Cats have lived among humans for thousands of years. They likely began hanging around human grain stores, attracted by mice and other vermin, and eventually spread around the world when sailors took them aboard their ships. The domestic cat is one of the smallest members of the cat family, a group that includes lions, tigers, jaguars, and pumas. It is also the only member of this family that has been domesticated.
You may have heard that cats “domesticated themselves.” That’s because ancient wild cats likely preferred to hang out around human agricultural settlements, which led to a mutually beneficial relationship between cats and humans. These settlements provided the cats with ample food and shelter.
Because cats helped keep pests away, the people who inhabited these settlements tolerated and eventually welcomed the cats’ presence. While humans domesticated dogs through artificial selection, breeding for desirable traits, domestic cats evolved simply through natural selection, as friendlier, more docile cats thrived in close contact with humans.
Cats are not as domesticated as dogs. While cats were domesticated about 10,000 years ago, genetic evidence suggests that dogs were domesticated between 14,000 and 30,000 years ago. There is still some debate about how and why some wild wolves evolved into friendly pets, but it is clear that humans have spent much more time and effort shaping the genetic makeup of domestic dogs.
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In fact, scientists say that even today cats are “just” domesticated. Many domestic cats are actually wild, meaning they live outside of human captivity and can take care of themselves. Wild cats and domestic cats also interbreed regularly, so domestic cats retain many of their “wild” instincts.
People have also bred domestic dogs for thousands of years based on their skills and personalities, whereas domestic cats have only been bred in the last few centuries. This means that dogs tend to have more predictable temperaments that are more suited to human needs than cats.
Even today, modern cats are classified primarily by their appearance. Although appearance is also a factor in dog breeding, historically, abilities such as tracking game, herding sheep, and guarding property were more important.
Cats were domesticated about 10,000 years ago. Modern domestic cats are descended from Felis silvestris lybica, a subspecies of wildcat native to Africa and the Middle East. Genes from cats found in archaeological sites in the Middle East, Europe, and Africa show that cats began interacting with humans and diverged from their wild relatives in what is now Turkey about 10,000 years ago.
Despite their relatively small natural ranges, Fslybica were present in Eastern Europe by 4400 BCE, according to ancient cat DNA found at archaeological sites. This suggests that the cats traveled on ships with traders, who likely appreciated the cats’ ability to keep rats under control. Cats certainly traveled long distances: DNA from Egyptian cats has been found all the way back to a Viking settlement in northern Germany dating to between 700 and 1000 CE.
Egyptian figurine. kulturologia.ru
The oldest known burial of a domestic cat was discovered in Cyprus, where a human and a cat were buried together 9,500 years ago. Cat bones have also been found buried in 5,300-year-old trash pits in China.
Cats played a leading role in the religion of ancient Egypt. Scientists are not yet sure whether the Egyptians domesticated cats separately from the Near Eastern lineage or whether cats spread from Turkey to Egypt.
In any case, the Egyptians valued the protectiveness and independence of cats and saw them as traits of their gods. Cats were sometimes even lovingly mummified next to their deceased owners, but they were also sacrificed in large numbers during religious rituals. Bastet, the cat-headed goddess, was revered as a protector and as a deity of pregnancy and childbirth.
New DNA analysis of cats suggests that traders and diplomats likely carried the pets along the Silk Road 1,400 years ago.
This new study, hailed as a “research sensation,” places the arrival of domestic cats in East Asia several hundred years later than previous studies. And the kittens appear to have been an instant hit with the local elite.
“Cats were originally considered expensive, exotic pets,” study co-author Shu-Jin Luo, a principal investigator at the Laboratory of Genomic Diversity and Evolution at Peking University in China, told Live Science in an email. “The cats’ cryptic behavior — alternating between aloofness and affection — added to the mystery.”
The first domestic cats appeared in China about 1,400 years ago – likely along the famous Silk Road trade route, as DNA analysis of ancient cats shows.
This new study — hailed as a “research bomb” — places the arrival of domestic cats in East Asia several hundred years later than previous studies. And the kittens appear to have been an instant hit with the local elite.
