TURBOCHARGED EVOLUTION: HOW HAS LIVING WITH
HUMANS CHANGED CATS?
Approximately 96 per cent of cats still choose their own mates these days. This has made for a relatively unaltered and organic genetic through-line in the majority of our modern cats. But that doesn’t mean cats haven’t changed simply by living with us. In a sense, cats have self-selected: friendlier cats, who are more tolerant of humans, may be more likely to be fed and sheltered by them, and more likely to mate with cats who have similar friendly/tolerant genes. So, while there’s been an absence of strong intentional selection for specific physical or behavioural characteristics among cats, it has actually been our relationship with them that has led to the most significant genetic changes.
What Has Changed with Today’s Cat?
In 2014, scientists collected cheek swabs for DNA analysis of twenty-two domestic cats of several breeds (Maine Coon, Norwegian Forest, Birman, Japanese Bobtail, Turkish Van,
Egyptian Mau and Abyssinian), as well as the Near Eastern and European wildcats. From this information, they were able to determine some of the key genetic changes that occurred in
domesticated cats.
Genetic changes that are associated with:
Better ability to form memories
Better ability to make associations between a stimulus and a reward (such as humans offering them food)
Less rapid fear conditioning—meaning today’s cat is not as quick to go into fight-or-flight mode
Physical characteristics:
Smaller body
Shorter jaw
Smaller brain
Smaller adrenals, which control fight-or-flight instinct
Lengthened intestines, for adaptation to scavenging human food
All cats have long canine teeth that allow them to kill with a bite to the neck. Domestic cats’ teeth are more narrowly spaced than those of other cats because they are adapted to catching smaller rodents—most domestic cats’ preferred prey.
What Has Not Changed with Today’s Cat?
Skull shape—the shape of the skull across all cat species is similar, and they have a specialized jaw designed to kill with a powerful bite. Our cats’ skulls may be a lot smaller than lions’ and tigers’, but the structure is very similar.
Behaviour! (To a large extent...)
Most cats choose their own mates, which keeps the gene pool diverse.
Cats still (for the most part) can survive without us.