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The Beginnings of Domestication

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      For thousands of years humans have lived side by side with animals, and they have become central to the culture. From the dog that paces side by side to its owner, to the teams of horses that pull countless carts and carriages around the world, and the sheep and cattle that provide meat milk and wool, and cats that help to keep the fields and barns clear of mice and rats. Animals are an important part of every walk of life. Yet most give little thought to how this came to be.
      It is often assumed that domestication is an act of human initiative. Domesticated animals of all kinds share a striking number of physical and behavioral traits that are not found in their wild cousins. There are numerous advantages to be found in domestication. Perhaps, in the relationships shared by humans and animals today lies the key to how it all began. Domestication is a phenomenon caused by changing evolutionary pressures, pushing animals towards coevolution with humans, certain traits that domesticated animals share, the advantages of domestication for all involved, and current interactions between humans and animals may give clues to how this ancient partnership started.
      The process by which animals most likely became domesticated is coevolution. Interspecies symbiosis is a well-documented occurrence in nature, in such diverse situations as ants "milking" aphids and clownfish living in sea anemones. So why couldn't it happen again between humans and the animals we have domesticated?  After all, humans have shown to be poor domesticators; Native Americans kept numerous species as pets and domesticated none of them, and the ancient Egyptians attempted and failed to domesticate several animals, including hyenas (Budiansky 11-12). As Stephen Budiansky comments in his article, In from the Cold:

      "The only way to produce an animal with desirable traits for domestication is
      through captive breeding, yet the only way animals could have been captively
      bred is if they had the desirable traits to start with" (Budiansky 11-12).
With this he points out that, at the time most animals were domesticated, humans had no fences or cages, and, likely, very little knowledge of how to care for and breed animals.
      Many factors may have pushed wild animals towards humans. Domesticated animals consistently show traits in adulthood that are only found in the young in the wild, such as floppy ears and begging. This may have been started by the ice ages, which helped to set up domestication first by forcing animals and humans closer together, and second by selecting for traits that are favorable for domestication (Budiansky 11-12). Stephen Budiansky states that young animals, "show a curiosity about their surroundings, a lack of fear of new situations and even an undiscriminating willingness to associate and play with members of other species," that are lost as adults (Budiansky 11-12). These traits would be useful both for surviving in the swiftly changing environment caused by the ice age and crucial in starting the process of domestication. As the dog was the first animal to be domesticated by far, it may have paved the way for the other animals.
      Domesticated animals of all kinds have many traits in common. Lyudmila N. Trut, who has a doctorate in cytology and genetics, notes that, "Most domestic animals had undergone the same basic morphological and physiological changes" (Trut 160-169). Physical traits commonly found in domesticated animals include; shorter jaws for their width, differences in size, as with dwarf and giant breeds, white patches in the coat, curled tails, and floppy ears. It is likely that animals that were different and thus could be distinguished from their wild cousins would be favored (A Natural History of Domesticated Animals), which may explain some of these differences. Behavioral traits found in domesticated animals include; care soliciting behavior such as begging, whining barking and other such calls, and submissiveness. All of which are found more often, if not exclusively, in young animals in the wild. In recently domesticated foxes it has been found that the domesticated pups respond to sounds and open their eyes on average one to two days earlier than their wild cousins. The tamed foxes also start showing fear weeks after the wild pups would be (Trut 160-169). This window between when the animal starts responding to stimuli and when it starts showing fear is crucial for forming bonds with humans in other domesticate animals such as dogs and cats.
      There are many Factors that may have contributed to the appearance of these traits Most of them can be explained by pedomorphosis, or juvenile traits being kept into adulthood (Trut 160-169).  Even those traits that are not found in young animals in the wild, may be explained by small changes in development. For example, researchers domesticating foxes noted that a gene they named STAR effects the development of pigment cells causing the distinct white patches in some animals (Trut 160-169). As mentioned before, human preference would also have had a large difference, especially after these traits had begun to appear.
      There is also the question of what causes domesticated animals to keep so many juvenile traits. Some consider this a byproduct of selection for smaller size and higher reproduction rate, including earlier sexual maturity (Trut 160-169). Another idea is that the Pleistocene, or ice ages, selected for this pedomorphosis (Budiansky 11-12). Or, as in the farm fox experiment, it could have been something as simple as selection for docility, or tamability, that caused this particular set of traits to appear (Trut 160-169). Most likely it is a combination of all of these that produced what we see today.
      Domestication yields numerous advantages. Animals have been domesticated on every continent except North America and Australia (Hirst). Most animals were originally domesticated as a source of food, even the horse (Bamber). Dogs help with hunting and provide protection, and cats keep rats and mice under control. Later animals such as horses, llamas and oxen were found useful as draft animals. Animals such as sheep and alpaca are useful for their wool.
      Even the animals get a lot from this arrangement. To start, any animal under the care of humans has a steady food supply. Humans also protect their animals from predators, and limit competition with other animals, human fires may even have helped to keep them warm (Budiansky 74-79). For some species, such as horses, domestication was a matter of survival (Budiansky 74-79).
      It is possible that common day relationships with animals may hint at how animals partnered themselves with humans. Researchers in Kamchatka, Russia have spent their summers cultivating a peaceful and friendly relationship with grizzly bears. Bear biologist Charles Jonkel says, "We could have a different relationship with bears if we all learned how to relate to them in a different way" (qt. in Rauber 50+). Maasai villager have a live and let live relationship with the animals in the Serengeti. They rarely hunt or farm, and leave the predators alone unless they threaten their livestock (Maddox 22-29). Perhaps it was peaceful interactions such as these that lead to domestication.
      Not all interactions with wild animals are that peaceful, or turn out as well.  Wild animals such as snakes, big cats and exotic birds are kept as pets in homes across the nation. People own these animals for reasons varying from scientific to theatrical, or just because they think it's cool, and it doesn't take much for a wild animal to hurt or even kill a child or even an adult (Gambardello n.p.). Dispute often disastrous results, perhaps a similar desire for pets jumpstarted the domestication process. Humans also seem to have a love hate relationship with wolves, from which dogs were derived (McGhee 12+).
Many people are loath to share the land with any large predators at all.
      There may not yet be a solid explanation for how domestication came about. However, what is known is enough to bring animals around the world into a new light. Domestication is an example of coevolution, that results in similar traits among all domesticated animals, there are great advantages for both sides of the partnership, and present human-animal relationships may hint at how it all started. There are many ideas about how animals came to be domesticated. Similar evolutionary pressures result in similar traits in numerous domesticated animals. It is a partnership that yields many advantages for all involved. The interactions of humans and animals today give insight into how ancient relationships may have formed.
      All of this shows that domestication is not a form of slavery as many people may believe, but a mutually beneficial partnership and a responsibility that we cannot back out of. As long as we respect and properly care for our animals then we can be certain that we have done right by them.




