Denis Valentinovich Manturov Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian ...
Domestication, or otherwise domestication, is the process of changing wild animals or plants, in which for many generations they are kept by humans genetically isolated from their wild form and are subjected to artificial selection.
The process of domestication of wild animals begins with the artificial selection of individual individuals to produce offspring with certain traits that humans need. Individuals are usually selected according to certain desirable characteristics, including a decrease in aggressiveness towards humans and members of their own species. In this regard, it is customary to talk about taming a wild species. The purpose of domestication is the use of an animal in agriculture as a farm animal or as a pet. If this goal is achieved, we can talk about a domesticated animal. The domestication of an animal radically changes the conditions for the further development of the species. Natural evolutionary development is being replaced by artificial selection according to breeding criteria. Thus, within the framework of domestication, the genetic properties of the species change.
One of the first animals domesticated by man was the dog. According to some sources, this happened from 9 to 17 thousand years ago.
The study of the fossil remains of ancient dogs began in 1862, when skulls of the Neolithic period were found in Switzerland. This dog was named "peat", and later its remains were found everywhere in Europe, including on Lake Ladoga, as well as in Egypt. The peat dog did not change outwardly during the entire Stone Age, its remains were found even in the sediments of the Roman era. The spitz-like Samoyed dog is considered a direct descendant of the peat. A dog from Lake Ladoga, larger than a typical peat one, is attributed to the ancestors of mastiff-like, and sometimes - huskies. With the ancestors of the dog itself, there is less clarity. The following are called as such: 1) wolves - both our gray Tambov comrade and Indian (the most common hypothesis); 2) wolves and jackals; 3) the now extinct wild "great dog" - so thought Carl Linnaeus, the creator of the first classification of living beings. According to the method of application, there are five main types of dogs: mastiffs, wolf-like dogs, greyhounds, hunting pointers and herding dogs. Since ancient times, dogs have been drawn, carved in stone, minted on coins - this gives us the opportunity to trace the development of the "relationship" between a dog and a person. In ancient Egyptian tombs, images of a pharaoh dog, deified by the Egyptians, were found: for example, according to Herodotus, in connection with the death of a dog, mourning was declared in Egyptian houses. On the bas-reliefs of Babylon and Assyria, we see mastiffs used for hunting and as war dogs. In Greece and Rome, there are many coins depicting dogs, the oldest of which date back to the 7th-6th centuries. BC NS. War dogs were in special demand. In the army of Alexander the Great, they occupied an honorable place. Assyro-Babylonian dogs, known as Epirus or Molossian Great Danes, were brought to Ancient Greece and Rome, where they were also used as fighting dogs. Hunting dogs, greyhounds and hounds were highly valued (the constellation of the Hounds dogs, who remained in the sky with their owner, Actaeon, is named after them).
In Rome, fighting dogs began to act as gladiators, single-handedly competing with bulls, lions, elephants, bears. There were also widespread miniature decorative melites, which later became known as Maltese lapdogs. The matrons' fascination with dogs was so great that the emperors repeatedly condemned him, since, in their opinion, this prevented the noble ladies from having children.
In the 1st century BC. NS. the first treatise on dogs known to us appears. In Mark Terentius Varro's encyclopedic essay On Agriculture, he describes the different types of dogs, puppy selection, dog food, breeding, and dog training. However, even earlier in China and Japan, written records of the upbringing and breeding of dogs were preserved - they are about four thousand years old. A monument was erected to the dog that saved the ancient Greek city of Corinth. And in the ash-covered Pompeii, a large dog was found, covering the body of a child. The inscription on the silver collar said that the dog had already saved the life of its owner twice ...
The goat was apparently the next most popular species. It happened from 9 to 12 thousand years ago on the territory of modern Iran, Iraq, Palestine. Her wild ancestors were the bezoar and the horned goats. The goat was respected as a nurse (according to legend, the goat Amalfei nursed the baby Zeus), and the goat skin refers to the divine garment of Pallas Athena. There are also images of goats on the frescoes of Ancient Egypt. Not all the consequences of friendship with goats were predictable. The domestication of goats gave man high quality milk, wool, skin, but also harmed his habitat. Where herds of goats graze for a long time, all vegetation disappears, and a desert comes to the blooming land. Goats not only destroy shoots completely - they even get to shallow seeds that could germinate in the coming rainy season. Soil exposed by goats is subject to erosion. The same fate befell the Castile highlands, Asia Minor, and the once famous Moroccan and Lebanese cedar groves.
Around the same time - 10-11 thousand years ago - a sheep was domesticated on the territory of modern Iran. From there, domestic sheep - the descendants of wild rams argali and mouflons - came first to Persia, then to Mesopotamia. Already in the twentieth century. BC in Mesopotamia there were various breeds of sheep, one of which - a fine-fleece sheep with horns twisted in a spiral - was widespread: merino sheep later became the pride of Spain. 7-12 thousand years ago a cat appeared next to a man. Cats that have settled next to a person's dwelling of their own free will are an exception among domestic animals.
