![]() ![]() There are no authentic records of domestication earlier than 1500 bce, however.Did you know that your cat's stomach is only the size of a ping-pong ball? Or that wild cats spend a whopping 80 percent of their waking hours hunting for food? Now you can channel your cat's inner panther and feed in small portions with the Indoor Hunting cat feeder kit from Doc & Phoebe's Cat Co. Their affection and respect for this predator led to the development of religious cat cults and temple worship of cats. It is probable that the ancient Egyptians partnered with the cat because they realized its value in protecting granaries from rodents. 2150 bce), it had not necessarily been domesticated at that time. catus) before 3000 bce, this discovery suggests that humans allowed cats to hunt mice and other rodents that threatened grain stores and possibly fed the cats or allowed them to consume leftover food.Īlthough the cat was proclaimed a sacred animal in Egypt in the 5th and 6th dynasties (c. Although research suggests that these cats were actually leopard cats ( Prionailurus bengalensis), which were replaced by modern domestic cats ( F. Fossil evidence found in China dating to approximately 5,300 years ago revealed that cats similar in size to modern domestic cats fed on small grain-eating animals, such as rodents, and millet in agricultural settings. Although some sources note that this finding suggests that cats had undergone some degree of domestication in that location, other sources (citing evidence that the cat genome did not differ that much from that of the African wildcat during this period) argue that cats may have domesticated themselves by choosing to live in human-altered landscapes. A cat skeleton accompanying that of a human dated to that time was discovered in southern Cyprus. The earliest known association between cats and humans dates possibly as far back as the origins of agriculture in the Middle East, about 9,500 years ago. ![]() They first appeared in the early Pliocene Epoch (5.3 to 3.6 million years ago), and they have continued with remarkably little change into modern times. The “cat pattern,” established very early in the evolution of modern mammals, was a successful one: early cats were already typical in form at a time when the ancestors of most other modern mammalian types were scarcely recognizable. For an account of the relationship of the family of cats to other carnivores, see carnivore. Consequently, the house cat is able to revert to complete self-reliance more quickly and more successfully than most domesticated dogs. The cat, however, has not yielded as readily to subjugation. It is noteworthy that the ancestors of the other common household pet, the dog, were social animals that lived together in packs in which there was subordination to a leader, and the dog has readily transferred its allegiance from pack leader to human master. Cats possess other features of their wild relatives in being basically carnivorous, remarkably agile and powerful, and finely coordinated in movement. ![]() Like all felids, domestic cats are characterized by supple low-slung bodies, finely molded heads, long tails that aid in balance, and specialized teeth and claws that adapt them admirably to a life of active hunting.
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