1 00:00:01,340 --> 00:00:04,200 Cats and dogs. 2 00:00:04,200 --> 00:00:07,960 Across the UK, we own around 18 million of them. 3 00:00:07,960 --> 00:00:09,800 KITTEN SQUEAKS 4 00:00:09,800 --> 00:00:12,240 That's one for every two households in the country. 5 00:00:12,240 --> 00:00:13,200 Oh, I know! 6 00:00:13,200 --> 00:00:17,000 No other animal comes close to our affections. 7 00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:20,360 In this series, we'll reveal how these four legged fur balls 8 00:00:20,360 --> 00:00:23,160 became the nation's best loved pets. 9 00:00:23,160 --> 00:00:25,800 Are they living with us because we feed them 10 00:00:25,800 --> 00:00:27,760 or because they love us? 11 00:00:27,760 --> 00:00:31,760 We'll see how the latest scientific discoveries are shedding new light 12 00:00:31,760 --> 00:00:34,760 on our obsession with these extraordinary creatures. 13 00:00:36,720 --> 00:00:38,320 This time - 14 00:00:38,320 --> 00:00:40,240 Cats, 15 00:00:40,240 --> 00:00:43,360 the world's most popular furry pet. 16 00:00:43,360 --> 00:00:44,800 Who's a good kit? 17 00:00:44,800 --> 00:00:48,080 Famously enigmatic and totally unreadable. 18 00:00:48,080 --> 00:00:51,880 We will often pretend to know what they're thinking. Are we right? 19 00:00:51,880 --> 00:00:54,080 CAT HISSES Maybe not. 20 00:00:55,480 --> 00:00:58,920 So what's the story behind the cat's rise to domestic domination? 21 00:00:59,840 --> 00:01:01,440 Wow. 22 00:01:01,440 --> 00:01:06,960 Archaeological discoveries allow us to uncover the cat's dark past. 23 00:01:06,960 --> 00:01:10,400 There were festivals formed around the torturing and killing of cats. 24 00:01:10,400 --> 00:01:12,560 CAT CRIES OUT 25 00:01:13,760 --> 00:01:16,920 Molecular genetics is throwing new light on the cat's journey 26 00:01:16,920 --> 00:01:19,800 from wild animal to domestic bliss. 27 00:01:19,800 --> 00:01:22,600 We can really drill down and say definitively 28 00:01:22,600 --> 00:01:24,560 where domestic cats come from. 29 00:01:24,560 --> 00:01:28,600 Discoveries in neuroscience are starting to explain why 30 00:01:28,600 --> 00:01:30,720 we find cats so appealing. 31 00:01:30,720 --> 00:01:34,240 It's clear that these auditory sounds are plugging 32 00:01:34,240 --> 00:01:36,080 straight into our emotions. 33 00:01:36,080 --> 00:01:38,800 And what can science tell us about their future? 34 00:01:40,640 --> 00:01:42,560 Humans have hybridised the domestic cat 35 00:01:42,560 --> 00:01:44,560 with a completely different species. 36 00:01:44,560 --> 00:01:46,560 CAT HISSES 37 00:01:46,560 --> 00:01:49,240 Can we finally unlock the secrets of cats? 38 00:02:05,840 --> 00:02:10,200 In the UK, we like to think of ourselves as a nation of cat lovers. 39 00:02:10,200 --> 00:02:13,640 So much so, we own around ten million pet cats. 40 00:02:13,640 --> 00:02:16,120 But compared to America, we're amateurs. 41 00:02:16,120 --> 00:02:19,120 They have over 58 million of them, 42 00:02:19,120 --> 00:02:22,000 so it's not surprising they have some of the largest cat shows 43 00:02:22,000 --> 00:02:23,520 in the world. 44 00:02:23,520 --> 00:02:27,000 Welcome to Las Vegas, for the 40th TICA cat show. 45 00:02:28,320 --> 00:02:30,640 We have 447 cats 46 00:02:30,640 --> 00:02:33,640 and we have 247 exhibitors. 47 00:02:33,640 --> 00:02:37,440 Shows like this are a testament to our love of cats. 48 00:02:39,200 --> 00:02:41,200 Poppy is a Canadian Sphynx. 49 00:02:41,200 --> 00:02:43,640 They're a very sweet breed. 50 00:02:43,640 --> 00:02:46,440 Basically, if you're a cat lover, 51 00:02:46,440 --> 00:02:48,960 there's a cat out there with your name on it. 52 00:02:48,960 --> 00:02:51,600 He's a white Oriental Shorthair, 53 00:02:51,600 --> 00:02:54,440 which is a Siamese in a designer coat. 54 00:02:54,440 --> 00:02:55,680 Yeah, he's a sweet boy. 55 00:02:56,920 --> 00:02:59,120 This is a Toyger, I invented it. 56 00:02:59,120 --> 00:03:00,720 He has a fantastic temperament. 57 00:03:03,160 --> 00:03:05,600 Most cats aren't designer at all. 58 00:03:05,600 --> 00:03:09,680 In the UK, around 80% of all cats are the good old-fashioned moggy. 59 00:03:12,560 --> 00:03:15,360 But all cats have one thing in common, 60 00:03:15,360 --> 00:03:17,600 their owners love every one of them. 61 00:03:18,640 --> 00:03:22,240 They've got so many little quirks that make me laugh every day. 62 00:03:22,240 --> 00:03:26,080 She's a big part of my life and she's important to me. 63 00:03:26,080 --> 00:03:28,880 Whenever I come home, I know that she's going to be there. 64 00:03:28,880 --> 00:03:32,000 Why are so many people obsessed with their cats? 65 00:03:32,000 --> 00:03:34,160 KITTEN SQUEAKS 66 00:03:34,160 --> 00:03:36,600 The latest scientific research suggests owners 67 00:03:36,600 --> 00:03:38,800 literally can't help themselves. 68 00:03:38,800 --> 00:03:41,160 CAT MEOWS 69 00:03:43,440 --> 00:03:47,960 Professor Morten Kringelbach studies hedonia - pleasure. 70 00:03:47,960 --> 00:03:52,960 My research interest is in pleasure and meaningful pleasure, 71 00:03:52,960 --> 00:03:57,240 including why it is that infants and animals are so cute. 72 00:03:57,240 --> 00:04:00,480 He researches what makes people happy. 73 00:04:00,480 --> 00:04:02,880 Pleasure is probably one of the most interesting tricks 74 00:04:02,880 --> 00:04:04,960 that evolution ever played on us. 75 00:04:04,960 --> 00:04:08,760 It's basically making us do what it is that we need to do to survive. 76 00:04:11,440 --> 00:04:14,720 To understand how humans experience pleasure, 77 00:04:14,720 --> 00:04:18,400 Morten uses a magnetoencephalograph, or MEG, 78 00:04:18,400 --> 00:04:20,960 to map and measure electrical activity 79 00:04:20,960 --> 00:04:22,760 in our brains in real time. 80 00:04:24,800 --> 00:04:27,760 What is really exciting about this technique is that it allows us 81 00:04:27,760 --> 00:04:31,160 to basically look at how the brain is thinking, 82 00:04:31,160 --> 00:04:33,360 how the brain is having emotions. 83 00:04:33,360 --> 00:04:35,680 We can measure, over milliseconds, 84 00:04:35,680 --> 00:04:39,000 the way that the electromagnetic signals in your brain changes, 85 00:04:39,000 --> 00:04:43,360 and we can start to see how the brain is unfolding in real time. 86 00:04:43,360 --> 00:04:47,200 It is as close as Morten can get to reading a subject's mind. 87 00:04:49,280 --> 00:04:52,200 OK, we're just about ready to start. 88 00:04:52,200 --> 00:04:56,280 Just sit nice and still, and just listen to the sounds. 89 00:04:56,280 --> 00:04:59,800 In extensive trials, Dr Kringelbach's team have tracked 90 00:04:59,800 --> 00:05:02,840 the brain's responses to the sound of a newborn baby. 91 00:05:02,840 --> 00:05:05,680 BABY WAILS 92 00:05:08,280 --> 00:05:09,960 What we're seeing here is 93 00:05:09,960 --> 00:05:12,200 how the signal gets into the auditory cortex, 94 00:05:12,200 --> 00:05:13,840 this bit here and here, 95 00:05:13,840 --> 00:05:16,440 so it's basically just near to your ears, 96 00:05:16,440 --> 00:05:19,320 and you can see that after about 130 milliseconds, 97 00:05:19,320 --> 00:05:21,360 you get the maximum response. 98 00:05:21,360 --> 00:05:23,560 Now, when you're listening to an infant crying, 99 00:05:23,560 --> 00:05:26,120 you also get activity in the orbitofrontal cortex 100 00:05:26,120 --> 00:05:28,880 and that's happening at exactly the same time 101 00:05:28,880 --> 00:05:31,200 as when you're actually trying to make sense 102 00:05:31,200 --> 00:05:32,680 of what it is that you're hearing. 103 00:05:35,440 --> 00:05:38,840 The orbitofrontal cortex is central to processing emotions. 104 00:05:40,720 --> 00:05:43,440 The experiment suggested that the sound of a baby crying 105 00:05:43,440 --> 00:05:46,320 triggered a response there 106 00:05:46,320 --> 00:05:49,760 before the subjects had consciously identified the sound. 107 00:05:49,760 --> 00:05:52,000 BABY CRIES 108 00:05:52,000 --> 00:05:56,000 It seems to be an instinctive emotional reaction 109 00:05:56,000 --> 00:05:58,680 that may not even require rational thought. 110 00:06:00,680 --> 00:06:03,560 It's clear that these auditory sounds are plugging 111 00:06:03,560 --> 00:06:05,360 straight into our emotions. 112 00:06:06,560 --> 00:06:10,240 In his tests, when subjects listen to the sound of an adult crying, 113 00:06:10,240 --> 00:06:15,360 a much weaker response was triggered in the orbitofrontal cortex, 114 00:06:15,360 --> 00:06:19,160 suggesting only certain sounds trigger a strong emotional response. 115 00:06:21,240 --> 00:06:23,880 But there was another sound that produce the same reaction 116 00:06:23,880 --> 00:06:25,480 as a baby's cry. 117 00:06:26,680 --> 00:06:28,000 A cat's meow. 118 00:06:28,000 --> 00:06:30,000 HIGH PITCHED MEOW 119 00:06:30,000 --> 00:06:33,040 There seems to be striking similarities between the way 120 00:06:33,040 --> 00:06:36,840 that we process a cat meowing and that of a baby crying. 121 00:06:36,840 --> 00:06:38,720 CAT MEOWS 122 00:06:38,720 --> 00:06:40,800 We get activity in the auditory cortices 123 00:06:40,800 --> 00:06:42,760 just like we do with anything else, 124 00:06:42,760 --> 00:06:44,600 but before we become conscious of it 125 00:06:44,600 --> 00:06:47,520 we get activity in the orbitofrontal cortex, 126 00:06:47,520 --> 00:06:50,640 suggesting that this is something that we need to take care of. 127 00:06:52,240 --> 00:06:55,440 The fact that a new-born's cry and a cat's meow initiated 128 00:06:55,440 --> 00:06:59,440 the same emotional response could have been a coincidence, 129 00:06:59,440 --> 00:07:01,560 except for one thing. 130 00:07:01,560 --> 00:07:04,440 Meowing in adult cats is really interesting 131 00:07:04,440 --> 00:07:07,840 because it turns out that they only really do it to humans. 132 00:07:09,400 --> 00:07:12,280 When cats meow to us, it's as if they're hijacking 133 00:07:12,280 --> 00:07:15,360 our emotional responses to make us love and care for them. 134 00:07:15,360 --> 00:07:17,600 HIGH PITCHED YOWL 135 00:07:17,600 --> 00:07:19,760 But are they doing it on purpose? 