It is considered to be the common ancestor of the domestic murka of the North African and Near Asian steppe dun cat, which was domesticated in Nubia about four thousand years ago. From here the domestic cat came to Egypt, later crossing with the forest Bengal in Asia. In Europe, the fluffy aliens met a local, wild European forest cat. The result of crosses is a modern variety of breeds and colors. Fossil remains of cats have been found in the Neolithic and Bronze layers of Western Asia and the Caucasus, Jordan and the cities of Ancient India. On the murals in the tombs of Sakkarah (2750-2650 BC), a cat is depicted with a collar, and on a fresco from Beni Hasan - in a house next to the mistress. In Egypt, cats were in a special position among other deified animals. Their corpses were embalmed and buried in lush tombs in special cemeteries. They were considered the embodiment of Bast, the goddess of the moon and fertility, in whose temple in Bubastis sometimes up to 700 thousand believers gathered for the holidays. Archaeologists have discovered about 300 thousand cat mummies dating back to the 4th millennium BC. NS. In the 19th century, an enterprising merchant loaded an entire ship with them in Egypt and brought it to Manchester, thinking of selling it for fertilizer. The idea failed, and most of the mummies ended up in scientific collections. The law also protected the sacred animal: for killing a cat, severe punishment, up to the death penalty, was threatened (Herodotus tells about the unfortunate Greek who unknowingly killed the cat). The export of cats abroad has been banned for a long time. Only in the second millennium BC, domestic cats appeared in Babylon, then in India, China and Japan. From Egypt, the cat on the ships of Phoenician merchants came to many parts of the Mediterranean, but until the beginning of the Commonwealth. NS. she was a rare and expensive beast. The demand for cats began to fall sharply only with the spread of Christianity, which took them sharply negatively. If in the era of early Christianity cats could still live at monasteries (in a number of women's monasteries they were generally the only animals that were allowed to keep), then later cats (especially black ones) began to be perceived as accomplices of witches, sorcerers and the devil personally. Innocent animals became victims of the Inquisition, they were hanged and burned as heretics.
On all Christian holidays, the unfortunate animals were burned alive and buried in the ground, roasted on iron rods and in cages with ceremonial ceremonies in front of crowds of believers. In Flanders, in the city of Ypern, Wednesday in the second week of Lent was called "feline" - on this day, cats were thrown from a high tower. The custom was introduced by Count Baldwin of Flanders in the 10th century and lasted until 1868. European cats would have inevitably been exterminated, but they were saved by the invasion of rats, which brought with them the "black death" - the plague, and the cats found a worthy use for themselves, and then the respect of their owners ...
Geese are the "peers" of cats - according to the time of domestication. Geese were the first to be domesticated among birds: the wild gray species in Europe, the Nile in North Africa, and the Siberian-Chinese in China. Found drawings of the Nile goose bred in Egypt in the 11th millennium BC. NS.
In historical time, geese were kept in almost all countries of Europe, Asia and North Africa. In ancient Greece, geese were dedicated to Aphrodite; in Rome, they began to be treated with great respect after, according to legend, at the beginning of the 4th century. BC NS. sensitive birds, raising the alarm, helped repel the attack of the Gauls. Seven thousand years ago, ducks, descendants of the common mallard, were domesticated in Mesopotamia and China.
Chickens as poultry first appeared in South Asia. Their wild ancestor was a bank rooster. Chickens were bred for both eggs and meat, and for fights. Themistocles, going to the war with the Persians, included cockfighting in the training program so that the soldiers, looking at the birds, learned from them fortitude and courage. The Gauls people got their name from the brave cocky birds.
Buffaloes - the most valuable domestic animals in the countries of Southeast Asia - were domesticated about 9 thousand years ago. Surprisingly unpretentious in food, tireless in work and immune to many diseases that are destructive to other livestock, with the conquests of Islam, they were brought by the Arabs to Southwest Asia and North Africa, from Egypt to East. The Arabs brought buffaloes to Sicily and northern Italy, and the Turks to the Balkans.
A cow was domesticated about 8.5 thousand years ago. According to various versions, this happened on the territory of modern Turkey, in Spain, South Asia ... Her wild ancestor, the tour, was exterminated in the Middle Ages, and the cow, which spread throughout the world in antiquity, was everywhere and was elevated to the rank of a sacred animal. This status is still maintained in many Indian religious schools and in Africa. Sacred winged bulls, carved from stone, adorned the temples of Assyria and Persia. In Egypt, the bull Apis was the earthly embodiment of the patron god of Memphis, Ptah. In Crete, the birthplace of the bull-headed minotaur, bulls participated in the famous bull games - circus performances with a religious background. And it is not for nothing that one of the epithets of the goddess Hera is "hair-eyed" ... Buffaloes and bulls were widely used not only as sources of milk, meat, skins, but also as draft animals. They dragged heavy carts and rallies behind them, helping man to farm.
Llama and alpaca, domesticated five to seven thousand years ago in Peru, became their counterparts in South America. Before the arrival of the Spaniards, llamas were the only transport animals among the Indians. On mountain roads, a llama can carry a load of 50-60 kilograms, which is quite a lot, considering that she herself weighs about a hundred. Alpacas are bred for the sake of fine wool.
9000 years ago, pigs were domesticated in China and Southeast Asia, bred for meat and skins. Somewhat later, their images appear on the frescoes of Ancient Egypt. Pigs of those times are not similar to the usual pigs, but to the boars of today: wiry, mobile, very thin by modern standards.
In Europe, pigs were grazed on peculiar lands - in oak groves. These artiodactyls love to feast on acorns, although they are able to digest almost any organic food. Eternally hungry pigs were the source of misfortune in medieval cities. Their common crime is infanticide. They were treated like criminals - they were arrested, kept in the city prison on a par with people, tried, sentenced to be hanged ... And the piglet children were confiscated in favor of the court.
