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A look at feline domestication

猫的驯化研究

According to the American Pet Products Association, more than 47 million American families have at least one cat, with an average of two per household. These statistics, together with the status of cats as the most popular animals on the Internet, indicate that domestic cats may be more loved by the whole world than ever before. But many cat lovers know little about the history of these animals they bring into their families. In fact, the relationship between humans and cats is thought to date back to about 10,000 years ago, when wild cats first wandered into the countryside.

据美国宠物用品协会统计，超过4700万美国家庭至少有一只猫，平均每个家庭有两只。正如这些统计数据所显示的，再加上猫在互联网上作为最受欢迎的动物的地位，家猫可能比以往任何时候都更受欢迎。

但是许多爱猫人士对他们带回家的这些动物的历史知之甚少。事实上，人们认为人和猫的关系可以追溯到大约一万年前，从野猫第一次流浪到乡村开始。

The Origins of the House Cat

家猫的起源

Although there are many subspecies of wildcats, such as European wildcats and Scottish wildcats, today's domestic cats are considered to be descendants of North African wildcats, also known as Near East wildcats. "There are many subspecies of wild cats, and all these cats can actually cross, so it is difficult to understand this story now," explained Dr. Leslie Lyons, a professor and director of the feline gene laboratory of the College of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Missouri. "It is the North African wildcat that samples and actually supports that they are the ancestors of domestic cats." In addition to North Africa, this subspecies may also live in the whole Levant region, ancient Anatolia and Mesopotamia. These cats can adapt to various habitats and survive by preying on rodents, reptiles and birds.

虽然有许多野猫亚种，如欧洲和苏格兰的野猫，但今天的家猫被认为是北非野猫的后代，也被称为近东野猫。密苏里大学兽医学院猫科遗传学实验室主任兼教授莱斯利莱昂斯博士解释说：“野猫有许多亚种。

这些猫其实都是可以杂交的，所以现在很难找出家猫的来源。"。 "取样的是北非野猫，实际上证明了它们是家猫的祖先。“除了北非，这个亚种可能生活在整个黎凡特地区、古代安纳托利亚和美索不达米亚。

这些猫能适应各种栖息地，靠捕食啮齿动物、爬行动物和鸟类生存。

Today's domestic cats are very similar in body to their wild ancestors. "Domestic cats and wildcats have many characteristics in common," Lyons said, but there are also some key differences: wildcats were and are bigger than their close relatives and have the same fur as brown tabby cats. "Wild cats must have camouflage to make them difficult to find in the wild," Lyons said. "So you can't let orange and white cats run around-they will be taken away by predators." As cats were domesticated, they began to be selected and bred into more interesting colors, which gave us a series of beautiful cat breeds today.

今天的家猫和它们的野生祖先在体型上非常相似。莱昂斯说：“家猫和野猫有大部分共同特征。莱昂斯说：“野猫必须有伪装，这会让它们在野外非常不显眼。" "所以你不能让橙色和白色的猫到处跑，

它们会被掠食者捕获。随着猫被驯化，它们开始被选择和繁殖，以获得更多有趣的颜色，从而为我们提供了今天一系列美丽的猫品种。

The Beginnings of Domestication

驯化的开始

"Our genetic evidence, archaeological evidence and geology all tell us that cats may not have been domesticated 8,000 to 10,000 years ago," Lyons explained. It was during this period that humans first began to cultivate on a large scale in parts of the Middle East, the Indus Valley in Pakistan and the Yellow River Valley in China. According to the available evidence, scientists and historians infer that when farmers started to grow grain, they attracted rodents, which in turn lured wild cats out of their habitat and into human civilization.

莱昂斯解释说：“我们的基因证据、考古证据和地质学都告诉我们，猫可能在8000到10000多年前还没有被驯化。”正是在这一时期，人类首次在中东部分地区、巴基斯坦的印度河流域和中国的黄河流域大规模耕作。

根据现有的证据，科学家和历史学家推断，当农民开始种植食物时，他们会吸引啮齿动物，这反过来会引诱野猫离开栖息地，进入人类文明。

David Grimm, deputy editor of Science magazine and author of Citizen Dogs: Our Evolutionary Relationship with Cats and Dogs, explained: "Once cats appear in villages, people will want to keep them around because cats will kill rodents." . By killing prey, cats protected crops and food storage in these early agricultural communities.

