Have humans really succeeded in domesticating cats? Don't get too excited, the cat may just want a lap

There is a saying to describe the difference between cats and dogs: if you provide dogs with food, shelter, and protect them every day, then in the eyes of dogs, you must be God, otherwise how can you be so good to yourself. But the cat doesn't think so. It feels that it must be God, otherwise how can humans be so good to themselves?

In the eyes of cats, humans may be just a long-term meal ticket. It will not completely obey humans, but still maintain a relatively high degree of independence.

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Like dogs, cats are also one of the animals most closely related to humans, and they accompany humans as emotional companions. In ancient Egypt, people not only kept cats as pets, but even made cats for them after they died. mummy.

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Nowadays, there are more and more cat owners, but have you ever thought about why cats can stay in human society? More importantly, the history of human domestication of cats has reached tens of thousands of years, but have humans really successfully domesticated cats?

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Why do cats live with humans?

During the Paleolithic Age, humans began to domesticate various animals and plants. The first animal domesticated was dogs. Their ancestors would look for food near the human camp, and humans would discard the uneaten bones around the camp to make a living. As for some individuals with poor hunting ability, they will linger near humans.

Later, humans caught some wolves, which ate the larger ones and left the smaller cubs. In the process of getting along with humans, the cubs can provide a vigilant role for humans. Slowly, some less aggressive individuals who were able to provide vigilance stayed behind and were domesticated into dogs by humans.

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Compared with dogs, cats appearing in the world of humans do not seem to be active choices of humans, but cats choose to live with humans.

The reason why humans domesticated cats is that humans’ habit of hoarding food attracted mice, and cats followed the mice to the camp where humans lived and settled here. Humans discovered this skill of cats and began to get along with cats day and night, and even took cats away when they moved. A 9200-9500-year-old human remains was found in Cyprus, alongside the remains of a cat.

It may not seem so strange today for cats to be buried next to humans, but know that there are no other felines here in Cyprus, which means that humans have been living with cats as early as 9,200 years ago. brought here.

Some scientists believe that the reason why humans like cats and take them with them during migration may not be because of their ability to catch mice, but because they are very cute. The researchers believe that cats' innocent big eyes, naive faces, and calls are very similar to human babies, which can stimulate humans' desire for protection, so they stay with humans.

Have humans really succeeded in domesticating cats?

Cats are more ambitious than dogs. By studying stray cats that were released into the wild, researchers found that their hunting skills have not deteriorated, and they can still quickly enter hunting mode and successfully capture many birds, amphibians and small mammals.

A study by the Smithsonian Institute for Conservation Biology and the U.S. Fisheries and Wildlife Service found that in the United States alone, domestic and stray cats kill 2.4 billion birds and 12.3 billion birds and mammals each year. , the number of birds and mammals killed by cats exceeds the sum of non-human causes.

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The reason why cats have such a strong predatory ability is actually very surprising. You must know that they have been domesticated by humans for tens of thousands of years, but they have not lost their wildness like dogs, but still retain their excellent hunting ability. Of course, today's pet cats that have been improved by human breeds have lost the ability to survive independently, and they will die soon after leaving humans.

Experts believe that the reason why cats do this may be related to their solitary existence. In fact, cats are an alternative in human domestication. All animals domesticated by humans are gregarious creatures, even dogs are no exception. Only cats are alone, and they rarely interact with other cats except during the mating period. It is also because of its solitary nature that cats can take care of themselves, including hunting ability.

It is because of this that some experts say that it is not humans who domesticate cats, but cats who choose to live with humans.

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current cat owner

Today's cat owners no longer have the arrogance of the previous domestic cats, and their hunting ability is almost zero. This is mainly because humans have adopted backcross, crossbreeding, etc. The means continue to breed new breeds, and whether the breed has the ability to survive in the wild is not within their scope of consideration. Under this breeding method, many cats today do not have the ability to survive in the wild.

For example: although the puppet cat is very immortal, its predation ability is too different from that of the pastoral cat; hairless cats cannot survive in the cold environment, and they are equivalent to death if they are separated from humans.

Of course, whether it is a breed cat or a pastoral cat, once you choose to keep them, don't abandon them, otherwise it will be harmful to the cat and the surrounding birds, mammals, etc.