The first foci of horse domestication appeared in 4000 BC. NS. Presumably, two types of wild horses were domesticated: small, broad-browed steppe horses, vaguely similar to tarpans (wild European horses that died out in the Middle Ages), and larger forest horses, with a narrow forehead, a long facial part of the head and thin limbs. Domestic horses have long retained the traits of wild ancestors. The peoples of the Ancient East were the first to improve horses. In the VII-VI centuries. BC NS. The best in the world were the nonsean horses of the Persian kingdom.
The regions adjacent to the Caspian Sea were famous for horse breeding. At the end of the first millennium BC. NS. the glory of nonsean horses was inherited by the horses of the Parthian kingdom, which was formed on the site of the northern provinces of Persia and Bactria. Parthian horses of golden-red color were stately and for those times high (one and a half meters), they became the coveted military prey of any state. At that time, horse breeding in the forest belt of Eastern Europe was completely different - here horses were used mainly for meat, their height was only 120-130 cm. In the 17th century BC. NS. chariots appeared. Thanks to them, the Hyksos, alien tribes, conquered Egypt for a long time. Much later, cavalry appeared - armed horsemen in large military formations (there were individual riders much earlier), this happened at the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. NS. among the Assyrians. It is interesting that at first the equestrian warrior, as well as in chariots, had a charioteer-ruling: in battle he controlled two horses (his own and his warrior's), while the fighter had both hands free for shooting and throwing darts.
The African wild donkey was domesticated 5-6 thousand years ago. Domestic donkeys have long been the main transport animal, especially in those countries where horses were not known or for some reason the use of donkeys was preferable. A donkey's hooves are much stronger than those of a horse, and they do not need horseshoes even on rocky and uneven mountain soil. Donkeys have been widely used as mounts and pack animals for many millennia, they were used in the construction of the Egyptian pyramids and even in battles. So, the Persian king Darius once, with the help of donkeys, dispersed the army of the Scythians, who had never seen these animals and were frightened.
In Europe and Asia, strong, tall breeds of domestic donkeys were bred, such as the Khomad ones in Iran, the Catalan ones in Spain, and the Bukhara ones in Central Asia. In Greece, the donkey was dedicated to the god of winemaking Dionysius and entered his drunken retinue along with the Silens and satyrs.
Having emerged about five thousand years ago in India, falconry quickly conquered the world, and the "sport of kings" flourished in the early Middle Ages. In Europe, falconry was widespread: it was a hobby of both feudal lords and commoners. There was a special table of ranks, prescribing to whom and with what bird to hunt. In England, stealing or killing someone else's falcon was punishable by death. Genghis Khan's hunts were enormous and majestic, with the participation of hundreds of birds and thousands of dogs. Many hundreds of birds were kept under Ivan the Terrible - they even took the road tax from merchants with pigeons for falcons.
Man actually domesticated pigeons about 6.5 thousand years ago (in Mesopotamia). Pigeons were often depicted in Assyrian bas-reliefs. In many countries, pigeons were sacred animals dedicated to the goddesses of love - Astarte, Aphrodite.
In ancient Rome, in special rooms, columbariums, pigeons were bred for meat. Pliny the Elder wrote that his contemporaries were "obsessed with roast pigeons." But the main purpose of the pigeon is different. This is the only bird that faithfully serves as air mail, thanks to its ability to find a way to home.
5000-6000 years ago camels were domesticated: in Arabia - one-humped (dromedary), in Central and Central Asia - two-humped (Bactrian). A statuette of a loaded dromedary was found in Egypt, which is more than 5000 years old. Apparently, the drawings of the same age depicting one-humped camels on the rocks of Aswan and Sinai. In the literature, both camels have been mentioned since 700-600 BC. NS. Herodotus wrote a lot about camels in connection with the great importance of these animals for wars. "Ships of the Desert" were famous for their ability to go without food and water for a long time.
The north was not left without pets either. Reindeer husbandry was born in Chukotka two or three thousand years ago. In the rather poor world of the tundra, the deer has become a real salvation for the northern peoples. The carcass of the animal was used completely, and not just meat and skin. Everything went for food, up to young horns, tendons, bone marrow and larvae of the subcutaneous gadfly!
The yak, tamed in the first millennium BC, became the same salvation in the mountains, steppes and semi-deserts of Tibet. NS. From fatty - twice as fat as cow's - milk, in addition to ordinary butter and cheese, they make special cottage cheese that does not spoil for a long time and weighs almost nothing (which is very convenient for travelers). The wool and skin of yaks saves from the cold, and dried manure was often the only fuel available in the mountains.
A little later - according to various estimates, from 2300 to 5000 years ago - people began to domesticate bees. The oldest image of a bee was found in the Aran cave (Spain) - a picture of the Paleolithic period more than 15 thousand years old. The ancient Egyptians began systematic breeding of bees, and in Egypt, beekeeping was nomadic: hives on rafts, as the honey plants bloomed in the northern provinces of Egypt, slowly moved down the Nile. From the second millennium BC in Assyria there was a custom to cover the bodies of the dead with wax and immerse them in honey. The custom lasted a long time - until Alexander the Great, whose body was also transported in a coffin filled to the brim with honey to the place of his burial in Egypt. Judging by the frequency of references in the literature, bees were one of the most popular animals in antiquity: King Solomon and Democritus, Aristotle and Virgil, Aristophanes and Xenophon wrote about them. In 950, by order of Emperor Constantine VII, an encyclopedia of beekeeping - "Geoponics" was compiled. Honey was practically the only raw material for making sweet dishes until the middle of the Middle Ages, and wax was used to make candles.
