Thousands of years ago animals were not always domesticated. They were wild animals that were never trained and lived on instinct. Now a days there are a hand full of animals are domesticated and have a relationship with humans that were not there before. Researchers believe that the human-animal relationship is genetic modification. The geneticists of the Genome Institute at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have discovered that cats no longer fear new situation and instead look for rewards.The research started with scientists observing foxes and trying to do select breeding with foxes that felt comfortable with humans. Eventually, foxes started to look different. Their ears started to get floppy,tails began to curl and wag. They believe that the domestication genes are linked to floppy ears and curled tails.
In 2007 scientists sequenced the genome of a cat an Abyssian cat named cinnamon and compared her genome to those of a tiger and dog. It was shown that the tigers had several more copies of genes to detect pheromones or sex hormones. Dogs on the other hand had more copies of smell receptor genes.In domesticated cats it is shown that the genes coding for motivation and fear have been the major change in domesticated cats today explaining why they have more "friendly" and trainable.
I have a better understanding why cats are not the most affectionate pets because of their genes and from what animal they originated from. Even though cats were originated from tigers which are not an animal that is affectionate towards humans, cats have come a long way in a sense of how most treat humans and "accept" being domesticated.
Article:http://mashable.com/2014/11/11/cats-domestication/
Related article: http://health.usnews.com/health-news/articles/2014/11/10/domestic-cats-genes-made-them-purrfect-companions
Although I respect the genetic aspect of this article, I must state that the way an animal is treated has a lot to do with how they act towards humans. There are tigers and lions around the world that are kept as pets and there are cats that will not dare come near a human. I feel most of it has to do with environmental factors than genetics.
ReplyDeleteWhile the genetics of domesticated animals have changed greatly over the centuries from their wild counter parts there are other factors in play. There are still to this day feral dogs and cats that share the exact same genes as the pets in our homes yet they could never be tamed enough to live in a home. Genes do not necessarily determine an animal's affection levels since it is entirely possible to have two cats of the exact same breed with totally different personalities (feral vs non-feral) that are more likely to be determined by the environment they are in.
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