This painting from the bottom of a bowl is one of the earliest depictions of a cat in China, dating back to 168 BC. The markings on the cat’s fur suggest that it is a leopard cat rather than a domestic cat. Hunan Museum Collection Database
“Cats were originally considered expensive, exotic pets,” study co-author Shu-Jin Luo, a principal investigator at the Laboratory of Genomic Diversity and Evolution at Peking University in China, told Live Science in an email. “The cats’ cryptic behavior — alternating between aloofness and affection — added to the mystery.”
Archaeological evidence shows that long before domestic cats arrived in China, people in rural Chinese communities lived alongside the native leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis). Researchers have previously found leopard cat bones dating back 5,400 years in an ancient farming village in northwestern Shaanxi Province, indicating that humans and cats coexisted in settlements together.
But this connection is not equivalent to the domestication of cats, the authors of the new study argue. Moreover, the common assumption that cat domestication took place in China during the Han Dynasty between 206 BCE and 220 CE is also unfounded, as there are no archaeological finds of domestic cats from that period. A complete reassessment of when and how domestic cats arrived in China is therefore needed, the researchers say in their study.
A Tang Dynasty mural dating to 829 AD is one of the earliest depictions of domestic cats in China. Two black and white cats are visible in the center.Zheng, H., Liu, Y., Chi, M. (2013). Chinese Archaeology
To answer these questions, Lo and her colleagues analyzed 22 cat remains from 14 archaeological sites in China spanning about 5,000 years. The researchers first sequenced the nuclear and mitochondrial DNA in the bones to identify each species. The researchers then compared those results with previously published data from 63 nuclear and 108 mitochondrial genomes that summarize the evolution of cat genetics around the world.
“This is by far the largest and most comprehensive study of small cats living in close contact with humans in China,” Luo said. “Collecting archaeological samples of cat remains from China over this time period has been extremely challenging.”
Fourteen of the 22 cat bones from China belonged to domestic cats, according to a study uploaded to the preprint database BioRxiv on Feb. 5. The oldest of these domestic cat remains were discovered in the city of Tongwan in Shaanxi and were radiocarbon dated to 730 A.D., suggesting that domestic cats arrived in China well after the end of the Han Dynasty.
The first domestic cats in China likely had completely white or spotted white fur, which explains the high proportion of such cats in East Asia today. wulingyun/Getty Images
The 14 domestic cats in the sample shared a common genetic signature in their mitochondrial DNA, known as clade IV-B. This signature is rare among domestic cats from Europe and western Asia, but the researchers found a close match in previously published data on a cat that lived sometime between 775 and 940 A.D. in the city of Dzhankent, Kazakhstan.
The Dzankent cat is the oldest known domestic cat on the Silk Road, offering intriguing clues about the origins of domestic cats in China. The Silk Road flourished between 500 and 800 AD, suggesting that traders likely transported cats to East Asia along the route.
The cats that traders and diplomats initially gave to China’s elite were likely all-white cats or cats with tiger stripes and white spots, the researchers noted in their study. DNA from the Tongwan cat suggests it was a healthy male with a long tail and short, all-white or partly white fur, they said. Even today, the proportion of white cats in East Asia is higher than in other parts of the world, the researchers added.
Domestic cats became so popular after they were brought to China that people incorporated them into Chinese folk religion, Lo said. “The ancient Chinese even held special religious rituals when they brought a cat into their home, considering it not just a possession but an honored guest,” she said.
The ancient Egyptians are famous for their love of all things feline. There’s no shortage of cat-themed artifacts — from larger-than-life statues to elaborate jewelry — that have survived the millennia since the pharaohs ruled the Nile. The ancient Egyptians mummified countless cats and even created the world’s first known pet cemetery — a nearly 2,000-year-old burial ground filled mostly with cats wearing remarkable iron and beaded collars, Live Science reports.
But why were cats so highly valued in ancient Egypt? Why, according to the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, did Egyptians shave their eyebrows as a sign of respect when mourning the loss of the family cat?