At the opposite end of Eurasia, another insect, the silkworm butterfly, was used. The first mention of silk is found in an ancient Chinese manuscript c. 2600 BC NS. For more than twenty centuries, the Chinese have maintained a monopoly on silk production. According to legend, the first successful attempt to smuggle caterpillar cocoons was made in the 4th century. n. NS. one Chinese princess who married the king of Bukhara Minor and brought him silkworm eggs hidden in her hair as a gift. It was not possible to breed silkworms outside of China. The second smuggling was more successful in 552, when two monks carried cocoons in staffs and presented them to Emperor Justinian. From that time on, silkworm breeding began to develop outside of China. True, then for some time it died out, but was revived after the Arab conquests.
The rabbit began to be domesticated back in ancient Rome - there the animals were kept in special pens - leporaria. As everyone knows, the rabbit is "not only valuable fur." The Romans began to feed them for meat (gourmets especially loved rabbit embryos and newborn rabbits). Rabbits were also appreciated in medieval Europe - for example, in England at the beginning of the XIV century. the rabbit was worth no less than a pig. And already in ancient times, the rabbit began to cause a lot of trouble. On the Balearic archipelago, from a couple of rabbits released into the wild, so numerous offspring occurred that the locals began to ask the emperor Augustus to help them cope with the misfortune and send soldiers to fight the voracious animals. Judging by Australia, "eaten" by rabbits already in modern times, this story has taught nothing to anyone.
Several thousand years BC. BC in the New World began the domestication of guinea pigs. It is likely that these animals, in search of protection and warmth, themselves came to the human dwelling. Among the Incas, pigs were sacrificial animals, which they brought as a gift to the sun god, and also ate on holidays. Pigs with variegated brown or white color were especially popular. They were brought to Europe in the 16th century. "Marine" they are now called rather by mistake - it is much more correct to call them "overseas".
The ostrich, for the sake of feathers and eggs, was domesticated five thousand years ago by the ancient Egyptians. The birds were kept in herds and guarded. Young animals were tamed, which after reaching adulthood were periodically plucked. Ostriches were also domesticated in eastern Sudan, where they were kept with herds of cattle and camels. In ancient Egypt, guinea fowls were also bred. For a long time, guinea fowls in Greece and Rome were only sacrificial birds. This continued until the emperor Caligula, who decreed: as a sign of "divine greatness" to sacrifice the guinea fowl to him - that is, to the table.
In the V century. n. NS. carp was bred from the wild carp. In Europe, carp were bred mainly in monastery ponds. The first mention of them is in the orders sent by the Minister Cassiodorus to the governors of the provinces: the minister demanded that carps be regularly supplied to the table of King Theodoric (456-526).
Since ancient times, there have been such pets, whose functions were reduced to purely decorative. In the X century. BC NS. In China, various breeds of goldfish were bred from carp, which quickly spread to Japan and Indonesia. And in the Middle Ages (XV century) the canary was domesticated. Today we can hardly imagine such animals as blackbirds, partridges, swans, storks, cranes, pelicans as pets - in Egypt they were fattened for meat and used as laying hens. For the sake of meat, hyenas were also bred (!), They were also used as guard animals. In ancient Rome, dormouse (small rodents) were kept in special pots (dolias), where they were fed with nuts. Their meat was prized as a great delicacy. It has long been the custom at feasts to put scales on the table, weigh dormouse on them in the presence of a notary and enter its weight in the protocol. Serving the most well-fed dormouse was a matter of prestige and pride for the rich. And in ancient Roman ponds, moray eels were bred to the delight of gourmets.
In the Ancient East, leopards and lions were kept as sacred and sacrificial animals (and also for the sake of the prestige of the ruler). They even hunted with lions, although cheetahs were much more popular as hunters. In some places, caracals (large wild cats) are hunted with them, as well as with tamed much later - 1000-2000 years ago. Tamed cormorants have been used for hundreds of years - in China and Japan they are used as "live fishing rods": an iron ring is put on the bird's neck, which does not allow swallowing fish, after which the cormorant is released for fishing. In the last two centuries, attempts have been made to domesticate several more animals: moose, musk oxen, antelopes; as well as decorative animals - Syrian hamsters and many aquarium fish.
In the process of domestication, under the influence of new environmental conditions and arts, selection, animals developed signs that distinguish them from wild ones, and the more significant, the more labor and time a person spent on obtaining animals with the properties he needed. The size and shape of the body has changed to the greatest extent in animals, the living conditions of which are very different from those of wild habitat (cattle, pigs, sheep, horses) and to a lesser extent in animals such as the camel and reindeer, whose living conditions are in captivity close to natural. The so-called protective color has disappeared; pets are characterized by a variety of colors. Compared to wild ones, they have a lighter skeleton, less strong bones, thinner skin. The internal organs have also undergone changes. Many domestic animals have less developed lungs, heart, kidneys, but the mammary glands and reproductive organs function better than wild animals (domestic animals, as a rule, are more fertile), in many of them the seasonality in reproduction has disappeared. Most domesticated animals are characterized by a decrease in brain size, a decrease in the reactivity of the nervous system, a simplification of behavioral reactions, an increase in heterozygosity and high phenotypic stability in changing conditions of existence, a change in the phenotypic expression of mutations under the influence of an altered gene pool, and a general increase in variability. Humanity would have developed differently if its path had not crossed the roads of the smaller brothers. Would people be able to survive and create a modern culture without the participation of dogs, cows, horses, sheep? Even the absence on Earth of such a simple species of insects as bees would greatly change the way of human life.
