The process of domestication of wild animals. domestication of animals domestication domestication of wild animals

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 subjected to artificial selection.

The process of domestication of wild animals begins with the artificial selection of individuals in order to obtain offspring with certain traits necessary for man. Individuals are generally selected for certain desired characteristics, including reduced aggression towards humans and members of their own species. In this regard, it is customary to speak of the taming of the 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 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. It happened according to some sources 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 called "peaty", and later its remains were found everywhere in Europe, including on Lake Ladoga, as well as in Egypt. Peat dog outwardly did not change during the entire Stone Age, its remains were found even in the deposits of the Roman era. The Spitz-shaped dog of the Samoyed is considered a direct descendant of the peat dog. A dog from Lake Ladoga, larger than a typical peat dog, is attributed to the ancestors of Great Danes, and sometimes Laikas. With the ancestors of the dog itself, there is less clarity. The following are named 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" - Carl Linnaeus, the creator of the first classification of living beings, thought so. According to the method of application, five main types of dogs are distinguished: mastiffs, wolf-like dogs, greyhounds, hunting pointer-like and shepherd 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 the pharaoh dog, deified by the Egyptians, were found: thus, according to Herodotus, mourning was declared in connection with the death of a dog in Egyptian homes. On the bas-reliefs of Babylon and Assyria, we see mastiffs used for hunting and as fighting dogs. In Greece and Rome, there are many coins depicting dogs, the oldest of which date back to the 7th-6th centuries. BC e. Fighting dogs were in special demand. In the army of Alexander the Great, they occupied a place of honor. Assyro-Babylonian dogs, known as Epirus or Molossian dogs, were brought to Ancient Greece and Rome, where they were also used as fighting dogs. Dogs of hunting breeds, greyhounds and hounds were highly valued (the constellation of Hounds of Dogs, which remained in the sky with their master, Actaeon, is named after them).

In Rome, fighting dogs began to act as gladiators, competing alone with bulls, lions, elephants, and bears. Miniature decorative melites, which later became known as Maltese lapdogs, also became widespread there. The passion of matrons for dogs was so great that the emperors repeatedly condemned him, because, in their opinion, this prevented noble ladies from having children.

In the 1st century BC e. the first treatise on dogs known to us appears. In Marcus 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 references to 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 Pompeii, covered with ashes, 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 his master twice...

The goat was apparently the next most domesticated. It happened from 9 to 12 thousand years ago on the territory of modern Iran, Iraq, Palestine. Her wild ancestors were bezoar and markhorn goats. The goat was respected as a nurse (according to legend, the goat Amalthea nursed the baby Zeus), and the goat skin refers to the divine attire of Pallas Athena. Images of goats are also on the frescoes of Ancient Egypt. Not all the consequences of friendship with goats were predictable. The domestication of goats gave humans high-quality milk, wool, and leather, but also harmed their habitat. Where herds of goats graze for a long time, all vegetation disappears, and a desert sets in on a flowering land. Goats not only completely destroy the shoots - they even get to shallow seeds that could germinate in the coming rainy season. The soil exposed by goats is subject to erosion. Such a fate befell the plateaus of Castile, and 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 argali and mouflon sheep - first came to Persia, then to Mesopotamia. Already in the twentieth century. BC in Mesopotamia there were various breeds of sheep, one of which - a fine-fleeced sheep with horns twisted in a spiral - was widely distributed: merino sheep then became the pride of Spain. 7-12 thousand years ago, a cat appeared next to a person. Cats that settled near human habitation of their own free will are an exception among domestic animals.

