Department of Biology, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, 00133, Rome, Italy.
Géosciences Environnement Toulouse, UMR 5563, CNRS, Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées 14, 31400, Toulouse, France.
Sci Rep. 2023 Jul 29;13(1):12316. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-39417-7.
Cats are hypercarnivorous, opportunistic animals that have adjusted to anthropogenic environments since the Neolithic period. Through humans, either by direct feeding and/or scavenging on food scraps, the diet of cats has been enriched with animals that they cannot kill themselves (e.g., large mammals, fish). Here, we conducted carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratio analysis to reconstruct the diet of medieval cats and investigate cat-human interactions in two medieval harbor sites (Qalhât, Oman and Siraf, Iran). The analysis included 28 cat individuals and 100 associated marine and terrestrial faunal samples pertaining to > 30 taxa. The isotopic results indicate a high marine protein-based diet for the cats from Qalhât and a mixed marine-terrestrial (C) diet for the cats from Siraf. Cats at these sites most likely scavenged on both human food scraps and refuse related to fishing activities, with differences in the two sites most likely associated with the availability of marine resources and/or the living conditions of the cats. By shedding light on the dietary habits of cats from two medieval harbors in the Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman, this study illustrates the potential of stable isotope analysis in reconstructing human-cat interactions in the past.
猫是高度肉食性、机会主义的动物，自新石器时代以来就已经适应了人类环境。通过人类，无论是直接喂养还是在食物残渣上觅食，猫的饮食已经丰富了它们自己无法捕杀的动物（例如，大型哺乳动物、鱼类）。在这里，我们进行了碳和氮稳定同位素比值分析，以重建中世纪猫的饮食，并调查两个中世纪港口遗址（阿曼的 Qalhât 和伊朗的 Siraf）中的猫-人类相互作用。分析包括 28 只猫个体和 100 个与 30 多个分类群相关的海洋和陆地动物群样本。同位素结果表明，来自 Qalhât 的猫主要以高蛋白的海洋食物为食，而来自 Siraf 的猫则以混合的海洋-陆地（C）饮食为主。这些地点的猫很可能在人类的食物残渣和与捕鱼活动有关的垃圾上觅食，两个地点之间的差异可能与海洋资源的可获得性和/或猫的生活条件有关。通过揭示阿拉伯湾和阿曼湾两个中世纪港口的猫的饮食习惯，本研究说明了稳定同位素分析在重建过去人类-猫相互作用方面的潜力。