136 00:07:19,760 --> 00:07:22,120 It's not necessarily something that is conscious, 137 00:07:22,120 --> 00:07:25,520 it's just that they know that this works, just like we know that 138 00:07:25,520 --> 00:07:28,720 smiling at our parents worked when we were kids. 139 00:07:30,360 --> 00:07:32,160 Come here, you monster. 140 00:07:32,160 --> 00:07:35,400 They probably don't mean to manipulate us, but they do. 141 00:07:36,720 --> 00:07:39,280 So we have some idea of what's going on in our heads 142 00:07:39,280 --> 00:07:43,720 around cats, but will we ever know what's going on in their heads? 143 00:07:44,960 --> 00:07:47,440 I definitely think cats are more aloof than dogs. 144 00:07:47,440 --> 00:07:50,160 I do think that they can be very emotionally distant. 145 00:07:50,160 --> 00:07:54,160 We will often pretend to know what they're thinking. 146 00:07:54,160 --> 00:07:57,680 Are we right? Maybe not, but it's fun to imagine. 147 00:07:59,680 --> 00:08:03,680 Cats are famously enigmatic, so it's tough to figure out 148 00:08:03,680 --> 00:08:06,000 what they're feeling by looking at their faces. 149 00:08:07,080 --> 00:08:08,360 Happy cat. 150 00:08:08,360 --> 00:08:10,240 Angry cat. 151 00:08:10,240 --> 00:08:11,920 Sad cat. 152 00:08:11,920 --> 00:08:13,920 Or is that the sad cat? 153 00:08:15,160 --> 00:08:18,320 We may not be able to figure out what our cats are feeling 154 00:08:18,320 --> 00:08:21,040 but can science shed any light on it? 155 00:08:21,040 --> 00:08:23,520 Historically, cats aren't seen as very expressive 156 00:08:23,520 --> 00:08:26,520 so there is that idea that they are particularly cold 157 00:08:26,520 --> 00:08:28,800 when it comes to interacting with us. 158 00:08:30,200 --> 00:08:34,280 Compare that to a dog whose face seems full of expression. 159 00:08:34,280 --> 00:08:36,520 Empathy. Happiness, 160 00:08:36,520 --> 00:08:37,760 Sadness. 161 00:08:37,760 --> 00:08:39,640 Guilt. 162 00:08:39,640 --> 00:08:41,600 Why aren't cats just as communicative? 163 00:08:43,120 --> 00:08:44,920 They're not really able to frown 164 00:08:44,920 --> 00:08:47,600 or have that sad sort of puppy dog eye expression, 165 00:08:47,600 --> 00:08:50,000 they don't seem to have the right musculature for that. 166 00:08:50,000 --> 00:08:51,880 Dogs and humans have evolved 167 00:08:51,880 --> 00:08:55,960 the levator anguli oculi medialis muscle, 168 00:08:55,960 --> 00:08:58,080 responsible for raising the inner eyebrow, 169 00:08:58,080 --> 00:09:01,680 which we use for showing things like sadness and concern, 170 00:09:01,680 --> 00:09:04,320 but cats don't have this muscle. 171 00:09:04,320 --> 00:09:08,480 So, cats are physically incapable of having faces as expressive as dogs. 172 00:09:10,600 --> 00:09:14,800 However, Dr Finka's research suggests that cats can communicate 173 00:09:14,800 --> 00:09:16,760 some emotion on their faces. 174 00:09:16,760 --> 00:09:19,560 It's just we don't speak the language. 175 00:09:19,560 --> 00:09:22,240 So, we know that the muscles of the cat's face are quite different 176 00:09:22,240 --> 00:09:24,480 from other species, and certainly from humans. 177 00:09:24,480 --> 00:09:26,320 They use the muscles in different ways 178 00:09:26,320 --> 00:09:28,320 and also have different types of muscles, 179 00:09:28,320 --> 00:09:31,040 and different collections of muscles will do different things. 180 00:09:31,040 --> 00:09:33,840 Dr Finka studies how cats' faces change 181 00:09:33,840 --> 00:09:36,760 when illness or injury produces pain. 182 00:09:36,760 --> 00:09:39,120 This is the only feeling she can currently say 183 00:09:39,120 --> 00:09:41,960 with confidence that a cat is experiencing. 184 00:09:41,960 --> 00:09:44,360 We are looking at cats when they come into the vet's 185 00:09:44,360 --> 00:09:45,800 with a painful condition, 186 00:09:45,800 --> 00:09:48,560 and we do know that they're actually changing their expressions 187 00:09:48,560 --> 00:09:51,760 in relation to how they're feeling, and if they're in pain. 188 00:09:51,760 --> 00:09:54,800 She's identified a set of incredibly subtle markers 189 00:09:54,800 --> 00:09:57,240 to help track their feelings. 190 00:09:57,240 --> 00:10:01,120 We have a series of 48 facial coordinates 191 00:10:01,120 --> 00:10:03,840 and we can actually look to see how these coordinates are altering 192 00:10:03,840 --> 00:10:05,920 based on what the cat's experiencing, 193 00:10:05,920 --> 00:10:07,960 so whether they're in pain or not in pain, 194 00:10:07,960 --> 00:10:09,880 or whether they're relaxed and comfortable, 195 00:10:09,880 --> 00:10:11,560 or perhaps fearful or frustrated. 196 00:10:11,560 --> 00:10:15,680 Dr Finka has identified some telltale signs, 197 00:10:15,680 --> 00:10:19,400 such as a cat's ears turning very slightly outwards and down, 198 00:10:19,400 --> 00:10:21,920 or a tiny reduction in the distance between the cheeks, 199 00:10:21,920 --> 00:10:23,760 mouth and nose region. 200 00:10:25,800 --> 00:10:30,080 These are all signs that the cat is not happy and in pain. 201 00:10:30,080 --> 00:10:32,920 But if you think this is going to usher in a new age 202 00:10:32,920 --> 00:10:37,000 of cat-human communication, think again. 203 00:10:37,000 --> 00:10:40,320 It's very, very subtle, so statistically it's significant 204 00:10:40,320 --> 00:10:42,960 but in terms of the average cat owner trying to look 205 00:10:42,960 --> 00:10:46,400 at their cat's face, it might be a little bit more problematic. 206 00:10:46,400 --> 00:10:49,440 It looks like our struggle to read cats' emotions 207 00:10:49,440 --> 00:10:52,040 isn't going away any time soon. 208 00:10:52,040 --> 00:10:54,280 But could a cat read our emotions? 209 00:10:56,040 --> 00:10:58,720 To find out, researchers in the US conducted 210 00:10:58,720 --> 00:11:01,280 a series of cognitive behavioural tests. 211 00:11:01,280 --> 00:11:05,440 Because it's quite difficult to test cats, we know a lot less 212 00:11:05,440 --> 00:11:08,320 about their cognitive abilities compared to dogs. 213 00:11:08,320 --> 00:11:11,280 Doesn't mean that they don't necessarily have the same level 214 00:11:11,280 --> 00:11:12,520 of skills and abilities, 215 00:11:12,520 --> 00:11:15,520 it just means that it's much harder for us to find the right context 216 00:11:15,520 --> 00:11:17,600 to test them in and get them to play ball 217 00:11:17,600 --> 00:11:19,320 in the way that we need them to. 218 00:11:20,880 --> 00:11:24,280 Pepper the cat has been placed in a room with her handler 219 00:11:24,280 --> 00:11:26,400 who pulls various faces at her. 220 00:11:28,520 --> 00:11:30,280 First up - scowling. 221 00:11:30,280 --> 00:11:34,760 Can Pepper detect that this is a negative emotion and steer clear? 222 00:11:36,920 --> 00:11:39,880 It appears cats are less likely to react positively 223 00:11:39,880 --> 00:11:42,880 to someone they know if they have an angry expression. 224 00:11:44,320 --> 00:11:46,640 Next, a positive smiling face. 225 00:11:49,920 --> 00:11:52,160 By running the test multiple times, 226 00:11:52,160 --> 00:11:56,000 scientists compiled statistics suggesting that a cat is more likely 227 00:11:56,000 --> 00:11:59,600 to approach someone they recognise if they are smiling at it. 228 00:11:59,600 --> 00:12:03,760 What the research suggests is that they are able to differentiate 229 00:12:03,760 --> 00:12:07,520 between our different expressions and they're using this information 230 00:12:07,520 --> 00:12:10,240 to change the way that they are responding. 231 00:12:10,240 --> 00:12:14,520 The research also suggested that cats react more strongly to 232 00:12:14,520 --> 00:12:17,440 both the positive and negative emotions of their owners 233 00:12:17,440 --> 00:12:19,840 than to those of strangers. 234 00:12:19,840 --> 00:12:23,000 The behaviour of owners is much more important to the cat 235 00:12:23,000 --> 00:12:26,840 because we are the ones that feed the cat and we look after them. 236 00:12:26,840 --> 00:12:29,280 So maybe they're more interested in paying attention to us 237 00:12:29,280 --> 00:12:30,760 for that reason. 238 00:12:30,760 --> 00:12:33,480 So, we may struggle to read cats' faces 239 00:12:33,480 --> 00:12:36,840 but apparently we are an open book to them. 240 00:12:36,840 --> 00:12:40,120 What persuaded us to invite these unusual animals 241 00:12:40,120 --> 00:12:42,640 into our lives in the first place? 242 00:12:42,640 --> 00:12:46,160 To answer that, we need to understand their origins. 243 00:12:47,920 --> 00:12:51,280 Domestic cats are part of a much larger and wilder family, 244 00:12:51,280 --> 00:12:54,120 a family with some very big footprints to fill. 245 00:12:56,480 --> 00:12:59,400 The lion, the tiger, the leopard. 246 00:12:59,400 --> 00:13:02,160 Predators at the top of their food chain. 247 00:13:04,240 --> 00:13:06,480 But whatever our cats may think, 248 00:13:06,480 --> 00:13:09,280 these are not their direct ancestors. 249 00:13:09,280 --> 00:13:13,480 All felines, or felids, evolved from the proailurus, 250 00:13:13,480 --> 00:13:17,680 an animal living in Eurasia roughly 25 million years ago. 251 00:13:17,680 --> 00:13:21,400 These felids were probably slightly larger in size, 252 00:13:21,400 --> 00:13:24,640 lived more in trees than our domestic cats do, 253 00:13:24,640 --> 00:13:27,560 but otherwise it's going to have the same teeth and claws, 254 00:13:27,560 --> 00:13:29,800 just like a domestic cat does. 255 00:13:29,800 --> 00:13:34,120 So all cats, whether they're a lion, a tiger or a little domestic cat 256 00:13:34,120 --> 00:13:38,040 sitting on your lap, they're going to have very similar characteristics 257 00:13:38,040 --> 00:13:40,360 that makes a cat a cat. 258 00:13:40,360 --> 00:13:44,240 Big cats - the lion, the tiger, the jaguar - 259 00:13:44,240 --> 00:13:46,280 separated from the common ancestor 260 00:13:46,280 --> 00:13:48,160 around 10.8 million years ago. 261 00:13:50,200 --> 00:13:52,960 Large American cats, like the lynx and bobcat, 262 00:13:52,960 --> 00:13:55,440 separated 7.2 million years ago. 263 00:13:56,480 --> 00:13:58,280 The domestic cat's ancestor, 264 00:13:58,280 --> 00:14:00,560 the most recent branch of the felid tree, 265 00:14:00,560 --> 00:14:03,760 appeared 3.4 million years ago. 266 00:14:03,760 --> 00:14:06,600 Felis silvestris, the wildcat. 