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NDaveT t1_j8n3vzn wrote

The ancestor of domestic cats is the [African wildcat] (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_wildcat), which still exists in the wild in Africa. There's a closely related subspecies, the Asiatic wildcat, that lives in Asia.

There are other small wild cat species, including the very similar European wildcat and the smaller sand cat.

You don't see them much because they are mostly active at night and spend a lot of their time hiding from their prey and from predators. And they're not exotic enough to make documentaries about.

In domestic cats, the tabby coloring is the most similar to their wild relatives. Other color patterns are variations that wouldn't provide adequate camouflage in the wild.

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taterbizkit t1_j8mwtr9 wrote

There are wild cats that resemble house cats. Check out the "black-footed cat", one of the most effective (and adorable) predators known:

https://www.google.com/search?q=black-footed+cat&client=firefox-b-1-d&sxsrf=AJOqlzUqnL0xhxkCeBGqWWG2x-7JaseIxA:1676470670990&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi03sf225f9AhUKCTQIHQQOCnQQ_AUoAXoECAEQAw&biw=1664&bih=776&dpr=1.15

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apriljeangibbs t1_j8wse7o wrote

Excuuuuuse me?! That thing is way too cute

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taterbizkit t1_j8x6l2w wrote

IKR? Adult males average 4.5 lbs, females 3 lbs. They look like 6-month old kittens. But they are li'l bitty killin' machines.

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apriljeangibbs t1_j8x6osa wrote

I can’t take their killing ability seriously when they look like that lol

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babar90 t1_j8tu0bs wrote

Go on https://timetree.org/ type Felidae in "build a timetree, Specify a Group of Taxa " then choose species and see the (time-scaled, ie. age of common ancestors) tree you get

You'll find 5 other Felis species with MRCA from 1.5 to 6 million years. Adding the few Prionailurus species with MRCA 9 million years you'll get something roughly equivalent to the Homo-Pan lineage in term of evolutionary history.

The Felis species really look like cats and the Prionailurus species are a bit wilder but still cattish, need to go farther to find something more like a Lynx or a Panthera (MRCA 12 million years so similar to the Apes lineage);

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sadetheruiner t1_j8llxl8 wrote

Same reason you’d never see wild pugs, humans bred pets to be interesting looking(many times doing a grave disservice to their health). Stalking predators like felines are genetically pressured to blend into their hunting environment, so a long haired orange cat would suck at blending into a jungle, get eaten or starve to death.

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svarogteuse t1_j8nqj9h wrote

>so a long haired orange cat would suck at blending into a jungle, get eaten or starve to death.

Tigers would beg to differ.

Many prey animals don't see orange/red as anything different that green. Green is a hard pigment for mammals to produce, but red isn't. Foxes are red, tigers are orange, and neither seem to suck at blending in vs their selected prey.

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