Unlocking The Mystery of Madagascar’s Forest Cats

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The world is filled with a wide range of interesting creatures. For instance, the island of Madagascar is home to forest cats, which have been a source of considerable interest for scientists. This is because they are not native, meaning that there has been much speculation about how they came to be. Something that has now been answered thanks to research conducted by University of Colorado at Boulder professor Michelle Sauther and her colleagues.

How Did Madagascar’s Forest Cats Come Into Existence?

First, it is helpful to say something about what forest cats are and are not. In particular, it is important to mention that forest cats are not a reference to the fossa, which is the biggest of the mammalian carnivores that can be found on the island of Madagascar. Sometimes, people mix up the fossa with the forest cats because the former looks nothing so much as a cougar, though in truth, the species is a closer relative of the mongoose than of either the cats or the big cats. Instead, forest cats are wild examples of domestic cats that have managed to make a home for themselves on the island of Madagascar, which should be considered separate from the domestic cats that serve as feline companions to Madagascans.

In fact, the forest cats are so well-adapted to their circumstances that they actually look different from the domestic cats that serve as feline companions to Madagascans. Generally speaking, forest cats are big for their species while possessing straight tails. On top of that, they have what one might call a tabby coloring, which serves them well because it helps them blend into their forest surroundings. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the forest cats have been very successful, as shown by how they can be found in a wide range of places on the island of Madagascar.

Having said that, scientists have been very curious about the origins of forest cats for some time. After all, they are not native to the island of Madagascar, meaning that they must have been introduced to the island at some point by some means. However, while it is very easy to come up with a general idea of how the forest cats came to be, that still leaves a very wide range of questions about the specifics. For instance, are the forest cats introduced wild cats, introduced domestic cats gone wild, or some kind of hybrid between wild cats and domestic cats? Likewise, while it is clear that forest cats have been on the island of Madagascar for some time, that still leaves the question of when as well as the question of how that happened.

As such, the aforementioned researchers conducted a study on the matter. To be exact, they set up cage traps with live mice serving as bait, though it is amusing to note that the live mice were never in danger because they had their own smaller cages stocked with food as well as bedding. Thanks to this, the researchers managed to catch three forest cats so that they could take blood, hair, and other samples before releasing the creatures back into the wild. Once the samples were sent in for DNA analysis, the researchers were then able to compare the forest cats to other cats found all around the world.

It turned out that the forest cats were descended from domestic cats from the Arabian Sea region with some influences from other places such as India and Pakistan as well. This is not particularly surprising because there was once a very important trade route that connected the Arabian Sea region with Madagascar, with the result that Arabic influences can be found throughout the latter. Due to this, it seems very likely that the forest cats are descended from the domestic cats brought along by Arab traders on their sea vessels. Something that has happened in a wide range of places at a wide range of times.

How Common Is This Kind of Occurrence?

This kind of thing has happened a lot and continues to happen a lot. Before humans, it was much more difficult for animals to make their way to geographically-isolated locations such as islands, but it was nonetheless something that could happen, with the result that some of them could proceed to establish viable populations in their new homes. However, ever since humans have started spreading throughout the world, this kind of thing has been happening more and more. Sometimes, the spread of species has been intentional in nature, whether because humans intended their tagalongs to serve as food, companions, or some other role. Other times, well, suffice to say that not all stowaways have been human.

Having said that, the introduction of new species to geographically-isolated locations can be very problematic for local ecosystems. This is because the species that make up the local ecosystems have no adaptations for the introduced species, meaning that the latter can run rampant so long as their surroundings are hospitable for them. Theoretically, the local species can adapt to the presence of introduced species with the sufficient passage of time. However, it is perfectly possible for them to die off from the increased pressure before that can happen. Cats have actually become rather notorious for being huge nuisances to this kind of ecosystems for a couple of reasons. First, cats are very popular with humans, meaning that they have been brought to a very wide range of places for the sake of companionship as well as other purposes. Second, cats are quite good at hunting small birds, reptiles, mammals, and other species, meaning that they can wreak a great deal of havoc within a very short period of time.

One of the reasons that researchers are interested in forest cats is because they want to know if the forest cats are having a negative impact on the Madagascan ecosystems. Currently, there is not enough information for them to determine this one way or the other, which is why more research is needed on the matter. Still, the study that discovered the origin of the forest cats is by no means useless for this purpose because every piece of relevant information makes scientists more capable of figuring out what is happening.