Domestic Shorthair

🌍 Overview

The domestic shorthair is not a specific breed but a mixed-breed cat with a short coat - the most common cat type in the world, accounting for the vast majority of the global domestic cat population estimated at 600 million. Descended from the African wildcat (Felis lybica), cats were first domesticated in the Fertile Crescent of the Middle East around 10,000 years ago, initially tolerated near grain stores for rodent control before becoming true companions.

📋 Quick Facts

📜 History

The oldest direct evidence is a grave. Archaeologists at Shillourokambos on Cyprus found a complete cat skeleton buried beside a human around 7500 BC, which points to taming by early Neolithic farming communities. Ancient DNA work published in 2017 traced the spread that followed along shipping lanes: the Egyptian maternal lineage turns up at the Viking trading port of Ralswiek on the Baltic between the seventh and eleventh centuries AD, and medieval seafarers were required to carry cats aboard. The same study found that the blotched tabby marking now carried by most house cats appears no earlier than the medieval period, evidence that breeding cats for appearance is only a few centuries old.

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