Study: House cat descendant of Middle Eastern Wildcat

Garfield, Morris and the Aristocats get the fame, but look to the origins of today’s furry felines and you find “lybica,” a Middle Eastern wildcat. 

Domestic cats can be traced to wild progenitors that interbred well over 100,000 years ago, new research indicates.

“House cats — which includes fancy breeds and feral cats — those cats all form a genetic group that is virtually indistinguishable from ones in the Middle East,” said Stephen J. O’Brien of the National Cancer Institute.

“So, domestication, for sure, took place in the Middle East where those cats live today,” added O’Brien, co-author of a paper appearing in this week’s online edition of the journal Science.

Carlos Driscoll, of Oxford University and NCI, and an international team of researchers studied the origins of those loving and aloof, graceful and finicky pets that entertain or supervise millions of homes.

It’s serious research, because cats are a model for some human genetic diseases, such as polycystic kidney disease and retinal atrophy, Driscoll explained in a telephone interview. In addition, the work is expected to assist in conservation efforts for wild cats, he said.

Cats’ ancestry was traced to five types of wild cats, but that doesn’t mean they were domesticated five times, Driscoll said. Rather, these five types managed to interbreed at various times, with the result being Felis silvestris lybica, which appears to be the ancestor of modern house cats.

“This was an amazing experiment when animals came out of the wild,” O’Brien said. “Cats are known for their ferocious, deadly nature,” O’Brien said, so this is an extraordinary change for them.

Cats may have been domesticated once or many times, he said, adding that the most likely case is they were domesticated once and other wild cats bred with the domesticated ones.

“I wasn’t there, but all the data supports that,” he said.

The researchers found wildcats, with DNA identical to domestic cats, in Israel, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

By studying the mitochondrial DNA of 979 domestic and wild cats from Europe, Asia and Africa the researchers concluded that the origins of the species — what O’Brien calls a feline Adam and Eve — developed between 130,000 and 160,000 years ago. Mitochondrial DNA is passed down from mother to child.

Domestication of cats began as long as 10,000 to 12,000 years ago, O’Brien said, as the earliest farmers domesticated grains and cereal. As that occurred, local wild cats adapted to hunting rodents in the grain and developed a relationship with humans.

The earliest archaeological evidence of cats and humans in association dates to 9,500 years ago in Cyprus.

Joan Miller, chair of outreach for The Cat Fanciers’ Association, based in San Diego, California, said the most interesting aspect of the research “is the finding that some wild cats and domestic cats from the Near East were distinct from the other Felis silvestris subspecies long associated with domestic cat origins.”

“Since the DNA samples were taken from cats in remote desert areas there would be less likelihood of hybridization occurring,” she said. “I would like to know more about these cats.”

“We have evidence of cat domestication by the Egyptians because of their prolific artwork. It would be interesting to try to investigate early artwork from Israel, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain or Saudi Arabia,” added Miller, who was not part of the research group.

Other wild cats in the study included the European wildcat, Felis silvestris silvestris; Central Asian wildcat, F. s. ornata; sub-Saharan African wildcat, F. s. cafra; and the Chinese desert cat, F. s. bieti.

The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health.

[via AP]

Clown hired to cheer up monkeys

Clown hired to cheer up monkeys

A German zoo has hired a clown to stop its monkeys getting bored.

Zoo bosses got local entertainer Christina Peter, 45, to act the fool after vets said the chimps, baboons, gorillas and orang-utans in zoo cages were more often sick or aggressive when they grew bored.

Christina said she keeps the animals amused by making games and puzzles for them, using footballs, plastic bags, cardboard boxes or blocks of wood among other things.

She said: “When I was young I would go to a zoo and see animals and a lot of them looked bored and that made me feel very sad. Doing this makes me feel good because I am making their lives as comfortable as possible.

“And they seem to be enjoying it. They go wild when they see me coming because they know they’re going to have some fun.”

Animal psychologist Jennifer Ringleb said: “In nature, animals spend their whole day looking for food. In zoos they have nothing to do, they get bored. In extreme cases they will get sick or aggressive. Animals that have something to do are happier and more balanced.”

Dog food can found in Paris hilton’s Trash Fetches $305 on eBay

An empty gourmet dog food can taken from Paris Hilton’s trash fetched $305 (€224) in an eBay auction.The bidding that ended Sunday had reached $1.5 million (€1.1 million), but some of the bids were retracted or canceled because the wrong amount was entered or they were not legitimate, according to the eBay Web site.

The sellers were from the Web site HollywoodStarTrash.com, which also listed several other Hilton items for sale on eBay, including a used toothbrush that also sold for $305 (€224); two envelopes sent to her while she was in jail that sold for $510 (€375); and a Coke can for $51 (€38).

The organic gourmet dog food was produced by Party Animal Inc., and can be found in about 150 stores in Southern California and about 40 in New York. It can also be bought through the company’s Web site.

[via Herald Tribune]

Stolen Baby Monkeys Back in Pet Store

Two baby marmosets that were stolen from an exotic pet store have been found safe, and two Kentucky teenagers were charged in the theft, authorities say.

The monkeys were taken from the Exotic Pet Center in Sevierville early Thursday but were found in Maryville, about 30 miles west, authorities said Monday.

An 18-year-old woman and a 19-year-old man, both from Kentucky, are charged with felony theft and felony burglary. The monkeys were found in their car by Maryville police, who had been questioning the teenagers on an unrelated matter.

One of the monkeys, a common marmoset, has a retail price of about $2,800. The other, a rarer Geoffrey’s marmoset, could bring up to $4,500. They appeared to be in good health.

The monkeys are both females born in captivity. One was about 7 weeks old, the other about 9 weeks old, said Gilbert Perez, owner of the pet store.

[via AP]