Dr. Leslie A. Lyons has undertaken the task of mapping the genetic history of the domestic cat.
Dr. Lyons is a Geneticist with the University of California, Davis.
This study has included thirty-three countries around the world in an attempt to determine where and
how the first cats became domesticated. Requests went out far and wide to breeders asking them to converge on the UC
Davis campus one day last Spring where the National Geographic Channel began filming this special.
Through DNA samples from all the different breeds as well as field trips to many areas of the world,
including the "Fertile Crecent" area of the Middle East, DNA samplings were taken from both pedigreed and stray
ferile cats in an effort to determine the source location of the first cats to be domestcated as pets.
