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Cats Were Domesticated Thousands of Years Ago. Are They Finally Getting Tamer?

by Grace Carroll, The Conversation

Published 2026-08-21 16:30:00+00:00

Are cats actually getting tamer, or did people just start treating them like family?

0:00 / 6:25 · Narrator Gacrux

Context

In an essay published on 21 August 2026, animal behaviourist Grace Carroll asks a question that seems obvious only in hindsight: are house cats still getting tamer? She looks at how urban foxes and city deer adapt to human handouts, wondering if the modern feline is undergoing a similar biological shift. The answer hinges on a quiet demographic reality. As people have fewer children and live alone longer, society is turning working mousers into surrogate babies. The most dramatic evolutionary change might actually be happening in the owner.

Show notes

An inquiry into whether cats are still undergoing domestication, using recent studies of urban wildlife as a baseline. Contrasts the self-domestication of cats with the selective breeding of dogs, and links modern pet behavior to falling human birth rates. Argues that the current status of house cats reflects a shift in human family structures rather than new biological evolution.

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