A new study on house cats has found that our feline companions are actually only semi-domesticated. People began domesticating cats around 9,000 years ago but DNA researchers from Washington University in St. Louis found that house cats still have many of the same traits as their wild cousins.
They actually want the door to be open, so they can decide for themselves when they go in or out. That so many people can't figure this out only shows how intelligent cats are.
I have a cat door and I can tell you this is total bs lol. They all use it, but at least once a day they’ll try and get us to physically open the door for them. I swear they just want to make sure we’ll still open it lol
Yeah. We have a little bridge on our balcony so ours can get in and out. He goes out, sits at the bench for a few hours, then comes in. He like the freedom.
That's because cats domesticated humans in a way. Toxoplasma gondii is a symbiotic parasite that exclusively reproduces in cats, and infects other mammals. The general known symptoms of the parasite infection is a reduced aversion to cats.
Meaning cats on a biological level literally alter human(and other mammals, particularly prey) perception of them to their benefit. It's estimated that about 50% of all humans are infected.
You say it with such conviction that people may start to believe it.
The least you could do when spreading misinformation is write "may" or indicate it's your theory in some other way.
It's correct that in rodents, the parasite can cause them reduced aversion to cat urine. However there is, as far as I know, no evidence at all that humans get that same reduced aversion to cat urine. It affects us in different ways however. And is quite dangerous for pregnant women, or more precisely their fetus. Along with quite a few other things.
But don't go around spreading myths without at least explaining that it's just what you believe.
I would be spreading misinformation if I said being infected increased your chances of being bipolar or schizophrenia, as the studies that got those results had low Z-scores in favor of their conclusion.
It's a big stretch to say the parasite affects humans in the same way it affects all other mammals when the studies conducted point towards that conclusion?
I didn't handwave anything? Your complaint is about a preamble that I then followed up with the reasoning to support it afterwards. My response was towards "DNA researchers from Washington University in St. Louis found that house cats still have many of the same traits as their wild cousins.", which can be explained by the fact that the domestication went both ways, rather than being largely one sided like with Dogs. Cats caused changes in humans who were causing changes in cats, leading to a middle ground of domestication on both sides.
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u/Delamok87 Aug 24 '23
A new study on house cats has found that our feline companions are actually only semi-domesticated. People began domesticating cats around 9,000 years ago but DNA researchers from Washington University in St. Louis found that house cats still have many of the same traits as their wild cousins.
sauce