267 00:14:09,040 --> 00:14:12,040 It's a much smaller subspecies of feline 268 00:14:12,040 --> 00:14:15,960 that relies more on surprise and stealth than brute force. 269 00:14:15,960 --> 00:14:18,760 This explains the origins of some of the strange behaviours 270 00:14:18,760 --> 00:14:21,040 owners see in their pets. 271 00:14:21,040 --> 00:14:22,920 There are several clues in cats' behaviour 272 00:14:22,920 --> 00:14:25,280 that they're perhaps not the apex predators, 273 00:14:25,280 --> 00:14:27,200 and, in fact, are prey as well as predators. 274 00:14:27,200 --> 00:14:31,280 For example, the cat likes to hide, it likes to conceal itself, 275 00:14:31,280 --> 00:14:34,400 it often likes to be up high where it feels safe 276 00:14:34,400 --> 00:14:36,760 and where it can be very vigilant. 277 00:14:36,760 --> 00:14:39,000 According to genetic research, 278 00:14:39,000 --> 00:14:43,160 Felis silvestris split into five distinct subspecies. 279 00:14:43,160 --> 00:14:44,560 The European Wildcat, 280 00:14:44,560 --> 00:14:46,320 the Chinese Mountain Cat, 281 00:14:46,320 --> 00:14:48,680 the Southern and North African wildcat 282 00:14:48,680 --> 00:14:50,680 and the Central Asian Wildcat. 283 00:14:52,600 --> 00:14:56,720 But which one of them was the actual ancestor of our cats? 284 00:14:59,160 --> 00:15:01,840 People have been speculating about it for hundreds of years 285 00:15:01,840 --> 00:15:03,680 about where they came from, 286 00:15:03,680 --> 00:15:07,040 whether or not they came from many different species 287 00:15:07,040 --> 00:15:09,800 or many different subspecies of one species, 288 00:15:09,800 --> 00:15:11,800 and where they were domesticated. 289 00:15:12,920 --> 00:15:17,880 In 2007, geneticist Carlos Driscoll started a ground-breaking study, 290 00:15:17,880 --> 00:15:21,760 collecting DNA samples from wildcats 291 00:15:21,760 --> 00:15:25,040 and comparing their DNA to domestic cats. 292 00:15:25,040 --> 00:15:28,280 With the advent of molecular genetic techniques, 293 00:15:28,280 --> 00:15:30,880 we can really drill down and say definitively 294 00:15:30,880 --> 00:15:32,520 where domestic cats come from, 295 00:15:32,520 --> 00:15:37,120 by building a family tree of all the different groups that make up 296 00:15:37,120 --> 00:15:41,400 Felis silvestris, the ancestral species of the domestic cat. 297 00:15:41,400 --> 00:15:45,720 Each subset of Felis silvestris has a distinct DNA signature. 298 00:15:47,080 --> 00:15:51,280 DNA's identity come from combinations of the four chemicals, 299 00:15:51,280 --> 00:15:55,440 adenine, thymine, cytosine and guanine. 300 00:15:55,440 --> 00:15:58,560 By matching these to the domestic cat, 301 00:15:58,560 --> 00:16:02,960 Driscoll was able to pinpoint which subspecies was its ancestor. 302 00:16:04,640 --> 00:16:08,640 Domestic cats are derived from one single group 303 00:16:08,640 --> 00:16:11,160 of Felis silvestris in the wild - 304 00:16:11,160 --> 00:16:13,480 Felis silvestris lybica. 305 00:16:14,760 --> 00:16:19,160 Felis silvestris lybica, the North African wildcat. 306 00:16:20,480 --> 00:16:23,120 A solitary animal found throughout Northern Africa 307 00:16:23,120 --> 00:16:26,680 and the Middle East, longer legged than our domestic cats 308 00:16:26,680 --> 00:16:29,840 with a coat that ranges from reddish to grey 309 00:16:29,840 --> 00:16:31,840 to camouflage it in different habitats. 310 00:16:34,200 --> 00:16:38,360 But when did this wildcat become our domestic companion? 311 00:16:38,360 --> 00:16:42,840 In 2004, on the small Mediterranean island of Cyprus, 312 00:16:42,840 --> 00:16:46,640 archaeologists found evidence of the earliest known encounter 313 00:16:46,640 --> 00:16:49,320 between cat and human. 314 00:16:49,320 --> 00:16:53,360 A team led by Jean-Denis Vigne was excavating 315 00:16:53,360 --> 00:16:56,840 a 9,500-year-old human settlement. 316 00:16:56,840 --> 00:17:00,840 During the excavation, they discovered a grave. 317 00:17:00,840 --> 00:17:04,120 Alongside its human occupant was the skeleton of a cat. 318 00:17:05,880 --> 00:17:08,680 A Felis silvestris lybica. 319 00:17:08,680 --> 00:17:12,240 It was amazing to find a complete animal, 320 00:17:12,240 --> 00:17:16,120 especially a cat beside a human. 321 00:17:16,120 --> 00:17:19,960 It was so early that it was really surprising 322 00:17:19,960 --> 00:17:25,360 to have such evidence of connection between one cat and one human. 323 00:17:25,360 --> 00:17:28,520 The way the bones were laid out suggested that the cat 324 00:17:28,520 --> 00:17:31,120 had been intentionally placed next to the man. 325 00:17:32,720 --> 00:17:37,000 They were facing each other in death, in the afterlife. 326 00:17:37,000 --> 00:17:41,600 And this is a scene which has been arranged by people. 327 00:17:43,320 --> 00:17:47,240 But what really caught scientists' interest was the fact that Cyprus 328 00:17:47,240 --> 00:17:52,120 is an island and no trace has ever been found of native wild cats. 329 00:17:53,120 --> 00:17:54,880 So how did this cat get here? 330 00:17:57,200 --> 00:18:01,080 The fact that this burial was found on Cyprus means that somebody 331 00:18:01,080 --> 00:18:03,640 brought these cats to the island by boat. 332 00:18:05,920 --> 00:18:08,560 The Cyprus settlement closely matches sites found in Turkey 333 00:18:08,560 --> 00:18:13,640 so archaeologists believe that's where the settlers originated 334 00:18:13,640 --> 00:18:17,840 and where we know that Felis silvestris lybica was common. 335 00:18:17,840 --> 00:18:20,600 It suggests these people, or their ancestors, 336 00:18:20,600 --> 00:18:22,520 must have brought a cat with them. 337 00:18:26,200 --> 00:18:28,440 But the Cyprus cat was different to mainland wildcats 338 00:18:28,440 --> 00:18:30,880 in one very significant respect. 339 00:18:32,280 --> 00:18:34,480 This cat was very big, 340 00:18:34,480 --> 00:18:37,800 much bigger than all the other cats. 341 00:18:37,800 --> 00:18:41,680 This meant that, probably, it has been fed, 342 00:18:41,680 --> 00:18:44,880 so maybe it was more or less a pet. 343 00:18:46,320 --> 00:18:50,400 A larger skeleton indicates that the cat is domesticated 344 00:18:50,400 --> 00:18:54,200 because he's getting enough nutrition that he can devote 345 00:18:54,200 --> 00:18:57,480 all that energy obtained from food into growth. 346 00:18:58,720 --> 00:19:01,320 Cats in the wild can't spare the energy to grow big 347 00:19:01,320 --> 00:19:02,760 if they want to survive. 348 00:19:04,560 --> 00:19:07,240 There's a time cost to hunting, 349 00:19:07,240 --> 00:19:11,960 so you would have energy diverted into fuelling your hunts, 350 00:19:11,960 --> 00:19:13,600 therefore you'll be smaller. 351 00:19:16,200 --> 00:19:19,240 On its own, the evidence of the Cyprus cat isn't enough to 352 00:19:19,240 --> 00:19:23,160 confirm that this 9,500-year-old cat was domesticated. 353 00:19:24,600 --> 00:19:26,720 But there's now evidence from genetic research 354 00:19:26,720 --> 00:19:28,400 that supports this theory. 355 00:19:30,400 --> 00:19:33,600 To date the split between wildcats and domestic cats, 356 00:19:33,600 --> 00:19:36,920 scientists use mitochondrial DNA. 357 00:19:36,920 --> 00:19:40,760 Unlike other DNA, mitochondrial material comes almost exclusively 358 00:19:40,760 --> 00:19:44,880 from the mother, so it is passed down the generations unaltered, 359 00:19:44,880 --> 00:19:48,840 except for random mutations that happen at a known rate. 360 00:19:48,840 --> 00:19:52,760 By calculating that rate of mutation, 361 00:19:52,760 --> 00:19:57,840 we can actually calculate the age of a specimen that we are studying. 362 00:19:57,840 --> 00:20:02,000 So we use the mitochondrial clock a lot with different organisms 363 00:20:02,000 --> 00:20:05,120 to try to figure out their age in evolutionary time. 364 00:20:06,280 --> 00:20:09,360 And it shows that our domestic cats split from wildcats 365 00:20:09,360 --> 00:20:11,760 approximately 10,000 years ago, 366 00:20:11,760 --> 00:20:14,640 very close to the time of the Cyprus cat. 367 00:20:14,640 --> 00:20:16,760 Why did it happen then? 368 00:20:17,800 --> 00:20:19,720 Well, at that moment in history 369 00:20:19,720 --> 00:20:22,960 humans were also going through a big transformation - 370 00:20:22,960 --> 00:20:25,520 The Agricultural Revolution. 371 00:20:26,880 --> 00:20:30,440 This started in an area of the Near East archaeologists call 372 00:20:30,440 --> 00:20:32,880 the Fertile Crescent. 373 00:20:32,880 --> 00:20:36,360 And Turkey, where the Cyprus cat originated, was part of it. 374 00:20:39,920 --> 00:20:44,360 The Fertile Crescent was so rich an area for hunting and gathering 375 00:20:44,360 --> 00:20:47,440 that people could have little encampments 376 00:20:47,440 --> 00:20:49,600 that eventually grew into towns, 377 00:20:49,600 --> 00:20:52,800 so throughout all seasons they could be in one spot. 378 00:20:52,800 --> 00:20:57,160 This new way of life relied not only on the ability to grow food 379 00:20:57,160 --> 00:20:58,680 but also to store it. 380 00:21:00,280 --> 00:21:03,600 But what's the dawn of civilisation got to do with cats' domestication? 381 00:21:05,680 --> 00:21:10,120 Humans, by this point, were harvesting grains and caching them, 382 00:21:10,120 --> 00:21:14,560 putting big stores of grains in baskets in holes in the floors 383 00:21:14,560 --> 00:21:15,760 of their houses. 384 00:21:17,000 --> 00:21:20,840 But the grain stores were an easy target for hungry wild rodents. 385 00:21:20,840 --> 00:21:25,040 They had the potential to devour these new food reserves. 386 00:21:25,040 --> 00:21:28,640 Luckily for our ancestors, this new concentration of rodents 387 00:21:28,640 --> 00:21:31,680 attracted something else, something wild. 388 00:21:34,160 --> 00:21:36,960 Cats were likely drawn into these new human settlements 389 00:21:36,960 --> 00:21:40,200 because they could hear something we couldn't. 390 00:21:40,200 --> 00:21:42,640 Cat hearing is really just truly amazing. 391 00:21:42,640 --> 00:21:45,600 So they can actually hear very low frequencies 392 00:21:45,600 --> 00:21:47,440 and very high frequencies. 393 00:21:47,440 --> 00:21:51,120 And, of course, much of the prey is squeaking at high frequencies. 