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How Cats Evolved to be Pets

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Thus the domestic cat is not so much a true domesticate, one might say, as it is what Juliet Clutton Brock categorises as an ‘exploited captive,’ a group that includes reindeer, yaks, camels, and ilamas along with cats. Clutton Brock isn’t wholly comfortable putting cats in the same category as yaks or camels or with true domesticates like dogs. They really fit in both categories, she says, and might better be called ‘exploiting captives.’

“Exploiting captive”

cat: hey you gonna eat that?

human: uh, that’s a rat. They’ve been showing up ever since we started harvesting grain. We don’t eat them, they eat our food.

cat: free game then. Cool.

human: be my guest.

cat: hey is this spot free? It looks warm and I need a place to have my litter.

humans: this is my house. Feel free, I guess, just don’t get stepped on.

cat: hey can you watch my kittens for me? I need to hunt and I don’t want predators finding them.

human: holy shit these buggers are cute. Nothing will happen to them.

cat: I am going to climb on your lap now and you are going to love me.

human: I’m ok with this.

Phew. This one took, uh… a bit longer than expected due to other projects both irl and art-wise, but it’s finally here. The long-awaited domestic animal infographic! Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough space to cover every single domestic animal (I’m so sorry, reindeer and koi, my beloveds) but I tried to include as many of the “major ones” as possible.

I made this chart in response to a lot of the misunderstandings I hear concerning domestic animals, so I hope it’s helpful!

Further information I didn’t have any room to add or expand on:

🐈 “Breed” and “species” are not synonyms! Breeds are specific to domesticated animals. A Bengal Tiger is a species of tiger. A Siamese is a breed of domestic cat.

🐀 Different colors are also not what makes a breed. A breed is determined by having genetics that are unique to that breed. So a “bluenose pitbull” is not a different breed from a “rednose pitbull”, but an American Pitbull Terrier is a different breed from an American Bully! Animals that have been domesticated for longer tend to have more seperate breeds as these differing genetics have had time to develop.

🐕 It takes hundreds of generations for an animal to become domesticated. While the “domesticated fox experiment” had interesting results, there were not enough generations involved for the foxes to become truly domesticated and their differences from wild foxes were more due to epigenetics (heritable traits that do not change the DNA sequence but rather activate or deactivate parts of it; owed to the specific circumstances of its parents’ behavior and environment.)

🐎 Wild animals that are raised in human care are not domesticated, but they can be considered “tamed.” This means that they still have all their wild instincts, but are less inclined to attack or be frightened of humans. A wild animal that lives in the wild but near human settlements and is less afraid of humans is considered “habituated.” Tamed and habituated animals are not any less dangerous than wild animals, and should still be treated with the same respect. Foxes, otters, raccoons, servals, caracals, bush babies, opossums, owls, monkeys, alligators, and other wild animals can be tamed or habituated, but they have not undergone hundreds of generations of domestication, so they are not domesticated animals.

🐄 Also, as seen above, these animals have all been domesticated for a reason, be it food, transport, pest control, or otherwise, at a time when less practical options existed. There is no benefit to domesticating other species in the modern day, so if you’ve got a hankering for keeping a wild animal as a pet, instead try to find the domestic equivalent of that wild animal! There are several dog breeds that look and behave like wolves or foxes, pigeons and chickens can make great pet birds and have hundreds of colorful fancy breeds, rats can be just as intelligent and social as a small monkey (and less expensive and dangerous to boot,) and ferrets are pretty darn close to minks and otters! There’s no need to keep a wolf in a house when our ancestors have already spent 20,000+ years to make them house-compatible.

🐖 This was stated in the infographic, but I feel like I must again reiterate that domestic animals do not belong in the wild, and often become invasive when feral. Their genetics have been specifically altered in such a way that they depend on humans for optimal health. We are their habitat. This is why you only really see feral pigeons in cities, and feral cats around settlements. They are specifically adapted to live with humans, so they stay even when unwanted. However, this does not mean they should live in a way that doesn’t put their health and comfort as a top priority! If we are their world, it is our duty to make it as good as possible. Please research any pet you get before bringing them home!

