It is well known that Anatolia was once one of the world's most important cradles of human civilization. But last month scientists also discovered that it is the home of the domestic cat, too.
Scientists at the University of California, Davis, have spent five years collecting swabs and samples of feline saliva, collating and comparing the DNA from 1,100 cats from around the world. They focused on 22 breeds of pedigreed cat and other feral and pet cats from countries including Korea, China, Kenya, Israel, Turkey, Vietnam, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, Egypt, Italy, Finland, Germany, the United States and Brazil. By looking closely at 39 genetic markers in the feline DNA, they were able to ascertain which breeds were most closely related and where they were likely to have originated.
This research confirmed findings in earlier studies indicating that the Fertile Crescent, which stretches from Turkey to Northern Africa through the Middle East, witnessed the appearance of domestic cats around 10,000 years ago. Leslie Lyons, one of the leading scientists on the project, said, "Our data support the Fertile Crescent, specifically Turkey, as one of the origin sites of cats." Cats from Turkey were found to have the most genetic diversity of all the animals studied. DNA accumulates more changes over time, and this led the University of California group to deduce that cats had been in Turkey longer than anywhere else.
The reason for the appearance of the house cat in this area is that the first farming communities also appeared here at the same time. Stored grain and other harvested foodstuffs made rich pickings for rats and mice, and cats were quick to realize that proximity to humans meant a good supply of food. The farmers must have realized the value of having the fierce (but manageably small) predators prowling around and encouraged them to stay. Lyons says, "It was beneficial for both cats and humans, as the cats came closer to human populations and kind of domesticated themselves." The tamer animals approached the human camps, and the human response was to make them even tamer.
From there, domesticated cats started to move out to different parts of the world, often following humans on their migrations. Today cats can be divided genetically into four broad groups: those from Europe, the Mediterranean, East Africa and Asia. Turkey has two breeds that are recognized by pedigree breeders: the Angora and the Van cat.
The Van cat is famous as the "swimming cat." Thought to have been in existence in southeast Turkey since the Middle Ages, they were "discovered" by two English ladies in the 1950s in the area around Lake Van. Enchanted by the white cats with red spots on their heads and beautiful red tails, they took a pair back to England and began to breed Van-patterned kittens. The Complete Cat Encyclopedia describes them as "much loved and prized by the Turks for their exceptional character and unique colouring." The encyclopedia adds: "Apart from their great capacity for affection and alert intelligence, their outstanding characteristic is their liking for water, not normally regarded as a feline attribute. They not only dabble in water and play with it, but have been known to enter ponds and even horse-troughs for a swim." The lineage of the Van breed is not without the political dimension so common in all matters associated with Turkey's Kurdish-populated areas.
The Angora is also named for the area that it comes from: Ankara. It is an all-white cat with unique blue eyes. It has a graceful appearance with a long flowing body finished with a full tail held in an upward curve. Its large tufted ears are set high upon the head, and its smooth, elegant face is wedge-shaped with almond-shaped eyes. These cats are said to be the first longhairs seen in Europe, brought back by Vikings as early as the 10th century, and form the foundation for all modern longhaired cats.
How much are cats really domesticated, though? Pedigreed animals are highly coveted by their owners, but most cats still seem to cohabitate with humans in a symbiotic (some would say parasitical) relationship -- they suffer us because we feed and shelter them. Even the most purebred specimen would be a different beast if it weighed 200 pounds.
Domestic News – Resource: Today’s Zaman
