2023-11-06 18:31:39
Cat in nature – OXFORD UNIVERSITY
MADRID, 6 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Domestic cats introduced from the Middle East and wild cats native to Europe They did not mix until the 1960sdespite having been exposed to each other for 2,000 years.
An international team of researchers from Germany and the United Kingdom has found new archaeological and genetic evidence that transforms our understanding of the history of cats in Europe. The results are published in Current Biology.
The team sequenced and analyzed both wild and domestic cats, including 48 modern individuals. and 258 ancient samples excavated in 85 archaeological sites from the last 8,500 years. They then evaluated hybridization patterns following the introduction of domestic cats to Europe more than 2,000 years ago and their contact with native European wild cats.
The results of the studies show that, since their introduction, domestic cats and European wildcats have generally avoided mating. However, about 50 years ago, in Scotland (United Kingdom), everything changed. Perhaps as a result of declining feral cat populations and lack of opportunities to mate with other feral cats, Interbreeding rates between wild and domestic cats increased rapidly.
Jo Howard-McCombe, from the University of Bristol and the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, explains it’s a statement that “wild and domestic cats have hybridized very recently. It is clear that hybridization “is the result of modern threats common to many of our native species.”
“Habitat loss and persecution have pushed wildcats to the brink of extinction in Britain,” he adds. “It’s fascinating that we can use genetic data to go back into their population history and use what we’ve learned to protect Scottish wildcats.
Professor Greger Larson, from the University of Oxford, acknowledges that there is a tendency to think that cats and dogs are very different. “Our data suggest that, at least when it comes to avoiding interbreeding with their wild conspecifics, dogs and cats are much more similar to each other than to other domestic animals,” he highlights. “It will be fun to find out why that is.”
Professor Mark Beaumont, from the University of Bristol, adds: “The nature of the Scottish wildcat and its relationship with feral domestic cats has long been a mystery. Modern molecular methods and mathematical modeling have helped understand what the Scottish wildcat really is and the threats that have caused its decline“, Add.
Domestic animals, such as cattle, sheep, goats, dogs and pigs, have been closely associated with people since the emergence of agricultural communities more than 10,000 years ago. These close relationships have caused the dispersal of plants and animals far beyond their native ranges.
Over the past decade, genomic sequences of modern and ancient individuals have revealed that as domestic animals moved to new regions, they interbred with closely related wild species, dramatically altering their genomes. This pattern has been observed in all domestic animals except dogs.
It would be fascinating to know whether domestic cats interbred with European wildcats, but the decline of native wildcat populations across Europe and the lack of ancient cat genomes have made this difficult, the authors conclude.
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