你所不知的喵星人.docVIP

你所不知的喵星人 　　While it’s no secret some people love cats， felines2 themselves are complicated and confusing creatures. One day， they’re rubbing up against you， demanding attention， and the next， they deny you the simplest， friendly purr！3 　　On those days， we question if cats are living with us by choice or simply because we’re keeping them there. After all， they were once wild animals！ To learn more about how exactly cats went from living in the wild， to becoming our pets， to their current celebrity status， we’re trying to find answers to cat owners’ most pressing questions about feline evolution.4 Thanks to science， we now know a lot more about the lineage―and the wild side！―of our furry （and sometimes grumpy） friends.5 　　1. “What makes cats different than other domesticated6 animals？” 　　While most species were domesticated because of their value to humans （horses for their labor， cows for their milk， and so on and so forth7）， you can’t really put cats to work. So when cats needed shelter and food， they essentially took domestication upon themselves.8 　　“Unlike barnyard animals and livestock， cats took into account that it was a good idea for them to get along with people，” says Stephen O’Brien， chief scientific officer for Genome Bioinformatics at St. Petersburg （Russia） State University’s Theodosius Dobzhansky Center， who has conducted multiple cat-evolution studies.9 　　What most likely happened： just as humankind was establishing the first settlements roughly 10，000 years ago in a part of the Middle East known as the Fertile Crescent， wild cats fed on their trash and preyed upon mice that infested livestock feed.10 The cats that were genetically tamer most likely formed a bond with certain humans， which eventually led to cats living inside their homes.11 　　2. “So， did cats essentially domesticate themselves by being nice？” 　　You could say that. “There was an advantage associated with being a nice guy if you were a cat，” O’Brien says. “By becoming friend