Much of this reverence is due to the fact that the ancient Egyptians believed that their gods and rulers had cat-like qualities, according to a 2018 exhibit on the importance of cats in ancient Egypt at the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art in Washington, D.C. Specifically, cats were thought to have dual personalities — on the one hand, they could be protective, loyal, and caring, but on the other, they could be pugnacious, independent, and ferocious.
A mummified cat from ancient Egypt. Daniel Simon/Contributor/Gamma-Rapho
For the ancient Egyptians, this made cats special creatures worthy of attention, and it may explain why they built feline-themed statues. The Great Sphinx of Giza, a 240-foot-long (73-meter) monument with the face of a man and the body of a lion, is perhaps the most famous example of such a monument, although in truth, historians are not entirely sure why the Egyptians went to the trouble of carving a sphinx. Likewise, the powerful goddess Sakhmet (also spelled Sekhmet) was depicted with the head of a lion on the body of a woman. She was known as a protective deity, especially at times of transition, including dawn and dusk. Another goddess, Bastet, was often depicted as a lion or a cat, and the ancient Egyptians believed that cats were her sacred animals.
Cats were also likely loved for their ability to hunt mice and snakes. They were so beloved that ancient Egyptians named their children after cats, including “Mitt” (meaning cat) for girls, according to University College London. It’s unclear when domesticated cats first appeared in Egypt, but archaeologists have found burials of cats and kittens dating back to 3800 B.C.
However, numerous studies have shown that this obsession was not always kind and caring, and there is evidence of a more sinister side to the Egyptians’ fascination with cats. There were probably entire industries dedicated to breeding millions of kittens, which were killed and mummified so that people could be buried alongside them, mostly between 700 BCE and 300 CE. In a study published last year in the journal Scientific Reports, scientists performed X-ray micro-CT scans on mummified animals, one of which was a cat. This allowed them to get a detailed look at the structure of its skeleton and the materials used in the mummification process.
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When the researchers got the results, they realized the creature was much smaller than they expected. “It was a very young cat, but we just didn’t realize it until the scan because most of the mummy, about 50%, is made up of the wrapping,” said study author Richard Johnston, a professor of materials science at Swansea University in the United Kingdom. “When we saw it on the screen, we realized it was young when it died,” less than five months ago, when its neck was intentionally broken.
“It was a little shocking,” Johnston told Live Science. However, the practice of sacrificing cats was not uncommon. “They were often raised for this purpose,” Johnston said. “It was quite industrial, there were farms designed to sell cats.” It was a way to appease or ask for help from deities, in addition to verbal prayers.
Unfortunately, it is not entirely clear why it was considered desirable to purchase cats to be buried with, but there seems to be a fine line between veneration and infatuation.
There are a lot of scientific facts about our feline friends, from why cats purr and knead to why they make weird faces when they smell something and vomit all the time. For example, here are a few facts about cats: They need to eat meat to survive; The longest cat in the world was a Maine Coon named Stewie, who measured 48.5 inches (123 centimeters) from head to tail; Cats use their whiskers to determine if they can fit through tight spaces; Unlike dogs, cats have never been bred by humans to have special personality traits; Domestic cats kill up to 4 billion birds each year in the U.S. alone.
Cats come in many different breeds, although not as varied as dogs. The number of recognized cat breeds varies by organization. The Cat Fanciers’ Association recognizes 45 purebred breeds, plus a “companion cat,” also known as the “common cat,” while The International Cat Association recognizes 73 breeds.
These breeds include relatively well-known varieties such as the slender Siamese and fluffy Persian, as well as the leopard-spotted Bengal, the short-tailed American Bobtail, and the hairless Sphynx.
The Maine Coon is the largest breed of domestic cat. AVRORACOON/Shutterstock
While dogs have been bred for centuries to perform a variety of tasks, resulting in dogs of all shapes and sizes, domestic cats have only two jobs: pest control and being a pet. This means that most pedigree cats are bred for traits like coat color and length, rather than, say, a waterproof coat for swimming or a strong herding instinct for guarding sheep. Most cat breeds are less than 100 years old — although older breeds like the Egyptian Mau and Persian date back even further.