We tried to tame some animals and we failed. There are several reasons for this. Most of the time, this happens because some animals are so wary of people that they will run away if you just look at them. Others are simply too aggressive to be domesticated, as they can attack or even kill the breeder.
There is also a separate category of animals that are classified as domesticated, but not domesticated. Such animals were bred to obey and tolerate man, this is not enough for the animal to be considered domesticated. Tamed animals retain wild instincts and can quickly demonstrate their wild nature.
10. Zebra
In the 19th and 20th centuries, as they moved deeper into Africa, the colonists were faced with the problem of transportation. Their horses were susceptible to various diseases, and it was not easy to bring new horses from Europe. To solve this problem, the colonists turned their gaze to the zebra, a close relative of the horse and donkey. These animals grazed in abundance on the African plains. In addition, zebras are immune to several diseases that affect horses. However, all attempts to tame the zebra have been unsuccessful.
Zebra is a very anxious and aggressive animal. It is naturally suspicious of other animals, including humans, and runs away at the slightest hint of danger. Zebra is a fast runner, so it is very difficult to catch it. If this succeeds, the animal will kick and bite in an attempt to free itself. Although the colonists managed to catch a few zebras, they quickly realized that these animals were smaller than horses and inconvenient to ride. In addition, zebras do not like to be ridden, and after a while they become aggressive, even after being tamed.
The aggressive nature of the zebra is due to its evolution. She shares her habitat with predators such as lions, crocodiles, hyenas, leopards, and humans. This would become a serious problem for humans if these predators were attracted by already domesticated zebras.
9. Great white shark
Several attempts to tame or domesticate the great white shark have failed because captured white sharks usually die within a few days. The first great white shark kept in captivity died within hours. The longest time that this animal lasted in captivity is 16 days.
Captured great white sharks also like to bang their heads against the glass sides of the aquarium. One shark kept at the Okinawa Churaumi Japan Aquarium continued to bang its head against a glass wall until it died. Another shark in the California's Monterey Bay Aquarium banged its head against a glass wall and attacked two other sharks until it was freed.
Great white sharks do not do well in captivity for several reasons. Firstly, they are real travelers and are able to surf the whole oceans. They also need a lot of water to breathe. Therefore, even large aquariums are too small for them. Captured sharks are also incredibly aggressive and usually refuse to eat. However, they require live prey, which is difficult to provide in an aquarium.
8. Dingo
Dingos are dog-like animals found in Australia. Despite their similarity to dogs, they are not dogs, and they are not domesticated. Australian farmers even consider them to be pests. Interestingly, thousands of years ago, humans seem to have already partially domesticated the dingo before the animals returned to the wild.
There is a slight difference in how we tamed the dogs and how we tamed the dingo. Although dogs are considered companions, the early Indigenous Australians - who probably tamed the dingo - viewed them as a food source. In addition, the native Australians did not breed animals based on their favorable characteristics.
7. Elk
Several centuries ago, when horse cavalry still existed, King Charles XI of Sweden decided that he needed a more ferocious animal that could replace horses. One that only by its appearance will make the enemy horses flee from the battlefield. He opted for the elk. Unfortunately for the king, this plan did not work. As it later became clear, the elk is too dangerous an animal to be approached. The situation is aggravated during the mating season, when the animal cannot control aggression. In addition, elk are susceptible to disease, and their diet is too varied, which is difficult to provide in captivity.
In addition, moose are very quick-witted and avoid the battlefield. When they approached the battlefield, they ran away at the moment when they killed another moose. Attempts to use moose meat for food have also been unsuccessful. The animal refused to go to the slaughterhouse when it realized that the elk that had gone there earlier had not returned.
Despite these difficulties, the elk domestication project continues at the Kostroma Elk Farm in Kostroma. It began in the 1930s when Joseph Stalin decided to create an elk cavalry. Like the plan of King Charles XI, the Stalinist project failed. But Nikita Khrushchev revived it when he wanted to start using moose meat for food. This also failed and several moose farms closed. However, the Kostroma moose farm is operating, and they are still trying to tame moose. Now the enterprise mainly produces moose milk.
6. Raccoon
The raccoon is an excellent candidate for domestication. These animals are skilled climbers and can climb into tight spaces, making them excellent working animals. If domesticated, they will be very beneficial for the elderly and disabled. However, they cannot be used as working animals as they have not been domesticated.
Despite their mimicry, raccoons are aggressive and destructive. They are naturally curious and love to move, so they destroy everything around if they are in a confined space. Usually they need to be constantly monitored, they bite when hungry or angry. The bite can be fatal because raccoons can infect humans with rabies.
Since raccoons can use their hands like humans, they tend to open up everything they can. Besides, they are just experts in escape issues. In fact, this is the main reason why attempts at domestication have failed. In addition, they love loneliness, are not social animals and are not faithful to people.
