Cats underwent the domestication process about 9,000 years ago, according to Time, but they are only one tiny pounce away from being wild.
DNA researchers from the Washington University in St. Louis published a study in the PNAS on Monday that states house kitties still share traits with wild jungle cats.
As if your cat wasn't independent enough, for 9,000 years his species has pretty much avoided any human influence. (In all fairness, dogs have had 30,000 years to adapt to domestication, according to the Los Angeles Times).
"We believe we have created the first preliminary evidence that depicts domestic cats as not that far removed from wildcat populations," Wes Warren, an associate professor of genomics at Washington University, told the Los Angeles Times.
Cats were originally brought into the human fold as rodent hunters and ultimately the meowsers became pets. Over time, variances in fur patterns and more docile behavior became the norm as breeding progressed, although some domestic cats have continued to interbreed with feral cats, keeping the genes linked to the wild, according Warren.
"Our results suggest that selection for docility, as a result of becoming accustomed to humans for food rewards, was most likely the major force that altered the first domesticated cat genomes," researchers wrote, according to Time.
Cats have remained "hypercarnivores" relying almost solely on meat for nutrition, according to the Los Angeles Times. Their high-protein/high-lipid diet does not affect their health the way it would a human's. "Cats fed a diet rich in saturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids showed no effects on plasma lipid concentrations that in humans are risk factors for coronary heart disease and atherosclerosis," study authors wrote, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The (semi)domestic cat's hearing and other hunting equipment has withstood evolution. "Carnivores are endowed with extremely acute sensory adaptations, allowing them to effectively locate potential prey before being discovered," study authors wrote, according to the Los Angeles Times. "Within carnivores, cats have the broadest hearing range, allowing them to detect both ultrasonic communication by prey as well as their movement."
"The signatures of selection in the domestic cat genome are linked to genes associated with gene knockout models affecting memory, fear-conditioning behavior, and stimulus-reward learning, and potentially point to the processes by which cats became domesticated," according to the study.
