Domestication Of Cats Essay

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Genetics Behind the Domestication of Cats

Cats have been companions for over 10,000 years and it had lead scientist to believe they domesticated themselves unknowingly from the beginning. Many scientists believe cats inherited certain genetic mutations from ancestors who weren’t afraid of humans. There is a study that identified some of the genes that could be responsible for the change between house cats and their wild ancestors. It appears that the change from feral to domestic had to do with the genes for behavior, forming memories, and reward seeking behavior. It has played a major role in feline domestication. Feral and domestic felines have very few differences in their eating and behavioral habits. Nearly ten-thousand years ago, humans …show more content…

Humans began to welcome cats because they controlled rodents that consumed their grain harvests. Scientists have came up with the hypothesis that humans would reward the cats for sticking around. These wild felines then stayed, and over time they became domestic cats. Today we still reward cats for catching mice and other rodents that are not welcomed. The cats would form memories that if it did this, then it would get that. This is how cats started to become “mooches” in today's society. Some cats meow to get attention while other cats meow to get more food. Over the past 10,000 years we have studied that wildcats never tried to communicate with us, but today the domestic house cat meows to get something from us (such as food, water, or attention). Ultimately, cats have developed a reward-seeking behavior over thousands of years to help them develop into the domestic house cat we know of today. Researchers compared the genomes of domestic cats to wild cats and found specific regions of the domestic cat genomes that differed much. The differences that scientist have found in the cat genome have helped explain characteristics such as why cats are almost completely carnivorous, and how their vision and sense of smell differ from other animals like dogs. Scientists have also found particular fat-metabolizing genes to efficiently break down fats. This more rapid change gives the genes a digestive advantage to carnivores that only consume animal

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