5. Fox
We once tamed foxes. However, they became extinct, and modern attempts to tame them were again only partially successful. Ironically, the extinct fox we domesticated was called the Yagan dog. She was a domesticated Andean fox. It is curious that this animal was not very popular at one time. Probably because she was not as useful as a regular dog.
There is also evidence that we tried to tame foxes long before the Yagan dog, but abandoned them for the cats. The cats were chosen because we didn't know what foxes could do. Foxes are difficult to tame due to their incredible stubbornness. Russian geneticist Dmitry Konstantinovich Belyaev tried to change this in the 1950s when he began a project to domesticate black foxes. Silver foxes are actually red foxes with melanism - the opposite of albinism - which causes the animal's fur to take on this color.
Four generations later, foxes behaved like dogs. They were imbued with love for people, wagging their tails and licking their breeders. Fifty generations later, they bark, react to people, and understand gestures. They also make sounds that are different from those made by wild foxes. The project is ongoing and considered successful. However, foxes are tamed, but not domesticated.
4. Elephant
Asian elephants are not considered pets, despite being caught and trained for 3,000 years. Rather, they can be classified as tamed or wild animals. Captured and trained Asian elephants are not considered pets as they do not participate in selective breeding.
“Selective breeding” means that humans select offspring to reproduce based on certain favorable traits. To be domesticated, it will need to be selectively bred for up to 12 generations. By the 12th generation, animals should be genetically different from their wild ancestors and will be considered domestic.
In general, caught Asian elephants are not selectively bred. (Few have been selectively bred for more than two generations). This makes them wild animals. They only allow people to ride them because they are trained. However, they look like any wild animal, making them unpredictable.
3. Bonobos 
Bonobos are different from other animals on this list because they are not wild animals. They are pets, even if they have not been domesticated by humans. Bonobos have tamed themselves.
Scientists are not sure how this happened. But they believe it began about two million years ago, when the Congo River formed in Africa. As a result, the ancestors of bonobos and chimpanzees who lived there were divided. The primates north of the river have evolved to become larger and more aggressive because they have to compete with large gorillas for food.
On the other side of the river, there were primates who were supposed to become bonobos. They had more than enough food, but there were no gorillas. The females became picky and began to choose which males to mate with. The aggressive males became extinct because the females preferred the softer males.
2. Hippopotamus
Humans have wisely decided to stay away from the hippo, one of the deadliest animals in the world. Each year, these animals kill more people than lions, elephants, leopards, buffaloes and rhinos combined. Obviously, any encounter between a person and a hippo is likely to end badly for the person. Hippos are large and incredibly fast. Despite their enormous weight, they can reach speeds of up to 48 kilometers per hour. Usain Bolt, the fastest man in the world, can barely run at 45 kilometers per hour.
However, there have been independent attempts to tame hippos. As expected, this effort ended badly. In 2011, Marius Els, a South African farmer and army officer, was killed by a five-year-old 1.2-ton hippopotamus he was trying to tame. Els named the hippopotamus Humphrey and considered it a pet. He often took Humphrey for a swim and even rode him, calling him "son." Humphrey did not consider Els a father because the animal killed a man in the same river in which they swam.
Before the murder of Els, where they lived, Humphrey was known as a local terrorist. One day, a hippo chased a man and his grandson and drove them up a tree after the two canoeing down a river that ran past Els' farm. Humphrey was also notorious for killing calves and stalking golfers at a nearby golf course.
1. Coyote
All attempts to tame coyotes have failed because they avoid humans. Breeders are also wary of these animals, because they can get dangerous diseases such as rabies and tularemia. However, some breeders were not afraid and tried to tame the coyote. One common method is to cross a male coyote with a female dog. Although the resulting hybrid is less aggressive towards humans, it is not a true coyote.
Another way is to take young wild coyotes from their mothers and tame them. Wild coyotes become less wary of humans after about three generations, but they are not pets. In fact, several attempts to tame coyotes have resulted in a coyote attack on the breeder. This is because a coyote living close to a person may begin to view the person as prey and will look for the best time to attack. Interestingly, coyotes are gradually being domesticated. This happens naturally, just as it probably happened with bonobos.
The history of domestic animals dates back to the Stone Age. The process of domestication of wild animals is carried out through the crossing of some species in order to achieve the conditioned traits in the offspring that people need. Individuals for this are selected according to certain characteristics. It is especially important in case of artificial, selective selection, the absence or significant reduction of aggression in an animal towards people and towards individuals of its own species. This maximally contributes to the so-called taming of the instincts of wild animals.
The purpose of domestication of a wild animal is to use it in agricultural activities, or to settle at home as a domestic friend, a pet. If this problem is solved, it means that the animal has become completely domesticated. The natural, natural development of an individual is replaced by artificial crossing according to the parameters necessary for a person. This radically changes the conditions and history of the further continuation of the species. Thus, the genetic constituents of the breeds are also changing.
The history of domestic animals clearly illustrates the fact that not all wild creatures are able to take root with people. Only a few of them have overcome their natural fear of humanity. Many researchers claim that ancient people could have tamed crocodiles, or, for example, cave bears. But to domesticate an animal is still something more. In fact, there are about 25 species of animals domesticated by humans.
First of all, for the domestication of a wild animal, it is necessary to create comfortable conditions for the reproduction of future offspring. Then you need to start selection, thereby leaving the most developed individuals, thanks to which, after hundreds of years, you can get a really pet. There are examples from antiquity when wild cheetahs were kept in captivity at the palaces of the kings. For example, the great conqueror Genghis Khan had a tamed cheetah. But it was never really possible to domesticate these individuals.