It is generally accepted that the North African and Western Asian steppe buckskin cat, domesticated in Nubia about four thousand years ago, is considered the single ancestor of the domestic murka. From here, the domestic cat came to Egypt, later crossing in Asia with the forest Bengal cat. In Europe, fluffy aliens met with a local, wild European forest cat. The result of crossings is the modern variety of breeds and colors. Fossil remains of cats have been found in the Neolithic and Bronze Age layers of Asia Minor and in the Caucasus, Jordan and the cities of Ancient India. On the paintings in the tombs of Sakkarakh (2750-2650 BC), the cat is depicted with a collar, and on the fresco from Beni Hassan, in the house, next to the mistress. In Egypt, cats were in a special position among other deified animals. Their corpses were embalmed and buried in magnificent tombs in special cemeteries. They were considered the incarnation 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. e. In the 19th century, an enterprising merchant loaded a whole ship with them in Egypt and brought them to Manchester, thinking of selling them for fertilizer. The idea failed, and most of the mummies ended up in scientific collections. The law also protected the sacred animal: for the murder of a cat, severe punishment was threatened, up to the death penalty (Herodotus tells about the unfortunate Greek who unknowingly killed a cat). The export of cats abroad has long been prohibited. 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 the Phoenician merchants came to many parts of the Mediterranean, but until the beginning of AD. e. she was a rare and expensive animal. 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 nunneries they were generally the only animals that were allowed to be kept), 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, unfortunate animals were burned alive and buried in the ground, fried on iron rods and in cages with ritual ceremonies in front of crowds of believers. In Flanders, in the city of Ipern, Wednesday in the second week of Lent was called "cat's" - 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 inevitably have 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 the owners .

The "peers" of cats - by the time of taming - are geese. Geese were the first among birds to be domesticated: the wild gray species - in Europe, the Nile - in North Africa, the Siberian-Chinese - in China. Found drawings of the Nile goose, bred in Egypt in the 11th millennium BC. e.

In historical times, 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 e. sensitive birds, raising the alarm, helped to 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 the banking rooster. Chickens were bred both for eggs and meat, and for fights. Themistocles, going to war with the Persians, included cockfighting in the training program so that the soldiers, looking at the birds, learned from them stamina and courage. From the bold cocky birds the people of the Gauls got their name.

Buffaloes - the most valuable domestic animals in the countries of Southeast Asia - were tamed about 9 thousand years ago. Surprisingly unpretentious in food, indefatigable in work and immune to many diseases that are detrimental to other livestock, with the conquests of Islam, they were brought by the Arabs to Asia Minor and North Africa, from Egypt to East. The Arabs brought buffaloes to Sicily and northern Italy, and the Turks to the Balkans.

Approximately 8.5 thousand years ago, a cow was domesticated. This happened, according to different versions, on the territory of modern Turkey, in Spain, South Asia... Its wild ancestor tour was exterminated in the Middle Ages, and the cow, which spread around the world in antiquity, was everywhere 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 incarnation 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 religious overtones. And it is not for nothing that one of the epithets of the goddess Hera is “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 a person to farm.

Their analogue in South America was the llama and alpaca, tamed five to seven thousand years ago in Peru. Before the arrival of the Spaniards, llamas were the only transport animal 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. Alpaca is bred for its fine wool.

Pigs were domesticated 9,000 years ago in China and Southeast Asia, bred for meat and skins. Somewhat later, their images appear on the frescoes of Ancient Egypt. The pigs of those times are not like the pigs we are used to, but the current boars: sinewy, agile, 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. The ever-hungry pigs were a source of trouble in medieval cities. Their usual crime is infanticide. They were treated like criminals - they were arrested, kept in the city prison on an equal footing with people, tried, sentenced to hanging ... And the piglets were confiscated in favor of the court.

The first centers of domestication of the horse appeared 4 thousand years BC. e. Presumably, two types of wild horse 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, long facial part of the head and thin limbs. Domestic horses retained signs of wild ancestors for a long time. The peoples of the Ancient East were the first to improve horses. In the VII-VI centuries. BC e. The best in the world were the Nesean horses of the Persian kingdom.

