Domestication of House Cats

Aloof and mysterious, affectionate and lovable, the domestic house cat has a solid place in the hearts and homes of humans worldwide. According to an article published in Scientific American in 2009, "a third of American households have feline members, and more than 600 million cats live among humans worldwide." But house cats weren't always domesticated; at one point, they were wild cats. There was a very specific reason why cats came to live with humans, and another reason why humans allowed cats to stay.

  1. Traditional Beliefs About Domestication

    • For years, the domestic house cat was thought to have originated in Egypt approximately 3,600 years ago. This is due, in large part, to the archaeological discoveries of Egyptian paintings depicting house cats and burial sites containing cat mummies. Another common belief was that domestication of cats occurred in many locations, given that the species the domestic cat is descended from---Felis silverstris, the wildcat---was found throughout the Old World.

    Middle East Roots

    • Recent findings suggest domestic cats originated in the Middle East. In 2000, researcher Carlos A. Driscoll assembled DNA samples taken from 979 wildcats and domestic cats worldwide, hoping to discover clear evidence regarding the origin of the domestic cat. Based on these DNA samples, he concluded that every housecat in the world originates from a subspecies of wildcat found in the Middle East, F. s. lybica.

    When Domestication Took Place

    • Researchers were able to establish the time period during which domestication took place based on an archaeological finding on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus of a human that had been buried with an eight-month-old cat. Cats are not native to most Mediterranean islands, so the researchers concluded that the cat must have been brought to the island by people on a boat. This suggest that cats became tame around the time human beings were first settling the area known as the Fertile Crescent in the Middle East.

    Why Cats Came and Why They Stayed

    • Researchers theorize that cats basically domesticated themselves, choosing to live among humans due to the opportunities available for food. When humans began to store grains in silos, it attracted the musmuscdus domesticus---the common house mouse. These mice, in turn, attracted the cats. The trash piles kept on the edges of early human settlements also offered a food source for cats. Because the cats helped with rodent control, early humans allowed them to stay.

    House Cats Today

    • While domestic cats may not have originated in Egypt, it is the Egyptian civilization that provides the most evidence of full domestication, particularly in its numerous paintings that depict cats as household pets. Fully domesticated cats remained exclusive to Egypt for centuries, but eventually found their way into the rest of the world via grain ships, spreading over time into Greece, the Roman Empire, Europe and the Orient. Eventually, cats made their way to the Americas and to Australia, as well.