Farmers in China domesticated Asian Leopard Cats 5,000 Years Ago

Farmers in China domesticated Asian Leopard Cats 5,000 Years Ago - http://bit.ly/1KLHGoE

Farmers in China may have domesticated Asian leopard cats during the Neolithic era, more than 5,000 years ago, a new study says. This is a different species than the only living type of domestic cat today, the Felis catus that so many people keep as pets. In modern China, people now keep Felis catus, not the leopard cat (P. bengalensis) that farmers domesticated so long ago, says a press release from the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. (The small Asian leopard cat should not be confused with the clouded leopard, a much larger big cat in Asia). The one species of domestic cat in the world today, descended from a wildcat in Africa and the Near East, later replaced the domesticated leopard cat in China, the researchers said.