- Wolf and dog
The wolf is considered the first domesticated wild animal. This beast became a companion of people in the Stone Age. It is genetically proven that the ancestry of wolves began in South Asia. So, after many centuries, a dog appeared. Calculations and data of scientists indicate that the wolf and the dog finally separated 12 thousand years ago. The first ever documented proof of friendship between a man and a domestic dog was found in a French rocky cave. It was a wolf's paw print and a child's footprint. The age of these finds is 10 thousand years.
- Sheep, goats
Also, for ten thousand years, human communication with these animals continues. As a result of crossing and selection of mountain sheep, people reproduced more than a hundred species of domestic sheep. Today's goats originated from the bearded mountain goat that lived in southern Europe and Asia. People have managed to get a wide variety of breeds of these animals. There are Angora goats with excellent wool, Swiss, Cameroon. The most useful domesticated animal for humans turned out to be the tour, the distant ancestor of the cows we know.
- Buffalo
The ancient buffalo was a rather dangerous and terrible beast. This animal became domestic 7 thousand years ago. In southern countries, its pulling power, the value of meat, warm skin are well applicable.
- Horse
The ancestor of the domestic horse is the bal tarpan. He was found in the fields of Eurasia. The horse was domesticated about 6 thousand years ago. Despite this, many scientists believe that the first ancestor of this animal was a wild horse, it is also called the Przewalski's horse.
- Cat
With the beginning of the development of land cultivation and a sedentary lifestyle, a cat began to accompany people. She fell in love with the remnants of food in the first human settlements and barns. The history of the domestic cat begins in the East. All cats living on earth today are the direct descendants of several species of Libyan and Nubian wild cats. At the present time, more than two hundred breeds of domestic cats are recognized by international organizations.
- Birds
5.5 thousand years ago, the history of domestic chickens and geese began, which originated in East Asia. Ducks were domesticated around the same time in China and Europe. And in hot Africa, they tamed the guinea fowl.
Experiments in the history of pets have always taken place, and are still ongoing. Breeding work is carried out with some breeds of antelope, deer, mink, sable and many other fluffy individuals. New breeds of domesticated animals are being developed. Of course, it is impossible not to pay attention to the fact that a person should be responsible for the domesticated animals. It is his sacred duty to take care, and not to use gullible domesticated animals only as suppliers of wool, meat or milk.
Human activity has affected nature by changing the environment: where once there were steppes, forests and swamps, houses appeared, roads and agricultural lands grew. Man domesticated plants and tamed animals for food and other needs, for many people animals have become pets.
Domestication is the domestication of wild species. tamed for wool, milk, eggs and meat, or for farm work. Today, there are a huge number of domesticated animals that were domesticated at different times and for different purposes. Here are tamed animals, which we used to think of as pets and have already forgotten that they were once wild.
Dogs: from 12,000 l. BC.
john malley
One of the first tamed animals were their descendants, dogs. The earliest known evidence of a tamed dog is its jawbone, which was found in a cave in Iraq. It differs from the wolf in that it has smaller jaws and teeth. Breeding affects species quite quickly, and it is a natural process for humans, but it is likely that the first cases of domestication were accidental, not intentional.
Images in Egyptian paintings and sculptures, Assyrian and Roman mosaics, prove that by that time, these civilizations had many dogs of various shapes and sizes. One Roman writer of the same period even gave advice on the choice of dog color: shepherd dogs should be white (to distinguish them from wolves in the dark), but farm dogs should be black (to scare thieves).
Sheep and goats, pigs and cows: 9000-7000l. BC.
Bibrak Qamar
Soon after dogs, among the tamed animals, goats, sheep, cows and pigs appear. The first sheep were domesticated as a food source in the Middle East. Later, goats and sheep became permanent animals of nomadic pastoralists - tribes who move throughout the year with their herds, guided by the availability of fresh grass.
Cows and pigs are more associated with sedentary communities. According to historical data, the pig was first domesticated in China. During life, these animals provided people with milk, meat and manure. When they died, the skin and wool were used for clothing; horns and bones for sharp objects (needles and arrows); grease for tallow candles; hooves for glue.
Oxen and buffaloes: from 4000 liters. BC.
Jennifer McLeod
Of the four main agricultural groups of animals, cattle represent the most significant development in village life. Brute willpower is a great addition to a person's muscular strength. At first, they carried sledges, and somewhat later, plows and wheeled carts (almost simultaneously in the Middle East and in Europe). In India and Southeast Asia, buffaloes were used as cargo animals.
Cats: from 3000 l. BC.
Tambako the jaguar
Cats stayed away from people for a long time. Their lonely lifestyle (not herd or group) helped a lot in this. Cats were attracted to the food and shelter they could find in human settlements. After domestication, cats spread rapidly and increased in numbers due to their high breeding rate. In many cultures and religions, cats were considered sacred. For example, in Egypt, where they were even mummified. In folk stories of different peoples, the cat was a natural companion of man.
Horses: from 3000hp BC.
Moyan brenn
Humans found their most important ally in the animal kingdom when they domesticated the horse. Wild horses of various species had spread throughout much of the world by the time human history began. Their bones have been found among the remains of early human food, and they are depicted in cave paintings with other animals. Some of the earliest fossils have been found in America, but since then they have become extinct on this continent.