The regions adjoining the Caspian Sea were famous for horse breeding. At the end of the first millennium BC. e. the glory of the Nesean horses was inherited by the horses of the Parthian kingdom, which was formed on the site of the northern provinces of Persia and Bactria. The Parthian horses of a golden-red color were stately and for those times high (one and a half meters), they became a desirable military prey of any state. Horse breeding in the forest belt of Eastern Europe was completely different in those days - here horses were used mainly for meat, their height was only 120-130 cm. In the 17th century BC. e. chariots appeared. Thanks to them, the Hyksos, alien tribes, conquered Egypt for a long time. Much later, cavalry appeared - armed horsemen in large combat formations (individual riders were much earlier), this happened at the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. e. at the Assyrians. Interestingly, at the beginning, the equestrian warrior, as in chariots, had a right-handed driver: in battle, he controlled two horses (his and his warrior), and the fighter at the same time freed both hands 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. The donkey's hooves are much stronger than those of the horse, and they do not need horseshoes even on stony and uneven mountainous soil. Donkeys were widely used as riding 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 was part of his intoxicated retinue along with the sileni and satyrs.

Originating 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 of a mass nature: it was a hobby for both feudal lords and commoners. There was a special table of ranks, prescribing who and with what bird to hunt. In England, stealing or killing someone else's falcon was punishable by death. Huge and majestic were the hunts of Genghis Khan, 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 travel tax from merchants in pigeons for falcons.

Actually, people domesticated pigeons about 6.5 thousand years ago (in Mesopotamia). Doves were often depicted in Assyrian bas-reliefs. In many countries, doves were sacred animals dedicated to the goddesses of love - Astarte, Aphrodite.

In ancient Rome, pigeons were bred for meat in special columbariums. Pliny the Elder wrote that his contemporaries were "obsessed with roast pigeons." But the main purpose of the dove is different. This is the only bird that faithfully serves as air mail, thanks to its ability to find its way to its native places.

Camels were domesticated 5000-6000 years ago: in Arabia - one-humped (dromedary), in Central and Central Asia - two-humped (Bactrian). In Egypt, a figurine of a loaded dromedary was found, which is over 5,000 years old. Apparently, the drawings depicting one-humped camels on the rocks of Aswan and Sinai are of the same age. In the literature, both camels were mentioned from 700-600 BC. e. 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 water and food for a long time.

Not left without pets and the north. Reindeer breeding 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 in its entirety, and not just the meat and skin. Everything went into food, up to young horns, tendons, bone marrow and larvae of the subcutaneous gadfly!

The same salvation in the mountains, steppes and semi-deserts of Tibet was the yak, tamed in the first millennium BC. e. From fat - twice as fat as cow's - milk, in addition to ordinary butter and cheese, they make special cottage cheese, which does not deteriorate for a long time and weighs almost nothing (which is very convenient for travelers). Wool and yak skins keep out the cold, and dried dung is often the only available fuel 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 drawing of the Paleolithic period more than 15 thousand years old. The systematic breeding of bees was started by the ancient Egyptians, and beekeeping in Egypt was nomadic: hives on rafts, as the medonium of wasp plants bloomed in the northern provinces of Egypt, slowly moved down the Nile. From the second millennium BC, the custom appeared in Assyria to cover the bodies of the dead with wax and immerse them in honey. The custom lasted for a long time - until Alexander the Great, whose body was also transported in a coffin, filled to the top with honey, to the place of his burial in Egypt. Judging by the frequency of references in 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, on the orders of Emperor Constantine VII, an encyclopedia on beekeeping, Geoponics, was compiled. Honey was practically the only raw material for the preparation of sweet dishes until the middle of the Middle Ages, and wax was used to make candles.

At the opposite end of Eurasia, they found a use for another insect - the silkworm butterfly. The first mention of silk is found in an ancient Chinese manuscript c. 2600 BC e. 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 BC. n. e. by a Chinese princess who married the king of Lesser Bukhara and brought him a gift of "silkworm eggs" hidden in her hair. It was not possible to breed silkworms outside of China. The second smuggling in 552 turned out to be more successful, when two monks carried cocoons in staffs and handed them to Emperor Justinian. Since that time, sericulture 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 in ancient Rome - there the animals were kept in special pens - leporaria. As everyone knows, a rabbit is "not only valuable fur." The Romans began to fatten them for meat (gourmets especially loved rabbit embryos and newborn rabbits). Rabbits were also valued in medieval Europe - for example, in England at the beginning of the 14th century. a rabbit cost as much as a pig. And already in ancient times, the rabbit began to cause a lot of trouble. In the Balearic archipelago, from a pair of rabbits released into the wild, such a large offspring occurred that the locals began to ask Emperor Augustus to help them cope with the scourge and send soldiers to fight the voracious little animals. Judging by Australia, "eaten" by rabbits already in modern times, this story did not teach anyone anything.

Several thousand years BC. e in the New World began the domestication of guinea pigs. It is likely that these animals themselves came to the human dwelling in search of protection and warmth. Among the Incas, pigs were sacrificial animals, which were brought as a gift to the god of the Sun, and were also eaten on holidays. Particularly popular were pigs with motley brown or white color. They were brought to Europe in the 16th century. They are now called "marine" rather by mistake - it is much more correct to call them "overseas".

Ostrich, for the sake of feathers and eggs, was domesticated five thousand years ago by the ancient Egyptians. Birds were kept in flocks 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 also began to be bred. For a long time, guinea fowl in Greece and Rome were only sacrificial birds. This continued until the emperor Caligula, who decided: as a sign of "divine majesty" to sacrifice guinea fowl to him - that is, to the table.

In the 5th century n. e. carp was bred from wild carp. In Europe, carps 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 were also such pets, whose functions were reduced to purely decorative. In the tenth century BC e. 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 as domestic animals such as thrushes, partridges, swans, storks, cranes, pelicans - 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 (lobes), where they were fattened with nuts. Their meat was valued as a great delicacy. It has long been the custom to put scales on the table at feasts, weigh the dormouse on them in the presence of a notary and record its weight in the protocol. Serve the most well-fed dormouse was a matter of prestige and pride of 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 prestige of the ruler). They even hunted with lions, although cheetahs were much more popular as hunters. In some places, with them, as well as with tamed much later - 1000-2000 years ago - caracals (large wild cats) are hunted now. The use of tamed cormorants dates back 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 the fish, after which the cormorant is released for fishing. In the last two centuries, attempts have been made to domesticate several more animals: elks, musk oxen, antelope; 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 have changed to the greatest extent in animals whose living conditions are very different from wild habitat conditions (cattle, pigs, sheep, horses) and to a lesser extent in animals such as camels and reindeer, whose living conditions are in captivity. close to natural. The so-called protective coloration has disappeared; pets have a variety of colors. Compared to wild ones, they have a lighter skeleton, weaker bones, and thinner skin. The internal organs have also undergone changes. In many domestic animals, the lungs, heart, and kidneys are less developed, but the mammary glands and reproductive organs function better than in wild ones (domestic animals, as a rule, are more prolific), and seasonality in reproduction has disappeared in many of them. 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 under 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. Mankind would develop differently if its path did not cross with the paths 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 of such a simple insect species as bees on Earth would greatly change the way of life of a person.

We tried to tame some animals and failed. There are several reasons for this. Most of the time this is because some animals are so wary of humans that they will run away if you look at them. Others are simply too aggressive to be domesticated as they may attack or even kill the breeder.

There is also a separate category of animals that are classified as tamed, but not domesticated. Such animals were bred to obey and tolerate humans, this is not enough for the animal to be considered domesticated. Tamed animals retain wild instincts, and they can quickly demonstrate their wild nature.

10. Zebra

In the 19th and 20th centuries, as they moved deeper into Africa, the colonists faced the problem of transportation. Their horses were prone to various diseases, and it was not easy to bring new horses from Europe. To solve this problem, the colonists turned their attention 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 were 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 and therefore very difficult to catch. If this succeeds, then the animal will kick and bite in an attempt to free itself. Although the colonists managed to capture a few zebras, they quickly realized that these animals were smaller than horses and were uncomfortable to ride. In addition, zebras do not like to be ridden and become aggressive after a while, even after being tamed.

