All domestic cats (Felis catus) trace their origins to the African wildcat. Yet, in typical feline fashion, they appear to have taken their time deciding when—and where—to form lasting bonds with humans.
New scientific findings indicate that the transition from wild predator to household pet occurred much more recently than previously assumed, and in a different region.
Research based on cat bones uncovered at archaeological sites suggests that cats began their close association with humans only a few thousand years ago, and in northern Africa rather than the Levant.
“They are ubiquitous, we make TV programmes about them, and they dominate the internet,” said Prof Greger Larson of the University of Oxford.
“That relationship we have with cats now only gets started about 3.5 or 4,000 years ago, rather than 10,000 years ago.”
All modern domestic cats descend from the same species—the African wildcat. However, how, where, and when they abandoned their wild behaviour and formed close ties with humans has long been a scientific puzzle.
To address this, researchers analysed DNA extracted from cat bones found at archaeological sites across Europe, North Africa, and Anatolia. They dated the remains, sequenced the DNA, and compared the results with the genetic makeup of modern cats.
The findings indicate that cat domestication did not begin with the rise of agriculture in the Levant. Instead, it occurred several millennia later, somewhere in northern Africa.
“Instead of happening in that area where people are first settling down with agriculture, it looks like it is much more of an Egyptian phenomenon,” Prof Larson said.
This conclusion aligns with existing historical knowledge of ancient Egypt, where cats were revered, frequently depicted in art, and preserved as mummies.
Once cats became linked to human communities, they spread across the world, valued as shipboard companions and natural pest controllers. They reached Europe only about 2,000 years ago—significantly later than previously believed.
From there, they travelled across Europe, reached the UK with Roman settlers, and later spread eastward along the Silk Road into China. Today, domestic cats are found in every region of the world except Antarctica.
In an unexpected discovery, scientists also found evidence of a wild cat species that lived alongside humans in China long before domestic cats arrived.
These animals were leopard cats, small wild felines with spotted coats, which lived in human settlements for roughly 3,500 years.
This early human–leopard cat interaction was “commensal” — a relationship in which two species coexist without harming one another, explained Prof Shu-Jin Luo of Peking University in Beijing.
“Leopard cats benefited from living near people, while humans were largely unaffected or even welcomed them as natural rodent controllers,” she said.
Leopard cats never became domesticated and continue to live in the wild throughout Asia.
In a curious modern twist, leopard cats have recently been crossbred with domestic cats to create the Bengal cat, a breed formally recognised in the 1980s.
The research is published in Science Journal and Cell Genomics.