394 00:21:51,120 --> 00:21:54,400 Humans can't hear some rodent squeaks at all 395 00:21:54,400 --> 00:21:57,640 as they vocalise at frequencies beyond our hearing range. 396 00:21:58,880 --> 00:22:00,960 But cats have ultrasonic hearing. 397 00:22:00,960 --> 00:22:03,520 When we hear nothing, they hear this. 398 00:22:03,520 --> 00:22:06,240 HIGH PITCHED SQUEAKING 399 00:22:06,240 --> 00:22:10,080 The pitch of these rat squeaks has to be lowered by 90% 400 00:22:10,080 --> 00:22:11,920 to let us hear them at all. 401 00:22:15,760 --> 00:22:18,720 Cats also have unique anatomical gifts that help them 402 00:22:18,720 --> 00:22:20,560 zero in on their next meal. 403 00:22:21,720 --> 00:22:25,160 The outside of their ear has an amazing amount of muscles in it 404 00:22:25,160 --> 00:22:27,720 so they can turn their ear all the way around. 405 00:22:27,720 --> 00:22:30,840 That allows the cat to really hone in on where the mice are, 406 00:22:30,840 --> 00:22:33,800 rats are, where they're communicating, 407 00:22:33,800 --> 00:22:36,440 and hence they're going to capture them for their meals. 408 00:22:37,960 --> 00:22:41,920 This makes cats rodent terminators, unstoppable killers. 409 00:22:43,000 --> 00:22:46,240 The pull to the easy pickings of the first human settlements 410 00:22:46,240 --> 00:22:49,160 teeming with rodents would have been irresistible. 411 00:22:52,440 --> 00:22:54,880 And you'd be forgiven for thinking that cats still like 412 00:22:54,880 --> 00:22:58,280 to show off this prowess 10,000 years later. 413 00:22:59,720 --> 00:23:01,160 She brings us gifts. 414 00:23:01,160 --> 00:23:05,760 Maybe once a month we have a mouse appear in the house. 415 00:23:05,760 --> 00:23:07,120 It is a bit disgusting. 416 00:23:07,120 --> 00:23:08,680 We get leaves. 417 00:23:08,680 --> 00:23:11,640 Oh, they brought a leaf in and Rita brought a piece of stale toast in 418 00:23:11,640 --> 00:23:13,040 once from the back garden. 419 00:23:14,240 --> 00:23:17,080 So lots of people think that their pet cat brings them gifts 420 00:23:17,080 --> 00:23:20,320 in the form of small rodents or birds, 421 00:23:20,320 --> 00:23:23,560 but, actual fact, the cat doesn't believe it is a gift. 422 00:23:23,560 --> 00:23:27,880 The cat will often bring home the prey that it has caught because 423 00:23:27,880 --> 00:23:30,280 the home represents the core territory to the cat, 424 00:23:30,280 --> 00:23:32,040 the place that it feels safe. 425 00:23:33,240 --> 00:23:37,080 But 10,000 years ago, this would have been very effective PR, 426 00:23:37,080 --> 00:23:41,360 proving to our ancestors that cats protected valuable food resources. 427 00:23:41,360 --> 00:23:44,720 This was a creature you'd want to have hanging around. 428 00:23:46,120 --> 00:23:50,520 Maybe you set out some food for a cat to keep it around your house. 429 00:23:50,520 --> 00:23:53,960 You might have done that because you thought it was eating mice 430 00:23:53,960 --> 00:23:55,840 and keeping your grain stores clean. 431 00:23:58,040 --> 00:24:02,200 So, the domestic cat split around 10,000 years ago in the Near East. 432 00:24:02,200 --> 00:24:05,680 But how much have they changed from their wild ancestors? 433 00:24:07,080 --> 00:24:10,440 The wildcat in the wild feeds only on meat, 434 00:24:10,440 --> 00:24:13,240 they're obligate carnivores or hypercarnivores. 435 00:24:13,240 --> 00:24:16,640 So they can only process proteins, 436 00:24:16,640 --> 00:24:21,080 they're metabolically incapable of digesting carbohydrates. 437 00:24:21,080 --> 00:24:23,320 House cats are different. 438 00:24:23,320 --> 00:24:26,720 While wildcats only eat meat, their domesticated cousins have 439 00:24:26,720 --> 00:24:30,440 evolved the ability to digest some plant matter. 440 00:24:30,440 --> 00:24:33,160 The domestic cat, for thousands of years now, 441 00:24:33,160 --> 00:24:34,880 has been living off of scraps, 442 00:24:34,880 --> 00:24:40,480 not just scraps of meat but also scraps of grains and vegetables. 443 00:24:40,480 --> 00:24:43,320 And the result of that is 444 00:24:43,320 --> 00:24:46,640 that domestic cats have a slightly longer intestinal length 445 00:24:46,640 --> 00:24:48,600 than their wild ancestor. 446 00:24:48,600 --> 00:24:52,720 And Darwin hypothesised that this is because the cats are trying 447 00:24:52,720 --> 00:24:56,200 to squeeze as much nutrients out of this poor food as they can. 448 00:24:58,040 --> 00:25:00,480 This irresistible combination of rodents 449 00:25:00,480 --> 00:25:05,000 and edible human refuse could explain why the wildcat 450 00:25:05,000 --> 00:25:08,440 decided to come in from the wild and live with humans. 451 00:25:11,640 --> 00:25:15,440 Wildcats genetically predisposed to find humans less scary 452 00:25:15,440 --> 00:25:18,280 would have hung around the settlements. 453 00:25:18,280 --> 00:25:21,560 Anything that has to do with aggression or boldness 454 00:25:21,560 --> 00:25:24,680 are probably genes that are involved 455 00:25:24,680 --> 00:25:27,680 with the actual domestication process, 456 00:25:27,680 --> 00:25:31,160 because those had to change between the wild progenitor 457 00:25:31,160 --> 00:25:36,040 and the domestic cat in order for the cat to cohabitate with humans. 458 00:25:36,040 --> 00:25:40,200 Breeding between these animals would have positively selected genes 459 00:25:40,200 --> 00:25:43,760 that allowed them to live more closely with humans. 460 00:25:43,760 --> 00:25:46,880 Certainly, there have been some genes that have changed 461 00:25:46,880 --> 00:25:51,200 between an African wildcat and the domestic cat itself, 462 00:25:51,200 --> 00:25:54,040 because we know the behaviours are different. 463 00:25:54,040 --> 00:25:57,120 Behavioural genes, which are genes that are involved with our brain 464 00:25:57,120 --> 00:26:02,040 and our neurology, those are genes that have evolved a little bit 465 00:26:02,040 --> 00:26:05,680 to make a domestic cat more docile, more friendly with humans. 466 00:26:06,840 --> 00:26:10,560 Geneticists have found 13 genes that have changed in the domestic cat 467 00:26:10,560 --> 00:26:12,520 compared to its wild ancestor. 468 00:26:13,680 --> 00:26:17,680 Genes like DCC, and GRIA 1, 469 00:26:17,680 --> 00:26:19,800 which are associated with making cats friendlier 470 00:26:19,800 --> 00:26:21,720 and less afraid of people. 471 00:26:23,800 --> 00:26:27,000 We may never know who initiated first contact 472 00:26:27,000 --> 00:26:29,360 but it's safe to assume that cats determined 473 00:26:29,360 --> 00:26:31,160 the terms of the relationship. 474 00:26:32,720 --> 00:26:36,120 So it's not a stretch to say that we didn't domesticate the cat, 475 00:26:36,120 --> 00:26:38,000 the cat domesticated itself. 476 00:26:41,400 --> 00:26:43,000 Genetics has confirmed 477 00:26:43,000 --> 00:26:46,400 that domestic cats originated in the Fertile Crescent 478 00:26:46,400 --> 00:26:49,800 but it's also reveals something genuinely surprising - 479 00:26:49,800 --> 00:26:52,800 one country had more influence on the genes of modern cats 480 00:26:52,800 --> 00:26:54,520 than any other, 481 00:26:54,520 --> 00:26:56,520 and it was a long way from Turkey. 482 00:26:58,040 --> 00:26:59,680 Egypt. 483 00:27:01,480 --> 00:27:05,440 Professor Salima Ikram is an expert in all things Egyptian, 484 00:27:05,440 --> 00:27:08,000 including their obsession with cats. 485 00:27:10,560 --> 00:27:15,120 The ancient Egyptians really loved animals but they also revered them. 486 00:27:15,120 --> 00:27:19,960 Cats were perhaps the most popular and the most highly venerated 487 00:27:19,960 --> 00:27:23,840 because of their utilitarian as well as metaphysical values. 488 00:27:25,320 --> 00:27:30,240 In Egypt, 4,000 years ago, the first images of cats start appearing, 489 00:27:30,240 --> 00:27:34,160 wall carvings and paintings of cats living with humans. 490 00:27:34,160 --> 00:27:37,800 Egyptians especially valued the cat's killer instincts. 491 00:27:39,680 --> 00:27:42,920 Ancient texts tell us that not only did cats kill rodents 492 00:27:42,920 --> 00:27:44,920 but they also killed snakes. 493 00:27:44,920 --> 00:27:46,720 So, of course, the Egyptians loved this 494 00:27:46,720 --> 00:27:49,040 because they were much safer as a result. 495 00:27:49,040 --> 00:27:52,960 Imagine if you're a mother and your child is crawling around 496 00:27:52,960 --> 00:27:56,400 and then a snake approaches and your pet cat kills it. 497 00:27:56,400 --> 00:27:59,920 Also, for them, the idea that a cat was killing a snake meant that 498 00:27:59,920 --> 00:28:03,120 the sun god, Ra, was killing the evil snake, Apophis. 499 00:28:03,120 --> 00:28:05,840 So, it was sort of doing double duty. 500 00:28:07,800 --> 00:28:11,040 This mystic battle playing out in homes across Egypt 501 00:28:11,040 --> 00:28:13,880 would have done wonders for the cat's PR. 502 00:28:13,880 --> 00:28:16,480 The cat became so important to Egyptians 503 00:28:16,480 --> 00:28:18,720 that they turned it into a goddess. 504 00:28:28,840 --> 00:28:33,480 The cult of Bastet, the cat goddess, had always been popular in Egypt 505 00:28:33,480 --> 00:28:38,800 but it really came to prominence 3,000 years ago, about 500-600 BC. 506 00:28:40,280 --> 00:28:44,000 Bastet, the daughter of Ra, would often take the form of a cat. 507 00:28:45,680 --> 00:28:50,120 Bastet was very much about self-indulgence and beauty and love, 508 00:28:50,120 --> 00:28:52,000 and fertility, which was very important. 509 00:28:54,880 --> 00:28:56,720 Unfortunately for cats, 510 00:28:56,720 --> 00:29:00,400 being worshipped as a goddess had a very nasty downside. 511 00:29:01,560 --> 00:29:05,440 We're about to go into the tomb of Raia, who is a New Kingdom official. 512 00:29:07,840 --> 00:29:09,600 It's a really ancient tomb 513 00:29:09,600 --> 00:29:12,520 and it's not been open to the public for ages. 514 00:29:14,240 --> 00:29:15,240 Wow. 515 00:29:17,440 --> 00:29:18,760 Nice. 516 00:29:23,080 --> 00:29:26,040 They lived about 3,500 years ago, 517 00:29:26,040 --> 00:29:29,440 just at the beginning of the time of Tutankhamun. 