Domestic cat

Cats live with people all around the world.

They live in houses, apartments and on farms. Some cats live outside on their own.

Domestic cats live with people worldwide, on every continent except Antarctica. They live in city apartments, suburban houses, villages and farms, and people have carried them to islands all over the world on boats.

Some cats live without owners. These are called feral cats. Most feral cats still live close to people, around towns, farms and places where people used to live.

The domestic cat is not a wild species with a natural range: Animal Diversity Web attributes its nearly global distribution to people, who have taken cats to most regions and many oceanic islands. Cats primarily live in and around human settlements, and the map therefore shows the continents where cats live with people rather than a wild range.

Because cats readily return to living on their own, large feral populations exist worldwide, most of them near current or past settlements. Britannica notes that this is one reason experts do not consider the cat a fully domesticated animal.

Long ago, all cats were wild.

Wildcats came to farms to catch mice in the grain. People liked that. Slowly, cats and people became friends.

The cat's wild ancestor is the African wildcat, a small, sandy-striped cat of the Middle East and Africa. When people began farming more than 10,000 years ago, they stored grain, and mice and rats came to eat it. Wildcats came to catch the mice, and people were glad to have them.

Scientists found a grave on the island of Cyprus, about 9,500 years old, where a person and a cat were buried together. Cats are not native to Cyprus, so people must have brought them by boat, already as companions.

Genetic and archaeological evidence points to the African wildcat, Felis silvestris lybica, of the Middle East and Africa as the ancestor; it is genetically almost identical to domestic cats and still interbreeds with them. The partnership probably began with early agriculture in the Middle East, about 15,000 to 10,000 years ago, when rodents in grain stores drew wildcats to settlements.

A burial of a person with a cat in southern Cyprus, about 9,500 years old, shows cats were carried to the island and already kept close. Britannica describes two later lineages: one in Asia Minor from about 6,400 years ago that spread into Europe, and one in Egypt that spread around the Mediterranean, both still mixing with wildcats.

Cats eat meat.

Pet cats eat cat food from a bowl. Cats still love to pounce on toys, like they are hunting.

Cats are carnivores, built to eat meat. Pet cats get most of their food from their owners, but they still have a hunter's instincts. They stalk, pounce and chase toys the same way a wildcat chases mice.

A cat's tongue is covered in tiny hooks that point backward. In the wild these scrape meat from bones. They also help a cat lap up water and comb its fur clean.

Britannica describes cats as highly specialized, adaptable carnivores. The rough center of the tongue carries backward-pointing papillae that rasp meat from bones and help scoop water while drinking; taste receptors sit on the front, sides and back of the tongue.

Hunting behavior is learned early: Animal Diversity Web notes that kittens learn by copying their mother and are not allowed to tackle large prey, such as rats, straight away. Even well-fed pet cats keep the full predatory sequence of stalk, pounce and bite, which is why play with moving toys is so attractive to them.

Cats purr when they are happy.

They rub their cheeks on things. That leaves their smell and says, this is mine! Cats scratch to keep their claws sharp.

Cats purr, a soft, rattling hum. Purring often means a cat is content, but cats also purr when they are hurt or unwell, so it is not always a happy sound. Scientists think a special pad in the vocal cords helps make the purr.

Cats also talk with smells. They have scent glands on their cheeks, head and paws. When a cat rubs against you or scratches a post, it leaves its scent. That is a gentle way of saying, this is part of my home.

Purring, a continuous rattling hum, is shared by Felis species. Britannica reports recent research suggesting it comes from a special fatty pad within the folds of the vocal cords that lets them vibrate at low frequencies. It accompanies contentment but also pain or injury, so it is better read as a signal than as a simple sign of pleasure.

Scent marking is central to cat communication. Glands near the ears, neck and head deposit scent when cats rub on objects or people, and glands in the paws release scent when they scratch. Animal Diversity Web describes rubbing and scratching as gentle marking, while urine spraying sets firmer territorial boundaries.