Previously, wild and domesticated cats have existed side by side for 2,000 years but did not exchange DNA.
Scientists have concluded that there are no purebred forest cats left in Scotland. Having studied their DNA, they found that it now contains the genes of domesticated cats. As noted in an article for the journal Current Biology, modern forest cats carry from 17 to 74% of genes derived from crossbreeding with domestic cats.
In this case, a team of biologists, led by Jo Howard-McCombie from the University of Bristol, managed to find out that the last wild purebred cats became extinct in Scotland in recent decades. So, only five cats older than 1985, when studying DNA, showed signs of interbreeding with domestic pets. But even in them the percentage of genes content of domesticated cats did not exceed 6.6%.
But with time this indicator was growing and now scientists are sure that there is a probability that Scottish forest cats in the near future will finally become extinct due to large-scale genetic pollution. Instead of them will remain hybrids, which are not adapted to life in the wild.
Earlier, scientists found on board the sunken ship "Erebus" comb with the DNA of the owner.