Stories I made!  No Place Like Home a story where i take all my friends and turn them into domestic animals because why not? A goofy story without a bunch of sad stuff TW: there is bullying in this story Plot: Not really a plot just some friends goofing around   Cadaver Hills a story about a feline named Carrion and her god-fearing parents. TW: there's a lot of violence in this story as well as gore and major bullying Plot: A feline named Carrion lives under fear of the gods above because of her family’s strong religious beliefs.   Bugs a school project about feline bug hybrids.  TW: there's violence and bullying in this story Plot: A young feline-butterfly named Peaches is given a dream prophecy by his late grandmother to return the sun to the sky and he is joined by Frost, a former warrior and Bumble, a kitten with the urge for adventure   Ruthless a story about a group of animal outcasts who study witchcraft and magic. TW: there’s gore and violence in this story as well as discrimination. Plot: A group of hybrids turned outcasts for their mixed species set out to be number one. Domestication a story about a molly now named Stray who learns that she doesn't know everything about the world she lives in. TW: there's gore, violence and animal slaughter in this story. Plot: a former house pet who is thrown out by her housefolk discovers more about the modern world she lives in. Set in 2070 in a cyberpunk city.  Paranormal a story about a group of college students discover ghosts around their college. TW: there’s bullying in this story and mentions of parents divorcing. Plot: their all furries.  Bakery Mice a story about food based rodents living in restaurants and bakeries TW: there's minor misgendering and transphobia in this story. Plot: a cheesecake themed rat named well, Cheesecake and her best friend Cocoa adventure into other shops to meet other rodents like them.   PMD: Crystal Coven a fan-based story about a Pokémon team named Team Peacha who discover a coven based around researching an extinct species known as “Humans” Plot: Team Peacha, fresh out of Wigglytuff’s guild are ready to help other Pokémon out! However, a coven they discover may put a dent in their plans.

Myth Like No Tomorrow a collab story between me and my best friend about a world where mythical creatures and humans co-exist TW: there is bullying and fighting in this story Plot: a cow centaur named Hazelnut is accepted into a college for both monster and humans alike and befriends the head of the student council, Hydra.

Lupine a pack of stray dogs set out to find a new home after its been destroyed by humans. TW: there's death, major violence and cannibalism in this story. Plot: After their main guild is destroyed by humans, a group of strays look for a new home while avoiding the many dangers of the world. Help Wanted! a spoiled brat named Chloe is kicked out by her parents to get a job at a failing café TW: mentions of past bullying Plot: Chloe, a blonde corgi who is spoiled rotten by her parents is kicked out to get a job at an old café. Warriors a roleplay (I think) between me and my friends TW: death and blood Plot: a clan known as harvestclan is struggling to survive with the lack of prey in the area as well as threatening clans near by.

So I was told that Human Planet had a segment about pigeons in the Cities episode that I might be interested in and I was honestly so underwhelmed. I haven’t finished the episode so maybe there’s more pigeon stuff but I feel like all I saw was more Birds Of Prey Are The Only Cool And Acceptable Birds and pigeons are Trespassers In Our Urban World Who Shit On Everything And Are Useless On Top Of It. Which isn’t true and I’m so tired of this being framed as some horrible burden that humanity must face. Pigeons are the victims here, not us. 

Hate of pigeons didn’t start until the 20th Century. Before that was about 9,900 years of loving them. The rock pigeon was domesticated 10,000 years ago and not only that, we took them freaking everywhere. Pigeons were the first domesticated bird and they were an all-around animal even though they were later bred into more specialised varieties. They were small but had a high feed conversion rate, in other words it didn’t cost a whole lot of money or space to keep and they provided a steady and reliable source of protein as eggs or meat. They home, so you could take them with you and then release them from wherever you were and they’d pretty reliably make their way back. Pigeons are actually among the fastest flyers and they can home over some incredible distances (what fantastic navigators!). They were an incredibly important line of communication for multiple civilisations in human history. You know the first ever Olympics? Pigeons were delivering that news around the Known World at the time. Also, their ability to breed any time of year regardless of temperature or photoperiod? That was us, we did that to them, back when people who couldn’t afford fancier animals could keep a pair or two for meat/eggs. 

Rooftop pigeon keeping isn’t new, it’s been around for centuries and is/was important to a whole variety of cultures. Pigeons live with us in cities because we put them there, we made them into city birds. I get that there are problems with bird droppings and there’s implications for too-large flocks. By all means those are things we should look to control, but you don’t need to hate pigeons with every fibre of your being. You don’t need to despise them or brush them off as stupid (they have been intelligence tested extensively as laboratory animals because guess what other setting they’re pretty well-adapted to? LABORATORIES!) because they aren’t stupid. They’re soft intelligent creatures and I don’t have time to list everything I love about pigeons again. You don’t need to aggressively fight them or have a deep desire to kill them at all. It’s so unnecessary, especially if you realise that the majority of reasons pigeons are so ubiquitous is a direct result of human interference.

