Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. GrrlScientist writes about evolution, ecology, behavior and health. “Cats were depicted in ancient Egyptian iconography as tabby ...

The first time Mwezi Mugerwa saw the African golden cat, he didn’t know what it was. While reviewing camera trap footage at Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park, the conservation ...

Despite the ubiquity of cats in modern homes, we still don't know many details about the timing and routes of early cat domestication and dispersal into Europe and beyond, aside from the common ...

Like a toy on a string, the timing of cat domestication has been a moving target. Now researchers have pounced on a new timeline suggesting that tame descendants of African wildcats left the continent ...

The origins of domestic cats — centuries before they conquered the world’s sofas and internet memes — have long been murky. Now, ancient DNA is helping to fill in the blanks, and the findings shake up ...

A new study overturns previous findings that domestic cats originated thousands of years earlier. An African wildcat (Felis lybica) rests on a rock in Kruger National Park, South Africa. So far, ...

Ancient DNA is finally putting hard numbers on a mystery that has trailed humanity for millennia: when our most familiar feline companions first stepped out of Africa and into homes, ships and cities ...

The Afro-Asiatic wildcat (Felis lybica) is the world’s most widely distributed small wildcat, but it’s also one of the least studied. The cat’s conservation status is listed as “of least concern” by ...

3,500 years ago, cats started showing up in Egyptian paintings on tomb walls and in sculptures and carvings. Not only were they abundant in these representations, but it was very clear that they were ...

Like your pet cat, lions and tigers have sharp teeth and retractable claws. They sometimes use those fierce claws to knead or make biscuits. They enjoy a nap and a good grooming sesh. That’s not ...