A Michael Broad Blog
In the image below I have tried to present a feel for what the Fertile Crescent was like around 10,000 years ago when ‘at least five different females from the wildcat population’ befriended farmers and founded one of the greatest populations of domestic animal companions the world has seen: the domestic cat. Of course, …
People ask the question: “Why are domestic cats and invasive species?” And the answer is that in most countries of the world domestic cats did not evolve in those countries but they were brought there by people. It is only when an animal either evolves in a certain place or its distribution extends to …
On my reckoning, there are only 10 countries where the domestic cat is a native species or a non-invasive species. In all the other countries of the world the domestic cat could be described as an invasive species. So, what is an invasive species and where are these countries? Well, an invasive species is …
It is sad and telling of modern life that the famous place where the first wildcats were domesticated by farmers, the Fertile Crescent, which encompasses Syria and the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, is now a place where there are no farmers tilling the fields because the river, which was once swollen with floodwaters, has …
I am reporting on Syrian cats in Syria. The pictures and words come from Ernesto’s Sanctuary for Syrian Cats on Twitter. It is nice to see this for 2 reasons. The cats, like the humans, in Syria have gone through hard times and sometimes hellish times. Secondly, Syria is where it is believed the …
Almost all the cats of the small species of wild cat that is called the “wildcat” are hybrids. At some stage in their lineage an ancestor mated with a domestic cat. It may have been thousands of years ago but nearly all of them are not “purebred”. This is because the domestic cat – …