We haven’t always hated pigeons though, Darwin’s pigeon chapter in The Origin of Species took so much of the spotlight that publishers at the time wanted him to make the book ONLY about pigeons and to hell with the rest because Victorian’s were obsessed with pigeons (as much as I would enjoy a book solely on pigeons, it’s probably best that he didn’t listen).  My point is, for millenia, we loved pigeons. We loved them so much we took them everywhere with us and shaped them into a bird very well adapted for living alongside us.

It’s only been very recently that we decided we hated them, that we decided to blame them for ruining our cities. The language we use to describe pigeons is pretty awful. But it wasn’t always, and I wish we remembered that. I wish we would stop blaming them for being what we made them, what they are, and spent more time actually tackling the problems our cities face.  

I just have a lot of feelings about how complex and multidimensional hating pigeons actually is

CATS

let’s talk about housecats and how fucking weird they are evolutionarily/anthropologically

like who thought it was a good idea to have tiny malicious predators in our homes anyways????? (not us actually)

are they even domesticated????!!!?? (yes) do they even feel…

[Image source/ article]

The Genetics of Domestication

If you’ve ever owned a cat, you know that sometimes they feel only half domesticated, ready to become wild animals the second they make it out the door. But housecats are, in fact, genetically distinct from their wild cousins, having been domesticated some 10,000 years ago, right around the time that humans developed agriculture and settled into what became the beginnings of human civilization.

Today’s domestic cats are directly descended from the Near Eastern Wildcat (also called the African Wildcat) about 10,000 years ago, when it is thought that the desert dwelling wildcats started hunting the rodents that were attracted to the newly established grain stores that came with agriculture. Cats kept the rodent population down and in return were given a warm, dry place to sleep and a steady supply of food, leading to a sort of self-domestication where “they just hung out […] and humans tolerated them.” The more social the cats became, the more stable their place with humans was, leading eventually to cats becoming the most popular pets in the world.

A new study published recently in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Science examined the genomes of 22 domestic cats and compared them to the genomes of two European and two Near Eastern Wildcats. The researchers identified at least 13 genes linked to domestication, as they have clearly changed between wildcats and housecats. These genes are linked to things like learning, memory, and behavior: all things that make housecats more social than their solitary cousins. The idea that housecats are social may surprise some of you, but try petting that adorable wildcat next time you’re on the African savannah and you’ll see just how social Professor Snugglepants really is.

Another important set of genes uncovered by this study is involved with the migration of neural crest cells, stem cells that are immensely important in the developing embryo and control everything from skull shape to fur color. This finding supports the hypothesis that these cells are the ultimate controller of domesticity, something that would explain why domesticated animals share many similar traits such as smaller brains and certain coloration patters.

This is important because the main trademark of domestication is sociability, not only with other cats in this case but with humans and other animals such as dogs as well, which were domesticated some 30,000 years ago. The genes that control domestication may also control social development on an evolutionary scale, which could tell us something about how early humans evolved to be the social butterflies we are today.

References:

http://news.sciencemag.org/archaeology/2013/12/when-cats-became-comrades

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_wildcat

Submitted by Kelsey M., Discoverer.

Edited by Jessica F.

Whoa. This is what fruits and vegetables looked like before we domesticated them 🌽🍉🍌 Image: Genetic Literacy Project #sciencealert http://ift.tt/1nZPLw1

just. thinking about this. trying to explain mtmte is like trying to describe science to a baby

This isn’t even all the weird things that happened in those 82 issues

so well made!

Phew. This one took, uh… a bit longer than expected due to other projects both irl and art-wise, but it’s finally here. The long-awaited domestic animal infographic! Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough space to cover every single domestic animal (I’m so sorry, reindeer and koi, my beloveds) but I tried to include as many of the “major ones” as possible.

I made this chart in response to a lot of the misunderstandings I hear concerning domestic animals, so I hope it’s helpful!