Cats are smart, and the popular belief that dogs are smarter than cats may not be supported by science. Cats demonstrate the ability to recognize that something still exists when it is out of sight, an ability that humans don’t develop until they are about 8 months old. Object permanence is an important skill to have when you are a hunter working at night and listening for the telltale pitter-patter of little mouse paws. Cats also recognize the voices of their owners.
But cats don’t always make it easy to measure their intelligence. “They’re a nightmare to work with in the lab,” says Julia Meyers-Manor, a psychologist at Ripon College in Wisconsin who studies animal cognition.
Compared with other animals like rats and dogs, there has been little research on cat intelligence, Meyers-Manor told Live Science. Cats hate strangers and unfamiliar places like labs, she said. They typically hide their faces in their owners’ hands and refuse to cooperate with a task.
Cats may not be the most social animals, but there is evidence that they form bonds with their humans. Cats can develop separation anxiety, often manifested by urinating or pooping in inappropriate places, and research also shows that cats rely on emotional cues from their owners when responding to new situations. Cats also seem to recognize the emotions of both humans and other cats.
Cats have excellent night vision. Their eyes are equipped with many rods, or special cells in the retina, that are good at detecting dim light. This allows cats to see in the dark six to eight times better than humans. A reflective layer in the eye also helps collect extra light at night. It is this layer that causes cats’ eyes to glow green when illuminated by a flashlight or headlight in the dark.
Studies show that cats can see ultraviolet light, which is blue light beyond the range that humans can see. However, cats probably don’t see color as well as humans. They have two types of cells in their eyes that can detect short-wavelength and long-wavelength light, while humans have three. Their world probably looks more desaturated or less colorful, and they also can’t see over long distances as well as humans. However, cats have a wider field of vision than humans: 200 degrees compared to 180 degrees for humans.
Cats are not particularly sensitive smellers, but their hearing is very sensitive. Cats can hear frequencies from 55 hertz to 78 kilohertz. For comparison, the lowest sound a human can hear is 20 hertz, and the highest pitch a human can hear is about 20 kilohertz.
Cats still work to control rats and mice around farms, nurseries, and warehouses. But most of the time, a cat’s job is to keep people company.
Science suggests they’re good at what they do. One study found that spending time with a cat reduced heart rate and blood pressure in both cat owners and volunteers who didn’t own cats. Another study found that cats reduced their owners’ negative moods. These effects may be linked to changes in brain activity. One study found that playing with cats, petting them, training them, and feeding them activated an area of the brain called the prefrontal cortex, which is associated with empathy and nonverbal communication.
Scientists have said that cats’ independence appears to be key to making cat-human relationships work. The researchers found that getting a normally uncooperative cat to cooperate through play or training was a big mood-booster. It turns out that for cats, playing hard to get pays off.
Aside from using their tails for balance and control, can cats’ tails reveal anything about their state of mind? And what do tail movements mean?
Cat behavior experts agree that cats use their tails as part of a larger body language system to communicate a wide range of emotions. Cats rely on their eyes, ears, body and tail to express fear, anger, joy, satisfaction and curiosity, according to a study published in the Irish Veterinary Journal.
A cat’s tail is incredibly flexible, thanks to its unique anatomy. It’s made up of 18 to 23 small bones, known as caudal vertebrae, that interlock like a chain, allowing the tail to move in many directions. When a cat experiences emotion, its brain sends signals to the muscles in the tail via the pudendal nerve, or the nerve that connects the tail muscles to the central nervous system. “This communication happens almost instantly, allowing cats to move their tails with lightning speed and precision,” Reda Mohamed, an animal anatomy professor at Washington State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, told Live Science in an email.
An upturned tail is a sign of a friendly, social approach, says Mikel Delgado, an animal behaviorist at Purdue University in Indiana.
However, the tail-up signal is not universal. A doctoral study of communication between domestic and wild cats found that while wild cats exhibit many of the same social behaviors as domestic cats, they do not use the tail-up signal that is commonly seen in domestic cats during friendly interactions. This suggests that the tail-up signal likely evolved during domestication.
