generally they keep away
from humans but sometimes the elusive
felines are spotted surprisingly close
to local villages
the team searches the country seeking
clues to help them understand the cats
changing range they deploy traps in
order to capture and radio collar their
quarry if we find a wildcat here we’ll
just put a collar with a transmitter and
just follow him for one year or so and
try to determine its home range resting
sites habitat selection one of the teams
Wildcats returns enlightening data of
male Wildcats an adult after leaving its
rest site he came very close to farm so
he approached the house and stay there
for over two hours
bold behavior by a notoriously shy
creature why did this Wildcats four
square mile range include a human
dwelling one theory the feline is being
drawn in by an overabundance of vermin
in villages
it would be risky for the Wildcat to
leave familiar woods and venture close
to people but for easy pickings it may
be worth it or could it be that man is
encroaching onto the cat’s habitat
causing it to change its feeding
behavior this may be what happened
thousands of years ago as humankind
began to settle into farming communities
what is certain is that there was a
coevolution where these small wild
fielitz a certain group of them became
more and more attached to people to get
near the rodents
Wildcats helped to keep food stores
rodent free and humans rewarded them
with sustenance and sheltered these cats
became habituated and eventually evolved
into a new species what we now know
today to be felis catus
the domesticated cat it’s one of the
only animals to domesticate itself
it chose man and to this day the cat
remains only partially tame
is perhaps the most unlikely on earth
proud and self-reliant cats come and go
on their terms
they flourish as scavengers in big
cities and gypsies in rural outposts
over 600 million claim residents in
households across six continents and now
they may have dethroned the dog as a
most popular pet on earth so where did
it come from
in Portugal a team of graduate students
from the University of Porto may be
witnessing in real time how the cat
became domesticated
they track the Wildcat it may appear to
be a common house cat
but this wild cat is its own species
felis Silvestri’s this is the species
from which domesticated cats descended
thousands of years ago normal well cats
are solitary animals they are
territorial and very hostile to other
wild cats that come into their
territories and generally they keep away
from humans but sometimes the elusive
felines are spotted surprisingly close
to local villages
the team searches the country seeking
clues to help them understand the cats
changing range they deploy traps in
order to capture and radio collar their
quarry if we find a wildcat here we’ll
just put a collar with a transmitter and
just follow him for one year or so and
try to determine its home range resting
sites habitat selection one of the teams
Wildcats returns enlightening data of
male Wildcats an adult after leaving its
rest site he came very close to farm so
he approached the house and stay there
for over two hours
bold behavior by a notoriously shy
creature why did this Wildcats four
square mile range include a human
dwelling one theory the feline is being
drawn in by an overabundance of vermin
in villages
it would be risky for the Wildcat to
leave familiar woods and venture close
to people but for easy pickings it may
be worth it or could it be that man is
encroaching onto the cat’s habitat
causing it to change its feeding
behavior this may be what happened
thousands of years ago as humankind
began to settle into farming communities
what is certain is that there was a
coevolution where these small wild
fielitz a certain group of them became
more and more attached to people to get
near the rodents
Wildcats helped to keep food stores
rodent free and humans rewarded them
with sustenance and sheltered these cats
became habituated and eventually evolved
into a new species what we now know
today to be felis catus
the domesticated cat it’s one of the
only animals to domesticate itself
it chose man and to this day the cat
remains only partially tame
Please follow and like us: