Why Cats Decided To Live With People?
5,300 years ago in China, grain attracted rodents, which attracted cats to live alongside the farmers, new research with bones suggests. The study offers the first direct evidence of how cats were domesticated.
Long before it was immortalized in a British nursery rhyme, the cat that caught the rat that ate the malt was doing just fine living alongside farmers in the ancient Chinese village of Quanhucun.
€At least three different lines of scientific inquiry allow us to tell a story about cat domestication that is reminiscent of the old €house that Jack built' nursery rhyme,€ says study co-author Fiona Marshall, a professor of archaeology at Washington University in St. Louis.
€Our data suggest that cats were attracted to ancient farming villages by small animals, such as rodents that were living on the grain that the farmers grew, ate, and stored.€
(Credit: Wendi Dunlap/Flickr, font by Vernon Adams)
€Results of this study show that the village of Quanhucun was a source of food for the cats 5,300 years ago, and the relationship between humans and cats was commensal, or advantageous for the cats,€ Marshall says.
€Even if these cats were not yet domesticated, our evidence confirms that they lived in close proximity to farmers, and that the relationship had mutual benefits.€
Cat remains rarely are found in ancient archaeological sites, and little is known about how they were domesticated. Cats were thought to have first been domesticated in ancient Egypt, where they were kept some 4,000 years ago, but more recent research suggests close relations with humans may have occurred much earlier, including the discovery of a wild cat buried with a human nearly 10,000 years ago in Cyprus.
While it often has been argued that cats were attracted to rodents and other food in early farming villages and domesticated themselves, there has been little evidence for this theory.
GRAIN-EATERS
The evidence for this study, published in PNAS, is derived from research in China led by Yaowu Hu and colleagues at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Hu and his team analyzed eight bones from at least two cats excavated from the site.
Using radiocarbon dating and isotopic analyses of carbon and nitrogen traces in the bones of cats, dogs, deer, and other wildlife unearthed near Quanhucan, they demonstrated how a breed of once-wild cats carved a niche for themselves in a society that thrived on the widespread cultivation of the grain millet.
Carbon isotopes indicate that rodents, domestic dogs, and pigs from the ancient village were eating millet, but deer were not. Carbon and nitrogen isotopes show that cats were preying on animals that lived on farmed millet, probably rodents.
At the same time, an ancient rodent burrow into a storage pit and the rodent-proof design of grain storage pots indicate that farmers had problems with rodents in the grain stores.
Other clues gleaned from the Quanhucun food web suggest the relationship between cats and humans had begun to grow closer. One of the cats was aged, showing that it survived well in the village. Another ate fewer animals and more millet than expected, suggesting that it scavenged human food or was fed.
WILD CATS
Recent DNA studies suggest that most of the estimated 600 million domestic cats now living around the globe are descendants most directly of the Near Eastern Wildcat, one of the five Felis sylvestris lybica wildcat subspecies still found around the Old World.
Marshall, an expert on animal domestication, says there currently is no DNA evidence to show whether the cats found at Quanhucun are descendants of the Near Eastern Wildcat, a subspecies not native to the area.
If the Quanhucun cats turn out to be close descendants of the Near Eastern strain, it would suggest they were domesticated elsewhere and later introduced to the region.
€We do not yet know whether these cats came to China from the Near East, whether they interbred with Chinese wild-cat species, or even whether cats from China played a previously unsuspected role in domestication,€ Marshall says.
Researchers based in China and in France are now pursing that question.
Other members of the research team include Xianglong Chen, Changsui Wang, and Liangliang Hou, all affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins and the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology; Songmei Hu, of the Archaeological Research Institute of Shaanxi Province, Xi'an, China; and Xiaohong Wu, of the Department of Archaeology, Peking University, in Beijing.
Changsui Wang designed the research project. Songmei Hu, a zooarchaeologist, conducted the biometric measurement of cat bones. Weilin Wang, an archaeologist, excavated the Quanhucun site and supplied the archaeological context, including pottery cited in the paper. Xianglong Chen and Liangliang Hou prepared collagen samples for testing, and Xiaohong Wu conducted the radiocarbon dating.
Why cats don't come when called
Even the biggest feline fan will admit that obedience isn't exactly a cat's strong point.
Now scientists have proved the animals really are just plain wilful - after discovering that while they can recognise the voice of their owner, they choose to ignore it.
The researchers claim this is because cats domesticated themselves so, unlike dogs, they did not need to pay attention to humans during the evolutionary process.
During the study, carried out at each cat's home, the owner called to their animal when it was out of sight. The animal's response to each call was logged by measuring their movement, vocalisation and eye dilation.
They found that the animals moved their heads in the direction of the noise and pricked up their ears.
When the same experiment was carried out with a stranger's voice, the cats were found to be significantly less responsive. In both cases, they chose not to respond to it.
Atsuko Saito and Kazutaka Shinozuka, the researchers at the University of Japan who led the project, said: €This cat-owner relationship is in contrast to that with dogs. Cats do not actively respond with communicative behaviour to owners who are calling them from out of sight, even though they can distinguish their owners' voices.€
The reason for the indifference of cats is believed to be rooted in the early domestication of the species.
Writing in the journal Animal Cognition, the researchers said: €Historically speaking, cats, unlike dogs, have not been domesticated to obey humans' orders.
€Rather, they seem to take the initiative in human - cat interaction.€
Genetic analysis shows that the common ancestor of the modern housecat was Felis silvestris, a small wildcat that came into contact with humans more than 9 000 years ago.
The species is then thought to have domesticated itself without answering directly to humans.
Despite their independence, cats are reported to be as affectionate as dogs by their owners.
The study said that €the behavioural aspect of cats that cause their owners to become attached to them are still undetermined€. - Daily Mail
Cats Recognize Their Owner's Voice, They Just Choose To Ignore It
Cat owners and cat lovers around the world have known for years that cats can recognize the voice of their owners. But here's the catch: while they can identify their owners from strangers, they just decide not to respond to it!
In an article published in the journal Animal Cognition, two researchers from the US and Japan wanted to find out if cats were able to differentiate their owner's voice from a stranger. They selected 20 cats and studied their reactions when they were being called, first by three different strangers, followed by their owner, then by a final stranger.
In every case, the cats exhibited orienting behavior (ear movement and head movement) rather than communicative behavior (vocalization and tail movement). In other words, they took no
Long before it was immortalized in a British nursery rhyme, the cat that caught the rat that ate the malt was doing just fine living alongside farmers in the ancient Chinese village of Quanhucun.
€At least three different lines of scientific inquiry allow us to tell a story about cat domestication that is reminiscent of the old €house that Jack built' nursery rhyme,€ says study co-author Fiona Marshall, a professor of archaeology at Washington University in St. Louis.
€Our data suggest that cats were attracted to ancient farming villages by small animals, such as rodents that were living on the grain that the farmers grew, ate, and stored.€
(Credit: Wendi Dunlap/Flickr, font by Vernon Adams)
€Results of this study show that the village of Quanhucun was a source of food for the cats 5,300 years ago, and the relationship between humans and cats was commensal, or advantageous for the cats,€ Marshall says.
€Even if these cats were not yet domesticated, our evidence confirms that they lived in close proximity to farmers, and that the relationship had mutual benefits.€
Cat remains rarely are found in ancient archaeological sites, and little is known about how they were domesticated. Cats were thought to have first been domesticated in ancient Egypt, where they were kept some 4,000 years ago, but more recent research suggests close relations with humans may have occurred much earlier, including the discovery of a wild cat buried with a human nearly 10,000 years ago in Cyprus.
While it often has been argued that cats were attracted to rodents and other food in early farming villages and domesticated themselves, there has been little evidence for this theory.
GRAIN-EATERS
The evidence for this study, published in PNAS, is derived from research in China led by Yaowu Hu and colleagues at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Hu and his team analyzed eight bones from at least two cats excavated from the site.
Using radiocarbon dating and isotopic analyses of carbon and nitrogen traces in the bones of cats, dogs, deer, and other wildlife unearthed near Quanhucan, they demonstrated how a breed of once-wild cats carved a niche for themselves in a society that thrived on the widespread cultivation of the grain millet.
Carbon isotopes indicate that rodents, domestic dogs, and pigs from the ancient village were eating millet, but deer were not. Carbon and nitrogen isotopes show that cats were preying on animals that lived on farmed millet, probably rodents.
At the same time, an ancient rodent burrow into a storage pit and the rodent-proof design of grain storage pots indicate that farmers had problems with rodents in the grain stores.
Other clues gleaned from the Quanhucun food web suggest the relationship between cats and humans had begun to grow closer. One of the cats was aged, showing that it survived well in the village. Another ate fewer animals and more millet than expected, suggesting that it scavenged human food or was fed.
WILD CATS
Recent DNA studies suggest that most of the estimated 600 million domestic cats now living around the globe are descendants most directly of the Near Eastern Wildcat, one of the five Felis sylvestris lybica wildcat subspecies still found around the Old World.
Marshall, an expert on animal domestication, says there currently is no DNA evidence to show whether the cats found at Quanhucun are descendants of the Near Eastern Wildcat, a subspecies not native to the area.
If the Quanhucun cats turn out to be close descendants of the Near Eastern strain, it would suggest they were domesticated elsewhere and later introduced to the region.
€We do not yet know whether these cats came to China from the Near East, whether they interbred with Chinese wild-cat species, or even whether cats from China played a previously unsuspected role in domestication,€ Marshall says.
Researchers based in China and in France are now pursing that question.
Other members of the research team include Xianglong Chen, Changsui Wang, and Liangliang Hou, all affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins and the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology; Songmei Hu, of the Archaeological Research Institute of Shaanxi Province, Xi'an, China; and Xiaohong Wu, of the Department of Archaeology, Peking University, in Beijing.
Changsui Wang designed the research project. Songmei Hu, a zooarchaeologist, conducted the biometric measurement of cat bones. Weilin Wang, an archaeologist, excavated the Quanhucun site and supplied the archaeological context, including pottery cited in the paper. Xianglong Chen and Liangliang Hou prepared collagen samples for testing, and Xiaohong Wu conducted the radiocarbon dating.
Why cats don't come when called
Even the biggest feline fan will admit that obedience isn't exactly a cat's strong point.
Now scientists have proved the animals really are just plain wilful - after discovering that while they can recognise the voice of their owner, they choose to ignore it.
The researchers claim this is because cats domesticated themselves so, unlike dogs, they did not need to pay attention to humans during the evolutionary process.
During the study, carried out at each cat's home, the owner called to their animal when it was out of sight. The animal's response to each call was logged by measuring their movement, vocalisation and eye dilation.
They found that the animals moved their heads in the direction of the noise and pricked up their ears.
When the same experiment was carried out with a stranger's voice, the cats were found to be significantly less responsive. In both cases, they chose not to respond to it.
Atsuko Saito and Kazutaka Shinozuka, the researchers at the University of Japan who led the project, said: €This cat-owner relationship is in contrast to that with dogs. Cats do not actively respond with communicative behaviour to owners who are calling them from out of sight, even though they can distinguish their owners' voices.€
The reason for the indifference of cats is believed to be rooted in the early domestication of the species.
Writing in the journal Animal Cognition, the researchers said: €Historically speaking, cats, unlike dogs, have not been domesticated to obey humans' orders.
€Rather, they seem to take the initiative in human - cat interaction.€
Genetic analysis shows that the common ancestor of the modern housecat was Felis silvestris, a small wildcat that came into contact with humans more than 9 000 years ago.
The species is then thought to have domesticated itself without answering directly to humans.
Despite their independence, cats are reported to be as affectionate as dogs by their owners.
The study said that €the behavioural aspect of cats that cause their owners to become attached to them are still undetermined€. - Daily Mail
Cats Recognize Their Owner's Voice, They Just Choose To Ignore It
Cat owners and cat lovers around the world have known for years that cats can recognize the voice of their owners. But here's the catch: while they can identify their owners from strangers, they just decide not to respond to it!
In an article published in the journal Animal Cognition, two researchers from the US and Japan wanted to find out if cats were able to differentiate their owner's voice from a stranger. They selected 20 cats and studied their reactions when they were being called, first by three different strangers, followed by their owner, then by a final stranger.
In every case, the cats exhibited orienting behavior (ear movement and head movement) rather than communicative behavior (vocalization and tail movement). In other words, they took no