Cats may fluff up their tails in response to a threat, perhaps in an attempt to appear larger. Anita Kot/Getty Images
Delgado noted that a trembling tail is often a sign of excitement.
Meanwhile, “a fanned tail is often a response to a threat — like a cat outside — and is thought to be a defensive attempt to appear larger,” Delgado explained. This response is similar to the one humans experience when they get goosebumps in response to fear. Humans have tiny muscles called arrector pili at the base of our hair follicles, and when we’re scared, these muscles contract, causing our hair to stand on end. Likewise, cats have similar muscles at the base of their tails, and when they feel threatened, these muscles cause their tails to fan out, making them appear larger and more intimidating.
“A drooping tail, or ‘tail down,’ is usually associated with fear, as the cat is trying to make itself smaller or protect itself,” Delgado said.
A scared cat may also tuck its tail in or curl it around its body, according to a 2021 guide to cat emotions. And if your cat slaps its tail on the ground or moves it quickly from side to side or up and down, it may be a sign that it’s angry.
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Interpreting a cat’s emotional state from its tail may seem like a simple task, but context is also crucial.
Additionally, cats may communicate with their tails differently depending on whether they are interacting with people or other cats.
For example, a 2021 study published in the journal Animals found that when cats interact with each other, they tend to keep their tails down and rely more on their ears to communicate their feelings. Ears that stick up signal friendliness, while ears that are pinned back indicate hostility. Meanwhile, when approaching people, cats often keep their tails up, especially before rubbing against their legs, the researchers noted.
It is possible to compare some aspects of animal and human intelligence, but not all researchers like to do this.
Compared to other animals, human babies start out with a lot to learn. While some animals can walk within hours of birth or hatching, human babies take months or years to master even the most basic functions. If you’ve ever had a baby and a pet at the same time, you may have wondered which one is smarter.
So what does science say about how human children’s intelligence compares to that of our furry little ones? It’s a complicated question, and the answer depends on the measurement of intelligence, the animal, and the person you ask.
A landmark study of cat intelligence by Edward Thorndike in 1898 examined cats’ ability to free themselves from a box by pulling on a door. Although the cats could only open the door through trial and error at first, the time it took them to escape from the box generally decreased as Thorndike repeated his attempts, showing that cats were capable of learning. Subsequent studies using treats in puzzle boxes showed that cats could learn new solutions when the puzzle box was changed, demonstrating cats’ ability to flexibly adapt to new learning environments, Vonk said. And while it would be unethical to place human babies in a puzzle box, children can begin escaping from their cribs as early as 16 months.
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Another study assessed cats’ memory, which is another important measure of cognition. Research has shown that cats strategically search for food based on just one memory. Research also shows that cats understand the concept of object permanence — the understanding that an object still exists even if it is no longer visible. Human babies typically learn the concept of object permanence between 4 and 10 months of age. And a recent study found that cats can even associate words with pictures better than human babies.
But even though these tests can quantify aspects of cats’ intelligence, Vonk believes that it makes no sense to view cats’ intelligence through the lens of human development.
“I don’t think it’s appropriate to compare the abilities of animals to the abilities of human children because other species are not just developmentally disabled humans,” she said. “They have evolved to solve different problems because they have evolved in different ecological contexts and live in different environments.”
These various evolutionary pressures have made cats excellent at skills like hunting and scent discrimination. “They’re probably much more efficient hunters than most humans will ever be,” Vonk said.
Ultimately, cats’ unique adaptations also mean that they simply aren’t motivated to perform at high levels of intelligence in the same way that humans are. Throughout history, human survival has depended on tasks like tool-making and language. Other animals haven’t experienced the same evolutionary pressures — cats, for example, rely on their sense of smell and physical coordination to hunt, rather than their ability to communicate or make tools — so Vonk says it’s simply not fair to compare cats to young humans.
“I don’t think you can compare animals to humans at different stages of development,” Vonk said. “That’s a comparison I try very hard to never make. We should be thinking about what abilities make sense for cats and understanding why cats excel at the things they excel at, and worrying less about comparing them to humans.”
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