International research transforms understanding of the history of cats in Europe...Dubious Research At Best

 This is how the story reads and has been posted on many groups across the internet so although I have responded to some I will make my main comment here after the item

Domestic cats introduced from the Near East and wildcats native to Europe did not mix until the 1960s, despite being exposed to each other for 2,000 years, a new study suggests.

Researchers have found new archaeological and genetic evidence which they say transforms the understanding of the history of cats in Europe.

According to the findings, since their introduction, domestic cats and European wildcats generally avoided mating.

Wildcats and domestic cats have only hybridised very recently. It is clear that hybridisation is a result of modern threats common to many of our native species

But that all changed about 50 years ago in Scotland.

Around this time, rates of interbreeding between wild and domestic cats rose rapidly, perhaps as a result of dwindling wildcat populations and a lack of opportunity to mate with other wildcats, researchers say.

Jo Howard-McCombe from the University of Bristol and the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, said: “Wildcats and domestic cats have only hybridised very recently.

“It is clear that hybridisation is a result of modern threats common to many of our native species.

It is fascinating that we can use genetic data to look back at their population history, and use what we have learnt to protect Scottish wildcats

“Habitat loss and persecution have pushed wildcats to the brink of extinction in Britain.

“It is fascinating that we can use genetic data to look back at their population history, and use what we have learnt to protect Scottish wildcats.”

Researchers analysed genetic data of both wild and domestic cats, including 48 modern individuals and 258 ancient samples excavated from 85 archaeological sites.

Then they assessed the patterns of hybridisation after domestic cats were introduced to Europe more than 2,000 years ago and came into contact with native European wildcats.

Our data suggests that, at least with respect to avoiding interbreeding with their wild counterparts, dogs and cats are much more similar to each other than they are to all other domestic animals

Professor Greger Larson, from the University of Oxford, said: “We tend to think of cats and dogs as very different.

“Our data suggests that, at least with respect to avoiding interbreeding with their wild counterparts, dogs and cats are much more similar to each other than they are to all other domestic animals. Understanding why this is true will be fun to explore.”

Domestic animals including cattle, sheep, goats, dogs, and pigs have been closely associated with people since the emergence of farming communities more than 10,000 years ago, leading to the dispersal of plants and animals well beyond their native ranges.

Experts say that over the last 20 years, analysis has revealed that as domestic animals moved to new regions, they interbred with closely related wild species, dramatically altering their genomes.

The findings are published in the Current Biology journal.

https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2023-11-06-international-research-transforms-understanding-history-cats-europe

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This is actually incorrect and based on poor research.

There are books and papers on wild cats going back to the 1700s in which it is noted that wild cats would not have survived and become "extinct long ago if not for interbreeding with cats of the domestic variety"

In fact, I set up the wild cats and ferals study in the UK in the 1980s as no universities or academics were interested in the subject.

The Red Paper 2022 Vol II: Felids looks at the history of wild cats in the UK -England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland and has even referenced (everything is fully referenced anyway) a meeting of zoologists and naturalists which included a zoologist who was THE man on the subject who had spent 40 years studying wild cats; they concluded that "The true Scottish wild cat became extinct in the 1860s"

That meeting, well publicised and reported on, was in 1897.

This new theory is hooked into the whole climate emergency and so on which is quite popular at the moment but ignores all text publications and studies before 60 years ago. In fact it is shocking to find that some supposedly top zoologists are unaware of historical records and specimens that they are supposedly expert on. Their ignorance and constant promulgation of dogma on wild cats is as bad as their ignorance on Old British foxes and the real history of foxes.

Dogma is set to be refreshed with a sexy new "environmental" tag to it.