Further information I didn’t have any room to add or expand on:

🐈 “Breed” and “species” are not synonyms! Breeds are specific to domesticated animals. A Bengal Tiger is a species of tiger. A Siamese is a breed of domestic cat.

🐀 Different colors are also not what makes a breed. A breed is determined by having genetics that are unique to that breed. So a “bluenose pitbull” is not a different breed from a “rednose pitbull”, but an American Pitbull Terrier is a different breed from an American Bully! Animals that have been domesticated for longer tend to have more seperate breeds as these differing genetics have had time to develop.

🐕 It takes hundreds of generations for an animal to become domesticated. While the “domesticated fox experiment” had interesting results, there were not enough generations involved for the foxes to become truly domesticated and their differences from wild foxes were more due to epigenetics (heritable traits that do not change the DNA sequence but rather activate or deactivate parts of it; owed to the specific circumstances of its parents’ behavior and environment.)

🐎 Wild animals that are raised in human care are not domesticated, but they can be considered “tamed.” This means that they still have all their wild instincts, but are less inclined to attack or be frightened of humans. A wild animal that lives in the wild but near human settlements and is less afraid of humans is considered “habituated.” Tamed and habituated animals are not any less dangerous than wild animals, and should still be treated with the same respect. Foxes, otters, raccoons, servals, caracals, bush babies, opossums, owls, monkeys, alligators, and other wild animals can be tamed or habituated, but they have not undergone hundreds of generations of domestication, so they are not domesticated animals.

🐄 Also, as seen above, these animals have all been domesticated for a reason, be it food, transport, pest control, or otherwise, at a time when less practical options existed. There is no benefit to domesticating other species in the modern day, so if you’ve got a hankering for keeping a wild animal as a pet, instead try to find the domestic equivalent of that wild animal! There are several dog breeds that look and behave like wolves or foxes, pigeons and chickens can make great pet birds and have hundreds of colorful fancy breeds, rats can be just as intelligent and social as a small monkey (and less expensive and dangerous to boot,) and ferrets are pretty darn close to minks and otters! There’s no need to keep a wolf in a house when our ancestors have already spent 20,000+ years to make them house-compatible.

🐖 This was stated in the infographic, but I feel like I must again reiterate that domestic animals do not belong in the wild, and often become invasive when feral. Their genetics have been specifically altered in such a way that they depend on humans for optimal health. We are their habitat. This is why you only really see feral pigeons in cities, and feral cats around settlements. They are specifically adapted to live with humans, so they stay even when unwanted. However, this does not mean they should live in a way that doesn’t put their health and comfort as a top priority! If we are their world, it is our duty to make it as good as possible. Please research any pet you get before bringing them home!

Okay so existential dread is a significant element of my existence but every so often I experience a moment of existential joy.

You ever just look at your dog and go wow. That there is a dog. That dog is a living, breathing creature outside of me. He is a living creature and sometimes when we’re snuggled up I can feel his heartbeat and if I listen I can hear him breathing and he radiates warmth. And it just fills you with absolute joy like this thing has free will and is choosing to fall asleep laying on my back with his head on my butt and he only understands like ten of the thousands of words I say to him and it must feel so different to live in his hairy body with a better sense of smell than sense of sight and his nervous system has got to be wildly different but I’m pretty much certain he loves me and one of the truest things about me is that I love him. He is lying with his head on my butt because when he made it clear that this was how he was going to fall asleep I went of course this is what we’re doing now. Like this living thing that experiences the world in a way I could never understand communicated to me that he desired to lay his head upon my buttocks and I said yes. How many thousands of generations of members of our species had to work to adapt to each other in such a way that I can lay here in cozy comfort knowing that while my neck and shoulders are displeased with this arrangement my nervous system, my endocrine system, my cardiovascular system are benefiting from the strange bond our ancestors managed to build? How strange and beautiful that some ancient wolf going look they’ve got snacks and some prehistoric human going I dunno that forest creature sure has scary teeth but I think it looks like a potential pal lead to you and me sitting like this, my arm slowly falling asleep, you starting to snore because somewhere along the way in your genetic line we fucked up your breathing. My family brought you into this house for the sole purpose of having a creature for me to love and care for. Your job is to be loved. I don’t think I would have made it these past three years without you. Some dude was like yeah you can have some liver and all of a sudden your little head is on my butt and you’re a dog living, breathing, heart beating and we love each other. This is real. We’re alive together.

There is joy in this existence and how strange and beautiful is that?