Year: 2012
Type: book
Abstract: The domestic cats’ wild ancestors are known to be obligatory carnivores, consuming predominantly prey. Cats were domesticated approximately 9,000-10,000 years ago in the Near East and are thought to originate from at least five distinctive subspecies of F. silvestris from across the Near East region, namely F.s. silvestris, F.s. lybica, F.s. ornate, F.s. cafra and F.s. bieti (Driscoll et al. 2007). After domestication, descendants spread across the world with human settlements, resulting in the modern-day domestic cat. A small subset of these domesticated cats has undergone intensive selection directed at specific aesthetic traits, leading to the development of so-called pedigree cats. Nowadays, 41 breeds are recognized by the Cat Fanciers’ Association, including 16 “natural breeds” which are thought to be regional variants originating from domesticated F. silvestris subspecies. The remaining breeds were developed over the past 50 years and are simple single gene variants originating from these natural breeds (Lipinski et al. 2008).
Author: W.H. Hendriks
Language: English
Subfield: Ecology
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2582870166