518 00:29:29,440 --> 00:29:32,880 But that's not the most interesting thing for me about this tomb. 519 00:29:32,880 --> 00:29:35,080 For me, the most exciting thing is actually 520 00:29:35,080 --> 00:29:37,720 that it was reused to bury cats in. 521 00:29:40,960 --> 00:29:43,720 This tomb is packed with cat mummies. 522 00:29:46,440 --> 00:29:50,520 The downside of being worshipped as a goddess was that it led to 523 00:29:50,520 --> 00:29:52,920 industrial levels of cat sacrifice. 524 00:29:54,280 --> 00:29:57,480 Pilgrims would buy these cats to give a blood sacrifice 525 00:29:57,480 --> 00:30:01,120 and, so, for the cat goddess Bastet, you would offer up a cat, 526 00:30:01,120 --> 00:30:06,040 which would then be killed, and because it was her titulary animal, 527 00:30:06,040 --> 00:30:08,800 it would attract her attention in the afterlife. 528 00:30:11,200 --> 00:30:14,360 The demand for sacrificial cats became so great, 529 00:30:14,360 --> 00:30:17,760 Egyptians were breeding hundreds of thousands of them. 530 00:30:17,760 --> 00:30:21,440 People were breeding these animals specifically for sacrifice, 531 00:30:21,440 --> 00:30:24,480 so we think that there might have been catteries scattered all over 532 00:30:24,480 --> 00:30:28,800 the country where purpose-bred cats were being given to the temples 533 00:30:28,800 --> 00:30:30,480 for the priest to sacrifice. 534 00:30:31,880 --> 00:30:34,280 This breeding programme was so intensive, 535 00:30:34,280 --> 00:30:37,080 it may have changed the physical appearance of some cats. 536 00:30:38,480 --> 00:30:42,600 Here, this really sweet little paw, 537 00:30:42,600 --> 00:30:45,880 is part of the foreleg of the cat. 538 00:30:45,880 --> 00:30:50,120 But what's extraordinary is that you can still see 539 00:30:50,120 --> 00:30:51,600 some of the fur here, 540 00:30:51,600 --> 00:30:53,200 and it's a ginger kitty. 541 00:30:54,720 --> 00:30:57,960 A lot of the cats in paintings are ginger cats. 542 00:30:57,960 --> 00:30:59,840 They were favoured 543 00:30:59,840 --> 00:31:02,760 because they brought out the idea of the sun god, Ra. 544 00:31:02,760 --> 00:31:04,560 And you can see this colour here. 545 00:31:07,240 --> 00:31:10,040 Seeing a ginger cat today isn't unusual, 546 00:31:10,040 --> 00:31:14,240 but 4,000 years ago, before the Egyptian breeding programme, 547 00:31:14,240 --> 00:31:17,200 nearly every cat in the world looked like this tabby. 548 00:31:18,320 --> 00:31:20,600 The original coat pattern was the tabby cat, 549 00:31:20,600 --> 00:31:22,600 that's where our wildcat came from, 550 00:31:22,600 --> 00:31:26,440 and it's because that coat pattern is so important in the wild 551 00:31:26,440 --> 00:31:27,880 for being camouflaged. 552 00:31:29,240 --> 00:31:32,040 Ginger colouring isn't good for camouflage. 553 00:31:32,040 --> 00:31:35,200 These cats would have struggled to survive in the wild 554 00:31:35,200 --> 00:31:39,880 but in the catteries of Egypt, there was no need for camouflage. 555 00:31:39,880 --> 00:31:43,920 In the wild, these new coat colour patterns wouldn't be tolerated, 556 00:31:43,920 --> 00:31:45,800 they don't provide any advantage. 557 00:31:45,800 --> 00:31:50,640 But when you're around humans, they become selected by humans 558 00:31:50,640 --> 00:31:54,320 because they're odd and different, it's called novelty selection. 559 00:31:54,320 --> 00:31:57,280 So when we see these odd colourations showing up 560 00:31:57,280 --> 00:32:00,360 in a species, that is a clear sign of domestication. 561 00:32:02,360 --> 00:32:05,840 The ginger mutation may not have occurred first in Egypt 562 00:32:05,840 --> 00:32:08,360 but it was certainly established and protected there. 563 00:32:09,560 --> 00:32:14,840 So, if it wasn't for the Egyptians, we may not have ginger cats at all. 564 00:32:14,840 --> 00:32:18,280 And the intensive Egyptian breeding programme didn't just change 565 00:32:18,280 --> 00:32:21,800 the way cats looked, it changed their behaviour as well. 566 00:32:21,800 --> 00:32:25,400 It's absolutely changing the cat's personality, 567 00:32:25,400 --> 00:32:27,880 making it more domesticated 568 00:32:27,880 --> 00:32:31,280 by putting these cats into large groups. 569 00:32:31,280 --> 00:32:34,480 After generations of selecting for cats 570 00:32:34,480 --> 00:32:38,360 that go from a solitary animal to being a group species now, 571 00:32:38,360 --> 00:32:41,360 you're probably changing the cat's behaviour 572 00:32:41,360 --> 00:32:43,400 to be a less stressed animal, 573 00:32:43,400 --> 00:32:46,320 a more bold and loving animal with humans. 574 00:32:47,680 --> 00:32:51,920 So, Egyptians produced cats that were more attractive to humans. 575 00:32:51,920 --> 00:32:55,080 This could explain why the DNA of Egyptian cats makes up 576 00:32:55,080 --> 00:32:59,320 so much of a modern cat's DNA, compared with cats from elsewhere. 577 00:33:00,760 --> 00:33:04,880 For any given species, not all lineages are going to survive, 578 00:33:04,880 --> 00:33:06,560 so, for the domestic cat, 579 00:33:06,560 --> 00:33:11,440 the Egyptian lineage of cats really dominated and was more popular, 580 00:33:11,440 --> 00:33:15,240 and so probably outcompeted the other different lineages 581 00:33:15,240 --> 00:33:18,120 that were from different places of the world. 582 00:33:18,120 --> 00:33:21,160 GENERAL MARKET DIN 583 00:33:21,160 --> 00:33:24,840 But how did cats bred in Egypt spread out across the whole world? 584 00:33:29,320 --> 00:33:33,480 The same way many invading forces did at the time - by boat. 585 00:33:34,760 --> 00:33:37,640 Egypt was a major trading hub of the ancient world. 586 00:33:37,640 --> 00:33:41,160 Precious metals, gems and timber came in, 587 00:33:41,160 --> 00:33:45,760 grain from the fertile Nile went out and much of that trade went by sea. 588 00:33:45,760 --> 00:33:49,160 Because the trade ships were filled with grain primarily there were 589 00:33:49,160 --> 00:33:52,880 so many rats about, that, of course, cats were really welcome 590 00:33:52,880 --> 00:33:56,320 because they not only protected the grain but they also protected 591 00:33:56,320 --> 00:34:00,120 the sailors from being bitten and also their own food. 592 00:34:00,120 --> 00:34:02,640 So, cats were really stars on these boats. 593 00:34:04,880 --> 00:34:07,880 Cats began travelling the known world on ships. 594 00:34:09,120 --> 00:34:11,720 For thousands of years, Egyptian, then Roman, 595 00:34:11,720 --> 00:34:14,880 then Viking ships transported cats across the world. 596 00:34:16,680 --> 00:34:20,720 Vikings in particular seem to have favoured an unusual colour mutation 597 00:34:20,720 --> 00:34:24,240 in their cats that originated in Egypt. 598 00:34:24,240 --> 00:34:26,560 You can almost map where Vikings were 599 00:34:26,560 --> 00:34:30,840 by looking at the gene frequency of orange in Europe. 600 00:34:32,520 --> 00:34:36,120 Vikings clearly couldn't get enough of their orange Egyptian cats. 601 00:34:37,200 --> 00:34:40,800 It was probably true in Viking society, 602 00:34:40,800 --> 00:34:44,840 as it is true in most other early seafaring societies, 603 00:34:44,840 --> 00:34:47,720 that having a cat on board a ship was good luck, 604 00:34:47,720 --> 00:34:50,600 and it could be that the Viking selected orange cats 605 00:34:50,600 --> 00:34:53,600 to bring on their boats for some reason that we don't know. 606 00:34:55,640 --> 00:34:58,480 Egyptian cat genes had conquered the known world. 607 00:35:00,080 --> 00:35:02,880 But it seems not everyone was happy about that 608 00:35:02,880 --> 00:35:07,000 because by the Middle Ages in Europe cats weren't being worshipped, 609 00:35:07,000 --> 00:35:08,720 they were being persecuted. 610 00:35:10,680 --> 00:35:15,320 Mainly, thanks to this man - Pope Gregory IX. 611 00:35:15,320 --> 00:35:20,680 This 13th century Pope produced a papal anti-cat edict. 612 00:35:20,680 --> 00:35:23,200 It accused cats of being in league with Satan. 613 00:35:25,520 --> 00:35:29,960 And because what the Pope said was the Word of God, God hated cats. 614 00:35:31,960 --> 00:35:34,840 The solution to this Satanic cat menace was simple 615 00:35:34,840 --> 00:35:36,720 and straightforward - 616 00:35:36,720 --> 00:35:38,560 kill them all. 617 00:35:38,560 --> 00:35:40,880 In late medieval Europe, 618 00:35:40,880 --> 00:35:44,800 there were festivals formed around the torturing and killing of cats. 619 00:35:44,800 --> 00:35:46,960 And, of course, when tortured, 620 00:35:46,960 --> 00:35:50,360 they made, to sadists, a very satisfying amount of racket. 621 00:35:50,360 --> 00:35:52,800 CATS HISS AND YOWL 622 00:35:53,960 --> 00:35:57,160 So what was it about these relatively harmless furry creatures 623 00:35:57,160 --> 00:35:59,600 that was so alarming to medieval society? 624 00:36:01,120 --> 00:36:06,320 Cats are creepy creatures to a lot of human beings. 625 00:36:06,320 --> 00:36:09,800 There's always this tension between an animal that actually 626 00:36:09,800 --> 00:36:13,720 shouldn't be in your home, as a predator and quite menacing, 627 00:36:13,720 --> 00:36:18,080 and yet is affectionate and cuddly, and purry and furry and warm. 628 00:36:18,080 --> 00:36:22,200 Another reason medieval people could have found cats disturbing 629 00:36:22,200 --> 00:36:24,000 was because of their eyes. 630 00:36:24,000 --> 00:36:27,800 The domestic cat has evolved from a nocturnal hunter, 631 00:36:27,800 --> 00:36:30,880 and therefore it needs to be able to see really well in low light levels. 632 00:36:30,880 --> 00:36:32,840 And one of the ways that they do this is 633 00:36:32,840 --> 00:36:35,360 they have a pupil that they can open up really wide 634 00:36:35,360 --> 00:36:37,280 to let as much light in as possible. 635 00:36:37,280 --> 00:36:42,280 After light enters the eye and hits the photoreceptors in the retina, 636 00:36:42,280 --> 00:36:46,320 it is reflected back by a membrane called the tapetum lucidum, 637 00:36:46,320 --> 00:36:48,480 so the light hits the photoreceptors again. 638 00:36:50,600 --> 00:36:52,480 These adaptations give a cat 639 00:36:52,480 --> 00:36:56,440 six times greater night-vision acuity than a human. 