《科学》杂志副主编、《家犬：我们与猫狗的进化关系》(另一种翻译是《猫狗的逆袭》)的作者大卫格里姆(David Grimm)解释说：“一旦猫进入村庄，人们就会想把它们留在身边，因为猫会杀死啮齿动物。

通过杀死猎物，猫保护了这些早期农业社区的农作物和食物储存。

Because this early human-cat relationship was so mutually beneficial, people often say that cats "domesticated themselves", which means that they voluntarily began to live among human beings and took actions that enabled them to continue their attractive new lifestyle. "Not only [these wild cats] have mice to prey on, but if they are more friendly, they may get leftovers from the table and even be protected by people," Green said. "Therefore, they should be much more docile than their wild counterparts."

因为人类和猫之间的这种早期关系是互利的，所以人们经常说猫是“自我驯化的”，这意味着它们自愿开始与人类生活，并接受使它们能够继续其有吸引力的新生活方式的行为。格林说：“(这些野猫)不仅有老鼠可猎，

如果他们更友好，他们可能会在桌子上吃剩饭，甚至可能会受到保护，免受人类的伤害。”“因此，它们确实应该比野生的同类温顺得多。"

Useful, Godlike, Wicked: Evolving Perceptions of Cats

有用、神圣与邪恶：猫的进化认知

As they become more deeply rooted in the role of rodent patrol and grain protector, the relationship between cats and humans has become closer. Archaeologists have found evidence of this relationship in China and the Mediterranean island country of Cyprus, in the form of ancient bones. In 2004, Jean-Denis Vigne made one of the most important discoveries there so far: in a tomb around 7500 BC, the remains of a cat were buried next to its owner.

随着它们作为啮齿动物巡逻队和谷物保护者的角色越来越强，猫和人类之间的联系也越来越强。考古学家在中国和地中海的塞浦路斯岛发现了这种关系的证据。在2004年，

让-丹尼斯姚一奇在那里发现了迄今为止最重要的发现之一：一只猫的遗骸被埋在它主人旁边的一个坟墓里，可追溯到公元前7500年左右。

"The significance of this funeral is that this is a village, and people used to bury their loved ones under their houses. When archaeologists were digging underground in a house, they found a grave where a man and a cat were buried, "Green explained. The bones of cats and humans are buried about a foot away, facing each other, surrounded by carved shells. "This shows that even at a very early age, there may be such a very close relationship between people and cats," he said.

格林解释说：“这场葬礼的意义在于，这是一个村庄，人们曾经将亲人埋葬在家里。考古学家在家里挖掘的时候，发现了一个墓，里面有一个人和一只猫。”猫和人的骨骼埋在大约一英尺远的地方。

面对面放置，周围是雕刻的贝壳。他说：“这表明，即使在很小的时候，人和猫之间也可能存在非常密切的关系。”

In Egypt, the role of the early domestic cat as an assistant and protector made it reach its most popular level in Rome around 1950 BC (when cats first appeared in Egyptian art). "Again, they are protecting the grain. They are killing snakes and scorpions," Green explained. "So they became so respected that they actually began to confuse with the gods of ancient Egypt."

在埃及，早期家猫作为助手和保护者的角色在公元前1950年左右的罗马达到顶峰(猫最早出现在埃及艺术中)。格林解释说，“他们又一次保护了食物，杀死了蛇和蝎子。”“因此，他们受到尊重，

他们实际上开始与古埃及的神相提并论。"

At that time, it was a common practice in Egypt to mummify cats as sacred sacrifices, which has proved to be very useful for scientists studying the origin of domestic cats today. Lyons explained that by around 600 BC, thousands of cats had been mummified. "In fact, it became a business," she said. "We know that cats may be tamed and people raise them, but they deliberately sacrifice them and mummify them so that people can buy them and offer them to the gods."

