Have you ever noticed that many cats have white paws? According to scientists, this could have a specific reason.
Many domestic cats have white paws – affectionately called “socks” by many pet owners. While this phenomenon is almost never encountered in wild cats, white paws are very common in domestic cats. But why is that actually the case? While there is no definitive answer, there are a few theories that could explain the white paw phenomenon.
The American scientist Leslie Lyons also answered the question in a post on the science website “LiveScience“ pursued. The professor emeritus concludes that human preference, among other things, may have allowed this trait to become more widespread among domesticated cats.
“When people started farming and becoming sedentary, they had granaries and produced waste, which also attracted rodents,” says Lyons. Living with cats therefore brought advantages for both humans and velvet paws: humans were happy about fewer mice and cats got their meals more easily when living with humans than in the wild.
Wild cats had adapted to their natural environment with their camouflage colors – according to Lyons, white paws were still the exception at the time. After all, the clearly visible white paws were rather impractical for cats when it came to hunting prey unnoticed in the forest at night. For humans, on the other hand, the white paws were special – and the feature also helped them distinguish their own cat from those of those around them.
The fact that the white paws were perceived as attractive by humans gave cats with this trait an advantage. “There were probably people who said, ‘I like this kitten because she has white paws. Let’s make sure she survives,'” Lyons believes. Humans ultimately ensured that cats with this initially rare coat mutation did not die out and were able to continue to reproduce.
According to the scientist, humans were also more likely to surround themselves with cats that were calm and felt comfortable around people. Character traits of cats are generally not related to coat color. According to the professor, the cats with white “socks” were particularly happy to join humans because they probably knew instinctively that they had poorer chances of surviving in the wild because of their appearance. So it may well be that they were more sociable and tolerable in living together than their peers without white paws.
According to the scientist, white spots often appear in animal breeds in those animals that were bred from the tamest animals. This is not only the case with cats, but also with horses, pigs, mice, cows and rats – even if science has not yet fully explored why this is the case.
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Overall, the phenomenon of white paws in cats is still not fully understood. Although there are some theories like Leslie Lyons’s, there is no definitive answer as to why so many cats have white paws.
But whatever the reason for this cute coloration, one thing is for sure: cats with white paws just look really cute!
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