640 00:36:56,440 --> 00:36:59,960 But an unfortunate side-effect is that this membrane makes cats' eyes 641 00:36:59,960 --> 00:37:02,240 appear to glow in the dark - 642 00:37:02,240 --> 00:37:05,800 not ideal in the age of witchcraft and superstition. 643 00:37:05,800 --> 00:37:08,720 We are a diurnal species, 644 00:37:08,720 --> 00:37:11,800 we're suited to daylight, we can't see in the dark. 645 00:37:11,800 --> 00:37:17,280 The night for us is disempowering, scary and positively dangerous, 646 00:37:17,280 --> 00:37:20,920 whereas, to a cat, it is simply a natural environment. 647 00:37:22,120 --> 00:37:26,560 Isn't it, Moses? 648 00:37:27,840 --> 00:37:31,200 Another problem medieval Europeans may have had with cats 649 00:37:31,200 --> 00:37:33,840 is what they did with those eyes. 650 00:37:33,840 --> 00:37:35,120 They stare. 651 00:37:35,120 --> 00:37:39,280 And the great thing about staring in traditional societies 652 00:37:39,280 --> 00:37:42,800 is it's something which people don't do to each other 653 00:37:42,800 --> 00:37:44,520 because it's menacing. 654 00:37:44,520 --> 00:37:47,120 And in particular, in theory, socially, 655 00:37:47,120 --> 00:37:49,240 you don't look straight at superiors. 656 00:37:49,240 --> 00:37:53,400 The ability to eyeball somebody with a complete lack of respect 657 00:37:53,400 --> 00:37:58,960 or compunction is reserved for the police, magistrates, lords, royalty. 658 00:37:58,960 --> 00:38:04,000 So for mere animals to treat any human beings the same way 659 00:38:04,000 --> 00:38:06,760 is deeply disturbing to a traditional society. 660 00:38:08,840 --> 00:38:12,320 But sometimes a cat's supernatural powers seem to have genuine 661 00:38:12,320 --> 00:38:16,480 and terrifying consequences that reinforced those superstitions. 662 00:38:17,760 --> 00:38:19,200 In the presence of a cat, 663 00:38:19,200 --> 00:38:22,800 the person would be seized by an inability to breathe 664 00:38:22,800 --> 00:38:25,720 and would choke, would swell up and feel hot 665 00:38:25,720 --> 00:38:29,880 and, in some cases, a lethal effect on individual humans. 666 00:38:31,280 --> 00:38:36,040 Modern science has shown that this dark feline power really does exist, 667 00:38:36,040 --> 00:38:38,400 even if it's got nothing to do with the devil. 668 00:38:38,400 --> 00:38:41,960 As Aslan, a three-year-old Siberian long-haired cat, 669 00:38:41,960 --> 00:38:44,920 and his owner Ashley can demonstrate. 670 00:38:44,920 --> 00:38:49,560 He's super fluffy so I'm constantly defluffing things, 671 00:38:49,560 --> 00:38:52,880 I don't want big fur balls anywhere. 672 00:38:52,880 --> 00:38:54,800 He's just like a big teddy bear. 673 00:38:57,800 --> 00:39:00,720 And this is Heather, the other part of the demonstration. 674 00:39:00,720 --> 00:39:02,840 She doesn't own a cat. 675 00:39:05,880 --> 00:39:07,480 Oh, gosh. Hi. 676 00:39:08,960 --> 00:39:11,680 I think the encounter will be quite uncomfortable. 677 00:39:11,680 --> 00:39:16,080 Having a reaction is not that nice, it could be pretty unpleasant. 678 00:39:18,080 --> 00:39:21,200 Yeah, I can sort of feel it almost instantly, actually. 679 00:39:21,200 --> 00:39:24,680 Nowadays, about 10% of the population are allergic, 680 00:39:24,680 --> 00:39:27,720 causing symptoms such as coughing and sneezing. 681 00:39:28,840 --> 00:39:30,880 There is definitely hair in the air. 682 00:39:30,880 --> 00:39:32,440 Erm... 683 00:39:32,440 --> 00:39:35,040 Just something I can feel in the back of my throat. 684 00:39:35,040 --> 00:39:38,360 It's actually not the cat's fur that Heather is having a reaction to, 685 00:39:38,360 --> 00:39:39,960 it's the cat's saliva. 686 00:39:39,960 --> 00:39:43,560 We're allergic to a specific allergen that cats produce 687 00:39:43,560 --> 00:39:46,120 in their saliva, in their sebaceous glands, 688 00:39:46,120 --> 00:39:48,960 and it's distributed in their fur and their skin. 689 00:39:49,960 --> 00:39:52,120 Unfortunately for Heather, 690 00:39:52,120 --> 00:39:55,480 cats spend 40% of the day grooming themselves, 691 00:39:55,480 --> 00:39:58,320 so cat hair is covered in this allergen. 692 00:39:58,320 --> 00:40:04,360 So, my eyes are getting quite sore and quite itchy. 693 00:40:04,360 --> 00:40:08,320 The allergic reaction is caused by the body's immune system 694 00:40:08,320 --> 00:40:10,880 producing antibodies to counteract the allergen. 695 00:40:12,320 --> 00:40:15,520 It's these antibodies that actually cause the itching 696 00:40:15,520 --> 00:40:17,120 and expulsion of fluids. 697 00:40:18,200 --> 00:40:21,280 You might have a person that might start sneezing, 698 00:40:21,280 --> 00:40:24,400 they may start feeling their throat close up. 699 00:40:24,400 --> 00:40:27,200 An allergic reaction is our body's immune system 700 00:40:27,200 --> 00:40:29,520 being sensitised to something, 701 00:40:29,520 --> 00:40:31,480 so we have an inflammatory response. 702 00:40:31,480 --> 00:40:33,640 It's in my sinuses now. 703 00:40:33,640 --> 00:40:39,080 I feel bunged up and my eyes are really sore and itchy. 704 00:40:39,080 --> 00:40:42,400 And my throat... SHE CLEARS THROAT 705 00:40:42,400 --> 00:40:44,960 ..just has this constant little tickle. 706 00:40:46,400 --> 00:40:48,040 In extreme circumstances, 707 00:40:48,040 --> 00:40:51,120 anaphylactic shock from cat allergies can kill. 708 00:40:53,320 --> 00:40:56,760 So, it's not entirely surprising that in Middle Age Europe 709 00:40:56,760 --> 00:40:59,720 the cat became the victim of human intolerances, 710 00:40:59,720 --> 00:41:03,040 from both the religious system and the immune system. 711 00:41:04,560 --> 00:41:07,760 Luckily for cats, not everyone in the Middle Ages hated them, 712 00:41:07,760 --> 00:41:10,760 although they had a pretty strange way of showing it. 713 00:41:10,760 --> 00:41:12,880 Here we are. Oh, gosh. 714 00:41:12,880 --> 00:41:15,880 Well, this is the room where we found everything. 715 00:41:15,880 --> 00:41:19,480 My husband had been taking wallpaper off 716 00:41:19,480 --> 00:41:23,320 and as he took the wallpaper off, it sort of collapsed a bit 717 00:41:23,320 --> 00:41:27,040 and that's when he started to find all the surprises. 718 00:41:27,040 --> 00:41:29,080 Here we are. 719 00:41:29,080 --> 00:41:30,840 Oh, my goodness. 720 00:41:30,840 --> 00:41:34,880 Buried deep in the walls were the skeletal remains of a dead cat. 721 00:41:36,240 --> 00:41:40,440 Have you got a name for her? We do, we call her Poor Pussy. 722 00:41:40,440 --> 00:41:43,880 But why was the poor cat buried in the walls in the first place? 723 00:41:45,360 --> 00:41:50,160 There was a tremendous fear of evil spirits in Tudor and Stuart England. 724 00:41:50,160 --> 00:41:53,840 It had actually got worse because of the Protestant Reformation 725 00:41:53,840 --> 00:41:56,320 which removed a lot of the magic of the old Church, 726 00:41:56,320 --> 00:42:00,760 like holy water or blessed crosses or blessed candles 727 00:42:00,760 --> 00:42:03,240 that could be brought to protect houses. 728 00:42:03,240 --> 00:42:08,040 So to fill the gap, there's a new emphasis on special symbols. 729 00:42:08,040 --> 00:42:11,680 And cats are particularly well favoured 730 00:42:11,680 --> 00:42:15,840 because they can get anywhere in a house and they're agile. 731 00:42:15,840 --> 00:42:19,880 The transference of logic seems to be that a cat is there to protect 732 00:42:19,880 --> 00:42:24,800 a house against vermin during life by taking out mice and rats 733 00:42:24,800 --> 00:42:29,520 and, therefore, the same animal should be equally potent after death 734 00:42:29,520 --> 00:42:31,480 by taking out evil spirits. 735 00:42:33,040 --> 00:42:36,280 When news of the mummified cat was reported in the local press, 736 00:42:36,280 --> 00:42:38,920 home owner Lisa received a worrying phone call. 737 00:42:40,440 --> 00:42:42,080 The people who phoned us said 738 00:42:42,080 --> 00:42:44,080 we mustn't let the cat out of the house 739 00:42:44,080 --> 00:42:47,320 and when we asked why, they said that they had given their cat away, 740 00:42:47,320 --> 00:42:49,960 and within weeks of doing so, their house burnt down. 741 00:42:49,960 --> 00:42:51,600 This is their mummified cat? 742 00:42:51,600 --> 00:42:54,440 Their mummified cat, they gave it away 743 00:42:54,440 --> 00:42:56,880 and then their house burnt down. Gosh. 744 00:42:56,880 --> 00:43:01,920 So, I'm not letting my cat go anywhere, apart from here. 745 00:43:01,920 --> 00:43:03,800 That's entirely reasonable. 746 00:43:03,800 --> 00:43:06,400 Well, she's still doing her job, isn't she? 747 00:43:06,400 --> 00:43:10,200 Yes, she is still on duty. She's still on duty. Put her back. 748 00:43:13,400 --> 00:43:15,560 By the end of the Middle Ages, 749 00:43:15,560 --> 00:43:19,200 domestic cats had colonised most of the planet. 750 00:43:19,200 --> 00:43:21,880 They'd started to diverge further and further 751 00:43:21,880 --> 00:43:23,720 from their Near East origins. 752 00:43:25,880 --> 00:43:30,360 One of the most famous and striking of these new cats was the Siamese. 753 00:43:30,360 --> 00:43:32,120 Siamese cats are very interesting 754 00:43:32,120 --> 00:43:37,080 because they're sort of a natural breed that occurred in Thailand. 755 00:43:38,320 --> 00:43:40,480 The Siamese evolved in a different direction 756 00:43:40,480 --> 00:43:42,360 from its Egyptian ancestors, 757 00:43:42,360 --> 00:43:44,600 losing the tabby colouration completely 758 00:43:44,600 --> 00:43:47,960 and opting for something totally unique. 759 00:43:47,960 --> 00:43:51,600 So this beautiful girl has got a classic Siamese coat colour 760 00:43:51,600 --> 00:43:57,800 with the browner ears and nose and tail and feet. 761 00:43:57,800 --> 00:44:00,400 That's the result of a thermo-sensitive mutation 762 00:44:00,400 --> 00:44:02,120 in a tyrosinase gene 763 00:44:02,120 --> 00:44:05,800 that inhibits the production of melanin on these cats. 764 00:44:05,800 --> 00:44:09,000 And so, the warm parts of her body lose the colour 765 00:44:09,000 --> 00:44:11,400 and the cooler parts keep it. 766 00:44:11,400 --> 00:44:14,480 The DNA of the Siamese show they separated 767 00:44:14,480 --> 00:44:17,800 from the Mediterranean breed centuries ago 768 00:44:17,800 --> 00:44:21,120 and evolved independently on the other side of the world. 