Research overview: the commensal pathway model of cat domestication

Animal domestication is often described as following three routes: a commensal pathway, a prey pathway and a directed pathway. This overview focuses on the commensal model as applied to cats, in which wildcats were drawn into the human niche by the rodents and refuse of early agricultural settlements, gradually becoming tame through self-selection for boldness around people. Unlike dogs, whose role and morphology shifted dramatically, cats changed little because the relationship was loose and the selective pressure for tameness was gentle and unintentional. Researchers contrast this with deliberate livestock domestication and discuss what genetic, behavioural and archaeological signatures would distinguish a commensal origin, framing the cat as the textbook example of an animal that, in a sense, domesticated itself.