Cats

You can find house cats on every continent except Antarctica but that wasn't always the case how did cats make it across oceans and into households worldwide the secret lies an ancient cat DNA here's how cats spread across the world it started around 10,000 years ago in what's now modern-day Turkey DNA analysis shows this is where cats wild ancestors likely originated wild cats proved to be effective rodent control for early farmers as the Agricultural Revolution spread cats joined for the ride by 2500 BC cats had reached Cyprus where no cats had existed before over the next few thousand years they accompanied humans north into Bulgaria and Romania by 800 BC cats had found their calling in Egypt cats weren't just an object of worship here Egyptian cat specifically became popular among other groups like the Romans and Vikings who brought cats on their ships for pest control these two groups took the feline revolution by storm helping cats spread across all of Africa Europe and Asia by the time Europeans were sailing to the Americas cats were common ship mates today one-third of American homes have at least one cat that's about 93 and a half million house cats in the US alone now that they've conquered the world at human side cats can rest easy.