769 00:44:21,120 --> 00:44:24,080 It's not believed that anybody set out to breed these cats, 770 00:44:24,080 --> 00:44:26,160 what happened is a mutation occurred 771 00:44:26,160 --> 00:44:29,600 and it stayed in this very small isolated population in Thailand. 772 00:44:29,600 --> 00:44:33,320 And from there, it drifted into fixation 773 00:44:33,320 --> 00:44:35,720 in a certain number of cats. 774 00:44:35,720 --> 00:44:38,320 This process is called genetic drift. 775 00:44:38,320 --> 00:44:42,880 It occurs when a particular mutation becomes accidentally dominant 776 00:44:42,880 --> 00:44:44,600 in an isolated population 777 00:44:44,600 --> 00:44:47,440 that doesn't mix much with the rest of the world. 778 00:44:47,440 --> 00:44:50,080 If a mutation occurs in a small population, 779 00:44:50,080 --> 00:44:52,760 it's got a very good chance of drifting to fixation, 780 00:44:52,760 --> 00:44:55,720 which means that 100% of the cats in that population 781 00:44:55,720 --> 00:44:58,960 will then have that mutation. 782 00:44:58,960 --> 00:45:01,960 The Siamese is an extremely unusual breed 783 00:45:01,960 --> 00:45:05,200 because its looks result from a natural genetic process. 784 00:45:07,280 --> 00:45:10,920 Most cats in the world arose by more artificial means, 785 00:45:10,920 --> 00:45:14,680 a sudden and huge expansion of cat breeding. 786 00:45:16,760 --> 00:45:20,720 During the late 1800s and into the 1900s and on, 787 00:45:20,720 --> 00:45:23,240 cats had become a status symbol. 788 00:45:23,240 --> 00:45:26,840 Europeans realised that there were different varieties of cats 789 00:45:26,840 --> 00:45:28,560 from all around the world. 790 00:45:28,560 --> 00:45:32,600 They then incorporated that into their breeding programmes. 791 00:45:32,600 --> 00:45:37,000 People started selecting cats because they had unique varieties. 792 00:45:37,000 --> 00:45:40,040 The Angora cat came from the Near East, 793 00:45:40,040 --> 00:45:42,880 the Abyssinian came from Ethiopia, 794 00:45:42,880 --> 00:45:45,520 the Manx cat, which had no tail, came from the Isle of Man. 795 00:45:47,840 --> 00:45:50,880 Breeding, both on purpose and by accident, 796 00:45:50,880 --> 00:45:53,920 has given cat owners an astonishing level of choice. 797 00:45:55,760 --> 00:45:58,240 So you might think that after 10,000 years 798 00:45:58,240 --> 00:46:01,200 and all this effort we've bred out their wild side. 799 00:46:01,200 --> 00:46:04,160 CAT HISSES Apparently not. 800 00:46:04,160 --> 00:46:06,560 These are feral cats. 801 00:46:06,560 --> 00:46:09,040 CATS HISS 802 00:46:09,040 --> 00:46:11,640 They're not wild animals, despite how it may look, 803 00:46:11,640 --> 00:46:14,000 these cats, or their close relatives, 804 00:46:14,000 --> 00:46:16,120 were once normal house pets. 805 00:46:17,400 --> 00:46:21,840 Take a domestic cat out of the home and they can turn a lot less loving. 806 00:46:21,840 --> 00:46:25,080 Feral cats are very different from domestic cats 807 00:46:25,080 --> 00:46:28,280 and so they typically will start up with fight or flight 808 00:46:28,280 --> 00:46:29,960 when people come into play. 809 00:46:31,240 --> 00:46:32,320 All right, all right. 810 00:46:33,600 --> 00:46:37,640 US cities like Atlanta have a serious problem with feral cats. 811 00:46:38,760 --> 00:46:42,640 We don't want to euthanize a cat because you know what happens 812 00:46:42,640 --> 00:46:45,840 when you remove cats from the outdoor environment? 813 00:46:45,840 --> 00:46:47,520 Is that new cats come in. 814 00:46:47,520 --> 00:46:50,640 So we actually maintain a stable population 815 00:46:50,640 --> 00:46:53,240 so we don't add more cats into that area. 816 00:46:54,760 --> 00:46:57,000 So veterinarians like Dr Ashley Randall 817 00:46:57,000 --> 00:47:00,320 work on programmes to try and control the situation. 818 00:47:00,320 --> 00:47:03,160 Neutering and spaying is really, really important 819 00:47:03,160 --> 00:47:04,720 when it comes to feral populations, 820 00:47:04,720 --> 00:47:07,280 especially if we're trying to control the numbers. 821 00:47:07,280 --> 00:47:10,840 Any time a population gets really, really high, 822 00:47:10,840 --> 00:47:14,200 you run the risk for disease and that's for people and for pets. 823 00:47:16,560 --> 00:47:19,400 Helping Dr Randall with Atlanta's feral cat problem 824 00:47:19,400 --> 00:47:22,480 are Lizzy and Kasia from the Pets for Life programme. 825 00:47:23,960 --> 00:47:28,240 We are out today doing some cat trapping, 826 00:47:28,240 --> 00:47:30,720 for what's called TNR - trap, neuter, release. 827 00:47:32,160 --> 00:47:34,440 A female cat 828 00:47:34,440 --> 00:47:38,000 will have kittens every two months 829 00:47:38,000 --> 00:47:42,040 and she will be impregnable right after she delivers. 830 00:47:42,040 --> 00:47:47,720 So pretty much, you can assume, that every female cat in the wild 831 00:47:47,720 --> 00:47:50,000 out here is pregnant at all times. 832 00:47:51,280 --> 00:47:54,640 Lizzy and Kasia are tracking a feral cat active in the area 833 00:47:54,640 --> 00:47:57,880 so they've left a series of traps filled with food. 834 00:48:00,280 --> 00:48:02,640 It looks like somebody's in there. Yeah. 835 00:48:04,440 --> 00:48:06,440 Hi, there. 836 00:48:06,440 --> 00:48:10,000 See what we've got. Hi. Looks like the right one. 837 00:48:10,000 --> 00:48:12,880 We're going to take you to the vet. Let's get him in the van. OK. 838 00:48:14,920 --> 00:48:17,400 On average, they catch 15 cats a week. 839 00:48:17,400 --> 00:48:19,320 CAT MEOWS It's OK, buddy. 840 00:48:19,320 --> 00:48:22,600 Every single one receives a welcome health check, vaccinations, 841 00:48:22,600 --> 00:48:25,520 and a possibly less welcome neutering. 842 00:48:25,520 --> 00:48:28,480 Of course you get some that are a little feral 843 00:48:28,480 --> 00:48:30,960 but they're more receptive, like our patient today, 844 00:48:30,960 --> 00:48:33,200 and then some of them you can't touch at all. 845 00:48:33,200 --> 00:48:36,800 So when they come in in traps, they literally are trying to lunge 846 00:48:36,800 --> 00:48:40,720 out of the trap or get out of the trap just to get away from people. 847 00:48:40,720 --> 00:48:43,200 OK, so his heart sounds good. 848 00:48:44,360 --> 00:48:47,800 And his gums are nice and pink. Very good, big guy. 849 00:48:47,800 --> 00:48:50,720 All right, so we are going to put him on his side 850 00:48:50,720 --> 00:48:53,120 and then we are going to give him his sedative. 851 00:48:54,840 --> 00:48:56,520 All right. 852 00:48:56,520 --> 00:49:00,480 All we're doing is taking away the reproductive organs. 853 00:49:00,480 --> 00:49:04,480 So we are taking away organs that they can live without very easily. 854 00:49:04,480 --> 00:49:08,080 For males, they are up within about 20 minutes of that procedure 855 00:49:08,080 --> 00:49:10,760 so he is going to go back outside and live out his life. 856 00:49:10,760 --> 00:49:13,080 All right, big boy. 857 00:49:13,080 --> 00:49:15,800 The whole procedure takes less than ten minutes. 858 00:49:16,920 --> 00:49:21,400 And a few hours later, the cat is released back onto the streets. 859 00:49:21,400 --> 00:49:23,840 It's OK, buddy, we're home. 860 00:49:23,840 --> 00:49:27,280 The reason we trap, neuter and return feral cats 861 00:49:27,280 --> 00:49:32,080 versus keeping them and adopting them out is they're truly not happy 862 00:49:32,080 --> 00:49:34,160 to live inside with people. 863 00:49:34,160 --> 00:49:36,200 This way. Pss, pss, pss. 864 00:49:36,200 --> 00:49:39,200 The vet said he was pretty healthy, surgery went well. 865 00:49:39,200 --> 00:49:41,280 So he might be a little drowsy this evening 866 00:49:41,280 --> 00:49:43,600 and then he'll be back to full energy tomorrow, 867 00:49:43,600 --> 00:49:45,000 ready to take on the world. 868 00:49:45,000 --> 00:49:46,920 There you go. 869 00:49:46,920 --> 00:49:50,240 So, domestication may only be skin deep 870 00:49:50,240 --> 00:49:52,520 and cats are essentially still wild animals. 871 00:49:54,480 --> 00:49:56,440 But if the difference between a feral cat 872 00:49:56,440 --> 00:49:58,680 and your kitty are so shallow, 873 00:49:58,680 --> 00:50:01,720 what causes such a profound difference in their behaviour? 874 00:50:01,720 --> 00:50:03,720 Essentially, they're all the same species, 875 00:50:03,720 --> 00:50:06,480 they're all the domestic cat genetically, 876 00:50:06,480 --> 00:50:09,280 but it really depends on the level of socialisation 877 00:50:09,280 --> 00:50:11,280 that the cats have experienced 878 00:50:11,280 --> 00:50:14,600 at a very limited period when there are a small kitten, 879 00:50:14,600 --> 00:50:16,840 between the ages of two and seven weeks. 880 00:50:18,480 --> 00:50:21,920 Maggie Roberts is chief vet at Cats Protection UK 881 00:50:21,920 --> 00:50:25,040 and she's trying to make sure abandoned kittens don't go feral 882 00:50:25,040 --> 00:50:26,520 in the first place. 883 00:50:27,760 --> 00:50:29,280 Hey, little one. 884 00:50:29,280 --> 00:50:33,000 If they have significant positive contact with humans 885 00:50:33,000 --> 00:50:36,560 during that period, they will see people as positive 886 00:50:36,560 --> 00:50:39,360 and therefore will react positively. 887 00:50:39,360 --> 00:50:42,200 With feral cats, usually, they've not had that contact 888 00:50:42,200 --> 00:50:46,000 with people at that really crucial socialisation period 889 00:50:46,000 --> 00:50:48,680 and so they're very fearful of people. 890 00:50:48,680 --> 00:50:52,240 Generally, they want to steer clear because they see us as threatening. 891 00:50:53,760 --> 00:50:57,360 The difference between a feral cat and a domestic cat 892 00:50:57,360 --> 00:51:00,280 is defined in the first few weeks of their lives. 893 00:51:00,280 --> 00:51:03,120 We start at about two weeks of age 894 00:51:03,120 --> 00:51:05,880 and go on until they're usually about eight weeks of age, 895 00:51:05,880 --> 00:51:10,280 and we do a lot of little bits of contact with them. 896 00:51:10,280 --> 00:51:13,320 We also want to expose them to the sort of sights 897 00:51:13,320 --> 00:51:15,560 and sounds of a domestic environment... 