The original goal of taming horses, like cattle, was to acquire a reliable source of meat and milk, and only later people realized that they had an excellent means of transportation at their disposal.
The first domesticated horses were pony-sized. All modern horses known to us are the result of human selection. Other wild breeds are now extinct.
Donkeys: 3000 HP BC.
Rinaldo R
At almost the same time as the domestication of the wild horse, the domestication of the donkey is taking place. They are often mentioned in the two oldest civilizations, Mesopotamia and Egypt.
Camels: 3000-1500 HP BC.
Renzo ottaviano
As beasts of burden and transport, camels play an important role alongside horses and donkeys. Two small members of the camel family, the llama and the alpaca, were tamed primarily in South America. This saved both species from extinction. Neither llama nor alpaca currently exist in the wild.
In the scorched regions of North Africa and Asia, two different camel species are becoming the most important beasts of burden - the one-humped camel (North Africa, the Middle East, India) and the two-humped camel (Central Asia, Mongolia). Both are well adapted to desert conditions.
: from 2000 l. BC.
Erik 1967
About 2,000 years ago, wild jungle birds began to be domesticated in Asia. Almost at the same time, pigeons appeared in Egypt. At first, pigeons simply lived and bred in close proximity to humans. But some time later, people discovered their unusual talent - to fly home.
: 2000 l. BC.
Sumit gupta
India is the region where elephants were tamed during the Indus civilization. It is not known exactly when the elephants began to be trained for war, but there is a large body of evidence that they were a valuable military force in India and North Africa. The ability to learn tricks also makes elephants a popular animal in the Roman circus arena.
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Domestication, or domestication (from lat. domesticus- "domestic") - this is the name of the process of changing wild animals, during which these animals are subjected to artificial selection and kept isolated (for many generations) from their wild form. However, not all animals were able to get along with humans, as few of them were able to overcome their fear of him.
Genetic scientists have found that the first wolves were domesticated in South Asia. The oldest find that testifies to the domestication of a wolf is a skull found in the Goyet cave in Belgium, its age is 31,700 years, slightly less than the age of the remains found in the Chauvet cave in France - 26 thousand years.
As soon as a person began to lead a sedentary lifestyle (about 10 thousand years ago) and took up farming, a cat appeared in his house, which protected his grain stocks from rats and mice, which were stored in barns.
flickr / cat woman of 3
The first occurred in the Middle East, through the domestication of a wild Nubian (Middle Eastern) cat. Millions of cats living in our time can "boast" of their Middle Eastern origin.
For almost the same period (at least 10 thousand years), sheep and goats live next to humans. The ancestor of the domestic goat was a mountain sheep, which lives in Western Asia and Southern Europe. As a result of careful selection and crossing, more than 150 breeds have emerged that vaguely resemble their wild and ancient progenitor.
Around the same period, the first appeared, descended from the wild bezoar, or, who lived in the same areas as the mouflon. There are not so many breeds of domestic goats, however, they are very diverse.
It is assumed that the horse was domesticated more than 6-7 thousand years ago (from other sources - about 9 thousand years ago). The ancestor of the modern horse is (lat. Equus ferus ferus) Is an inhabitant of the forest-steppe and steppe zones of Eurasia.
Domestication took place, according to scientists, in several areas at once. This is justified by the fact that domestic horses lack a common genetic root. The first domestic horses were kept by people for meat, milk and skins. They saddled the horse much later.
The first pigs were domesticated about 7 thousand years ago (from some sources - possibly earlier) and they descended from a wild pig (lat. Sus scrofa). It spread mainly in East Asia, in the Western countries and in Oceania, where it became the main source of meat and lard.
The ancestor of the domestic cow (lat. Bos taurus taurus) was a wild bull (lat. Bos taurus).
In the early stages of domestication, cows spread from the Balkan Peninsula and from Southwest Asia to Africa (7 thousand years ago), and to Central Europe (about 5 thousand years ago). Since then, the cow has become a valuable source of milk and meat.
7.5 thousand years ago, the Asian buffalo (lat. Bubalus bubalis) is a strong and dangerous beast, which is now called an ox. Now in hot Asian countries, they have become the main source of meat and skins, as well as an irreplaceable draft force.
It was previously thought that the first domestic chickens appeared in India about 2,000 years ago, but more recent studies have shown that the first chickens were domesticated in Southeast Asia and China about 6,000-8,000 years ago. And the domestic chicken originated from the wild bank chicken (lat. Gallus gallus) living in Asia.
The goose is considered one of the oldest domestic birds and was domesticated quite early (more than 3-4 thousand years ago) in ancient China. Its ancestor is considered to be a wild gray goose (lat. Anser anser). New breeds of domestic goose were developed mainly in Europe.
They were domesticated in China and Europe at the same time as geese, then they spread to other countries. Domestic ducks originated from the wild common duck, or mallard (lat. Anas platyryncha). The domestication of ducks took place very quickly.
The bee was domesticated by humans about 5 thousand years ago. Since those ancient times, people have been using beekeeping products: honey, wax, poison, propolis, bee bread, etc. It was impossible to tame bees (in a certain sense), but people still learned to use them for their own purposes.
Silkworm
Silkworm (lat. Bombyx mori) - a butterfly, thanks to which a person learned what silk is. Was domesticated by humans in China around 3000 BC. Sericulture is the most important industry in China, breeding silkworms for silk.
