5 ms·

There has been a lot of stuff in recent years arguing that cats domesticated themselves, whereas we domesticated these other animals.

by saurik 8y ago

crooked-v 8y ago
Domestic cats are also still nearly identical to African wildcats physically and in social behavior, with the primary differences being lower aggression levels and greater general sociability. Compare to dogs, where even the most "wild" dog has morphological differences in skull shape and distinct differences in social interactions from wolves [1]. [1]: https://particle.scitech.org.au/earth/eye-contact-between-dingoes-and-humans-reveal-clues-of-domestication-process/ https://particle.scitech.org.au/earth/eye-contact-between-di...
- tlow 8y ago
  From the articles linked research: " Recent work comparing dogs and wolves suggests that eye contact is an important behaviour underlying these social bonds; however, it remains unclear how this feature of interspecific social bonding evolved"
  - overcast 8y ago
    Eye contact is a big part of it. There was a documentary about dogs recently, where they did a simple experiment by placing a piece of food inside a cage that could not be opened by anyone but a human. First they let the wolf go at it, and it just went crazy trying to find a way in, inevitably giving up to do something else. The dog on the other hand tried for a bit, and then turn around and looked directly at the human for assistance.
p1necone 8y ago
I was under the impression that dogs kind of did that too, at least initially. Basically wolves and foxes and so on following humans around eating scraps and slowly becoming more accustomed to us. Of course we found them useful enough that we then further trained and domesticated them too.
- crooked-v 8y ago
  My theory is that African wildcats were already so well suited for the role they ended up in (hunting vermin without being annoying or dangerous to humans) that there was very little selection pressure on them for anything but general sociability and smaller territories. Most other domestic animals took much more drastic changes from their wild ancestors to become more than marginally useful.

There has been a lot of stuff in recent years arguing that cats domesticated themselves, whereas we domesticated these other animals.

by saurik 8y ago

There has been a lot of stuff in recent years arguing that cats domesticated themselves, whereas we domesticated these other animals.

crooked-v 8y ago

Domestic cats are also still nearly identical to African wildcats physically and in social behavior, with the primary differences being lower aggression levels and greater general sociability. Compare to dogs, where even the most "wild" dog has morphological differences in skull shape and distinct differences in social interactions from wolves [1]. [1]: https://particle.scitech.org.au/earth/eye-contact-between-dingoes-and-humans-reveal-clues-of-domestication-process/ https://particle.scitech.org.au/earth/eye-contact-between-di...

tlow 8y ago
From the articles linked research: " Recent work comparing dogs and wolves suggests that eye contact is an important behaviour underlying these social bonds; however, it remains unclear how this feature of interspecific social bonding evolved"
- overcast 8y ago
  Eye contact is a big part of it. There was a documentary about dogs recently, where they did a simple experiment by placing a piece of food inside a cage that could not be opened by anyone but a human. First they let the wolf go at it, and it just went crazy trying to find a way in, inevitably giving up to do something else. The dog on the other hand tried for a bit, and then turn around and looked directly at the human for assistance.

p1necone 8y ago

I was under the impression that dogs kind of did that too, at least initially. Basically wolves and foxes and so on following humans around eating scraps and slowly becoming more accustomed to us. Of course we found them useful enough that we then further trained and domesticated them too.

crooked-v 8y ago
My theory is that African wildcats were already so well suited for the role they ended up in (hunting vermin without being annoying or dangerous to humans) that there was very little selection pressure on them for anything but general sociability and smaller territories. Most other domestic animals took much more drastic changes from their wild ancestors to become more than marginally useful.