898 00:51:15,560 --> 00:51:17,840 RECORDING OF BABY CRYING 899 00:51:17,840 --> 00:51:20,080 RECORDING OF WOOD BEING SAWN 900 00:51:20,080 --> 00:51:23,360 ..so that they can learn that these things are not threatening, 901 00:51:23,360 --> 00:51:25,960 because they're in a safe environment when they hear them. 902 00:51:25,960 --> 00:51:28,440 RECORDING OF KNOCKING 903 00:51:28,440 --> 00:51:30,360 Once they get to about eight weeks, 904 00:51:30,360 --> 00:51:34,520 the things they've not been exposed to, they will see those as a threat. 905 00:51:34,520 --> 00:51:37,200 So the more we can do for them while they're in with us, 906 00:51:37,200 --> 00:51:39,240 then the better pets they will be. 907 00:51:39,240 --> 00:51:42,560 Maggie teaches her kittens to tolerate our world. 908 00:51:43,720 --> 00:51:47,040 But does she believe cats are ever truly domesticated? 909 00:51:47,040 --> 00:51:50,080 The thing I think that lots of us love about cats 910 00:51:50,080 --> 00:51:53,920 is that they haven't lost that wild side of their nature, 911 00:51:53,920 --> 00:51:57,360 they still want to hunt, they still want to explore 912 00:51:57,360 --> 00:51:59,920 and also that we can't control them. 913 00:51:59,920 --> 00:52:02,080 Cats are all about themselves 914 00:52:02,080 --> 00:52:05,760 and that comes back to their sort of evolution and how they survive. 915 00:52:05,760 --> 00:52:08,960 So I would say, yeah, they're partially domesticated 916 00:52:08,960 --> 00:52:11,800 but they still have that wild heart. 917 00:52:13,160 --> 00:52:16,440 It seems that even after 10,000 years of cohabitation 918 00:52:16,440 --> 00:52:19,720 cats are still essentially wild animals, 919 00:52:19,720 --> 00:52:22,560 wild animals that now live with us. 920 00:52:24,000 --> 00:52:27,840 This essential wildness may explain in part why cats are not trainable 921 00:52:27,840 --> 00:52:29,120 in the way dogs are. 922 00:52:30,480 --> 00:52:32,960 Dogs want to please their owners. 923 00:52:32,960 --> 00:52:35,760 They are what is known as hyper social. 924 00:52:35,760 --> 00:52:37,400 Cats... 925 00:52:37,400 --> 00:52:39,440 Not so much. 926 00:52:39,440 --> 00:52:43,360 It's a lot more difficult to train a cat compared to a dog 927 00:52:43,360 --> 00:52:46,680 because dogs were specifically selected for their trainability, 928 00:52:46,680 --> 00:52:49,400 whereas cats have shorter attention spans, 929 00:52:49,400 --> 00:52:52,600 and people also really don't spend a lot of time training cats. 930 00:52:53,800 --> 00:52:56,480 But just because they aren't as cooperative as dogs 931 00:52:56,480 --> 00:52:59,720 doesn't mean that they aren't smart or trainable, 932 00:52:59,720 --> 00:53:02,120 you just have to make it worth their while. 933 00:53:03,640 --> 00:53:05,280 Meet Samantha Martin. 934 00:53:05,280 --> 00:53:06,920 This is Meowy Manor. 935 00:53:10,040 --> 00:53:13,160 Samantha is the manager of a travelling troupe 936 00:53:13,160 --> 00:53:16,840 or more accurately, pride of performing cats. 937 00:53:16,840 --> 00:53:18,760 Most of the training happens in here. 938 00:53:22,080 --> 00:53:24,280 Cats are brilliant. 939 00:53:24,280 --> 00:53:27,080 People really underestimate the brilliance of a cat. 940 00:53:27,080 --> 00:53:29,760 Like training them, they get to use their brain, 941 00:53:29,760 --> 00:53:33,400 they have to figure out what it is that I want from them. 942 00:53:33,400 --> 00:53:34,920 Hup! 943 00:53:34,920 --> 00:53:39,320 To train her cats, Samantha uses a method calls operant conditioning, 944 00:53:39,320 --> 00:53:41,760 also known as clicker training. 945 00:53:42,960 --> 00:53:45,920 This is the target stick so he was trained to jump up to wherever 946 00:53:45,920 --> 00:53:47,880 I pointed the target stick. 947 00:53:47,880 --> 00:53:51,360 And once he had all four paws up on the barrel, I just click and treat. 948 00:53:51,360 --> 00:53:55,320 The clicker acts as a bridge or a marker to let the cat know 949 00:53:55,320 --> 00:53:58,320 that they've just then a behaviour that's going to give them a reward. 950 00:53:58,320 --> 00:54:00,480 Because it's tough to give the reward 951 00:54:00,480 --> 00:54:03,520 at the moment that they're doing the trick, the click means 952 00:54:03,520 --> 00:54:06,560 you're going to get a treat for what you just did at that moment. 953 00:54:06,560 --> 00:54:08,280 You got it, you got it. 954 00:54:10,000 --> 00:54:11,680 Once the behaviour is learned, 955 00:54:11,680 --> 00:54:14,160 I no longer need the target stick or the clicker, 956 00:54:14,160 --> 00:54:16,120 just the prop itself. 957 00:54:16,120 --> 00:54:18,160 And they know what to do with the prop. 958 00:54:21,640 --> 00:54:23,640 So that's the finish treat. 959 00:54:26,400 --> 00:54:30,120 The question is - are the cats training to please their owner 960 00:54:30,120 --> 00:54:31,920 or are they just there for the food? 961 00:54:33,080 --> 00:54:36,400 The right motivation for a lot of cats is not to please us. 962 00:54:36,400 --> 00:54:38,400 If you want to train a cat, 963 00:54:38,400 --> 00:54:41,480 the great big motivator is going to be food. 964 00:54:41,480 --> 00:54:42,920 Food is a primary enforcer, 965 00:54:42,920 --> 00:54:45,160 it's something that they can't live without, 966 00:54:45,160 --> 00:54:48,080 so most cats can be trained to work for that food. 967 00:54:48,080 --> 00:54:51,640 Compared to dogs, there hasn't been much research into cat cognition 968 00:54:51,640 --> 00:54:53,280 and intelligence, 969 00:54:53,280 --> 00:54:55,000 but cats are clearly clever. 970 00:54:56,520 --> 00:54:58,840 When they choose to be. 971 00:54:58,840 --> 00:55:01,360 APPLAUSE 972 00:55:01,360 --> 00:55:04,600 The Acro-Cats play to full houses as they tour across the USA. 973 00:55:07,240 --> 00:55:09,560 Audiences crammed with envious cat owners 974 00:55:09,560 --> 00:55:11,800 wondering why their pet won't do this. 975 00:55:13,360 --> 00:55:17,360 Science says reward with food and they just might. 976 00:55:20,600 --> 00:55:24,320 So, where next for our wild feline friends? 977 00:55:25,600 --> 00:55:28,960 Well, some people have plans to completely reinvent the cat. 978 00:55:28,960 --> 00:55:32,200 All domestic cats, up until the last 20 years, 979 00:55:32,200 --> 00:55:35,120 have been purely Felis silvestris. 980 00:55:35,120 --> 00:55:39,200 Humans have very interestingly now hybridised the domestic cat 981 00:55:39,200 --> 00:55:41,560 with a completely different species. 982 00:55:43,120 --> 00:55:47,920 Anthony Hutcherson has been breeding one such hybrid - the Bengal cat. 983 00:55:47,920 --> 00:55:50,720 Bengals come from a cross between domestic cats 984 00:55:50,720 --> 00:55:53,440 and a wildcat species called the Asian leopard cat. 985 00:55:55,120 --> 00:55:58,040 Personality wise, they are a little different from other cats. 986 00:55:58,040 --> 00:56:01,560 They're pretty active and interested and intelligent. 987 00:56:01,560 --> 00:56:04,160 So if you just want a cat to sit on your lap, 988 00:56:04,160 --> 00:56:05,560 this is not the cat for you. 989 00:56:06,960 --> 00:56:09,280 TANNOY SOUNDS IN BACKGROUND 990 00:56:09,280 --> 00:56:13,080 The difference between a domestic cat and an Asian leopard cat 991 00:56:13,080 --> 00:56:16,440 is about six million years of evolutionary time. 992 00:56:16,440 --> 00:56:18,400 That's on the same range 993 00:56:18,400 --> 00:56:21,360 as the difference between a human and chimpanzee. 994 00:56:23,760 --> 00:56:26,960 With such a huge evolutionary difference, 995 00:56:26,960 --> 00:56:30,000 can these new hybrid cats still share our homes? 996 00:56:32,360 --> 00:56:35,600 The challenge lies in getting those physical traits 997 00:56:35,600 --> 00:56:37,400 that attract your eye 998 00:56:37,400 --> 00:56:40,760 and have excited humanity since the beginning of time 999 00:56:40,760 --> 00:56:43,400 without those traits you don't want on the inside - 1000 00:56:43,400 --> 00:56:46,400 getting scared easily, peeing in the corners, 1001 00:56:46,400 --> 00:56:49,440 needing to eat a lot of raw bloody meat. 1002 00:56:50,920 --> 00:56:53,000 The Bengal is not the only exotic breed 1003 00:56:53,000 --> 00:56:55,280 trying to inject a wild look into cats. 1004 00:56:57,480 --> 00:57:00,200 The Chausie is a cross between a domestic cat 1005 00:57:00,200 --> 00:57:04,160 and another non-Felis silvestris - the jungle cat. 1006 00:57:04,160 --> 00:57:07,760 And a Savannah is a cross between a domestic cat and a serval, 1007 00:57:07,760 --> 00:57:10,560 a cat that broke away from the wildcat's line 1008 00:57:10,560 --> 00:57:12,800 over 8.5 million years ago. 1009 00:57:14,040 --> 00:57:16,440 I think these cats are both the future and the past 1010 00:57:16,440 --> 00:57:17,920 of domestic cats. 1011 00:57:17,920 --> 00:57:21,000 They represent the thing that people love and want 1012 00:57:21,000 --> 00:57:23,360 as a bit of the wild in their house, 1013 00:57:23,360 --> 00:57:27,200 which is kind of the oldest reason people love cats anyway. 1014 00:57:28,520 --> 00:57:30,000 10,000 years ago, 1015 00:57:30,000 --> 00:57:33,520 our first feline furry house guests moved in. 1016 00:57:33,520 --> 00:57:36,240 Since then, they've travelled the world, 1017 00:57:36,240 --> 00:57:39,680 been feared by popes and worshipped like gods. 1018 00:57:39,680 --> 00:57:42,520 They've hijacked human instincts for their benefit, 1019 00:57:42,520 --> 00:57:46,600 learned to read us like a book but kept their own feelings under wraps. 1020 00:57:46,600 --> 00:57:49,560 They can even entertain us... 1021 00:57:49,560 --> 00:57:52,120 ..as long as we make it worth their while. 1022 00:57:52,120 --> 00:57:54,680 And though they've gone through subtle genetic changes, 1023 00:57:54,680 --> 00:57:58,680 their wild nature has endured despite our best efforts. 1024 00:58:00,800 --> 00:58:02,960 They've leveraged some of those traits 1025 00:58:02,960 --> 00:58:05,560 to become the ultimate consumer pet, 1026 00:58:05,560 --> 00:58:09,080 bringing a little bit of the wild into millions of homes. 1027 00:58:10,520 --> 00:58:12,280 And what do cats make of all this? 1028 00:58:12,280 --> 00:58:13,880 As usual, 1029 00:58:13,880 --> 00:58:16,040 they're not saying.