当时埃及的一个普遍做法是将猫制成木乃伊作为圣物，这被证明对今天研究家猫起源的科学家非常有用。莱昂斯解释说，到公元前600年左右，成千上万只猫被制成木乃伊。“事实上，它变成了一门生意，”她说。

“我们知道这些猫可能已经被驯服，人们正在饲养它们，但他们故意将它们献祭并制成木乃伊，以便人们可以购买它们并向上帝献祭。”

In 2012, Lyons co-authored a study to compare the excavated mitochondrial DNA sequence of Egyptian cat mummies with the sequences of various subspecies of modern domestic cats. The results are fascinating: "All mummies have the same DNA sequence, which is very common in the Middle East," she explained. "Cats living in Egypt today have the same sequence, which may mean that mummies' cats are their ancestors. So they are descendants of Pharaoh's cat. " This study provides the first genetic evidence that the cats sacrificed in ancient Egypt were actually domestic cats, further supporting the theory that domestication occurred before this period.

2012年，Lyons与人合作进行了一项研究，将埃及猫木乃伊的线粒体DNA序列与现代家猫各种亚种的序列进行了比较。结果令人着迷：“所有的木乃伊都有相同的DNA序列，这在中东很常见，”她解释道。

“今天生活在埃及的猫与木乃伊的序列相同，这可能意味着木乃伊中的猫是它们的祖先。所以它们是法老猫的后代。”“这项研究首次提供了古埃及献祭的猫其实是家猫的基因证据。

它进一步支持驯化发生在这个时期之前的理论。

After the heyday of Egypt, the road of domestic cats to the world was not smooth, especially in Europe. "In the Middle Ages, especially around the 12th and 13th centuries, cats began to be associated with witchcraft and other things," Green said. "There are also many incidents of killing cats. Cats are thrown into bonfires, tortured and hanged because they are considered evil and incarnate the devil." Pope Gregory IX, who opposed paganism in medieval Europe, took the lead in launching the charge. His campaign against cats was very effective. The cleaning lasted for centuries. By 1700, cats had almost disappeared in some areas.

埃及全盛时期之后，家猫在世界范围内的流行远非一帆风顺，尤其是在欧洲。格林说：“在中世纪，尤其是在12世纪和13世纪左右，猫开始与巫术和其他东西联系在一起。”。“仍然有许多猫被杀死，

猫被扔进篝火中，遭受折磨和绞死，因为它们被认为是邪恶的，是魔鬼的化身。教皇格里高利九世带头冲锋，他在中世纪欧洲讨伐异教徒。他的反猫运动如此有效，以至于清洗持续了几个世纪。到1700年，

猫在一些地区几乎已经消失了。

From outdoor hunters to indoor "fur babies"

从户外猎人到室内“毛皮宝宝”

“It wasn’t until probably the 1700s or 1800s that cats on a large scale started to come back into favor,” Grimm explains. But from that point, it was still a long road to the “house cat” as we know it. While cats were cared for as outdoor pets in the 19th and early 20th centuries, “the majority of cats being indoor animals is actually a very recent development,” he says. “And that’s because kitty litter wasn’t invented until 1940.”

格里姆解释道：“大概直到18世纪或19世纪，猫才开始大规模地重新受到青睐。”但从那时起，要成为我们所知的“家猫”还有很长的路要走。虽然猫在19世纪和20世纪初被当作户外宠物来照顾，

但“大多数猫都是室内动物，这实际上是最近的发展，”他说。“那是因为猫砂直到1940年才被发明。”

Grimm notes that as cats developed this closer relationship with humans, their legal status also began to change. “Up until about 100 years ago or so, cats and dogs were legally so worthless that they weren’t even considered property,” he says. Now, not only are they legally protected as property, they receive additional protection under anti-cruelty laws as well as natural disaster evacuation laws, which were first implemented after Hurricane Katrina.

格里姆指出，随着猫与人类建立了更密切的关系，它们的合法地位也开始改变。他说：“直到大约100年前，猫和狗在法律上都是毫无价值的，甚至不被视为财产。”现在，他们不仅作为财产受到法律保护，

还受到反虐待法和自然灾害疏散法的额外保护，这些法律在卡特里娜飓风后首次实施。

The 20th century has been an incredible period of change for the domestic cat. “This transition from them being outside animals to coming inside is a major turning point in them being considered more than just animals or pets, but becoming members of the family,” Grimm says.

对于家猫来说，20世纪是一个令人难以置信的变革时期。格里姆说：“它们从户外动物到室内动物的转变是一个重要的转折点，使它们不仅仅被认为是动物或宠物，而是成为家庭的一员。”

【Source】www.petmd.com

【Translated by】Spark Liao (廖怀宝)

【Illustration】From Bing

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