Works Cited

"A Natural History of Domesticated Mammals." Fathom.com. The Natural History
      Museum, 2002. Web. 16 Nov. 2011.

Budiansky, Stephen. "In From the Cold." San Francisco Chronicle 2 Feb. 1992: 11-12.
      SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 1 Nov. 2011.

---. "The Ancient Contract." U.S. News & World Report 20 Mar. 1989: 74-79. SIRS
      Issues Researcher. Web. 1 Nov. 2011.

Gambardello, Joseph A., and Faye Flam. "People Keeping Wild Animals As Pets
      Dangerous, Illegal." Philadelphia Inquirer Oct. 6 2003: n.p. SIRS Issues
      Researcher. Web. 1 Nov. 2011.

Gascoign, Bamber, "History of the Domestication of Animals." Historyworld.net. History
      World, 2001. Web. 16 Nov. 2001.

Hirst, K. Kris. "Animal Domestication Table of Dates and Places." About.com.
      About.com, 2011. Web. 14 Nov. 2011.

Maddox, Tom. "Proof Pawsitive." Wildlife Conservation May/June 2001: 22-29. SIRS
      Issues Researcher. Web. 1 Nov. 2011.

McGhee, Robert. "Co-Evolution: New Evidence Suggests that to be Truly Human is to
      be Partly Wolf." Alternatives Journal 28.1 (2002): 12+. Student Edition. Web. 2
      Nov. 2011.

Rauber, Paul. "Running with Bears." Sierra March/April 1999: 50+. SIRS Issues
      Researcher. Web. 1 Nov. 2011.

Trut, Lyudmila N.. "Early Canid Domestication: The Farm-fox Experiment." American
      Scientist March/April 1999: 160-69. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 1 Nov. 2011.
This is a research paper I did for claas. It wasn't fu but I think it turned out well.
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