The aggressive nature of the zebra is due to its evolution. It shares habitat with predators such as lions, crocodiles, hyenas, leopards and humans. This would be a major problem for humans if these predators were attracted to the 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 to be kept in captivity died within hours. The longest time that this animal lasted in captivity was 16 days.

Caught great white sharks also like to bang their heads against the glass walls of the aquarium. One shark kept at the Okinawa Churaumi Japanese Aquarium kept banging its head against a glass wall until it died. Another shark at California's Monterey Bay Aquarium kept banging its head against the glass wall and attacking two other sharks until it was released.

Great white sharks do not do well in captivity for several reasons. Firstly, they are real travelers and are able to surf entire 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

Dingoes are dog-like animals native to Australia. Despite their resemblance to dogs, they are not dogs and are not domesticated. Australian farmers even consider them pests. Interestingly, thousands of years ago, people seem to have already partially domesticated dingoes before the animals returned to the wild.

There is a slight difference in how we tamed dogs and how we tamed dingoes. Although dogs are considered companions, the early Indigenous Australians - who probably domesticated the dingo - viewed them as a source of food. Also, Indigenous Australians did not breed animals based on their favorable characteristics.

7. Moose

Centuries ago, when horse cavalry still existed, King Charles XI of Sweden decided that he needed a more ferocious animal to replace horses. One that only by its appearance will make enemy horses flee from the battlefield. He opted for the moose. 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 exacerbated during the mating season, when the animal cannot control aggression. In addition, the elk is susceptible to diseases, and its diet is too varied, which is difficult to provide in captivity.

In addition, moose are very smart and avoid the battlefield. When they approached the battlefield, they ran away at the moment when they killed another elk. Attempts to use elk meat for food also failed. 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 Kostroma elk farm in Kostroma continues the project to domesticate the elk. 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 it was revived by Nikita Khrushchev when he wanted to start using moose meat for food. This also failed and several moose farms closed. However, the Kostroma elk farm operates, and they are still trying to tame elk. Now the company mainly produces moose milk.

6. Raccoon

The raccoon is an excellent candidate for domestication. These animals are skilled climbers and can get into tight spaces, making them excellent working animals. If domesticated, they will be very useful for the elderly and the disabled. However, they cannot be used as working animals as they have not been domesticated.

Despite their cuteness, 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. They usually need to be supervised at all times and bite when they are hungry or angry. The bite can be fatal because raccoons can infect humans with rabies.

Since raccoons can use their hands like humans do, they tend to open everything they can. Besides, they're just experts at escaping. In fact, this is the main reason why attempts at domestication have failed. In addition, they like 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 domesticate them again have been 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 normal dog.

There is also evidence that we tried to domesticate foxes long before the Yagan dog, but abandoned them for cats. The cats were chosen because we didn't know how foxes could be useful. Foxes are difficult to tame because of their incredible stubbornness. Russian geneticist Dmitry Konstantinovich Belyaev tried to change that in the 1950s when he started a project to domesticate silver foxes. Silver foxes are actually red foxes suffering from melanism - a disorder opposite to albinism - which is why the animal's fur takes on such a color.

Four generations later, foxes behaved like dogs. They developed a love for people, wagging their tails and licking their breeders. Fifty generations later, they bark, respond to people, and understand gestures. They also make sounds that are different from those made by wild foxes. The project is ongoing and considered a success. However, foxes are tamed, but not domesticated.

4. Elephant

Asian elephants are not considered domestic animals despite being captured and trained for 3,000 years. Rather, they can be classified as domesticated or wild animals. Captured and trained Asian elephants are not considered pets as they are not selectively bred.

"Selective breeding" means that individuals select offspring to breed based on certain favorable traits. To be domesticated, it will need to be selectively bred up to 12 generations. By the 12th generation, the animals should be genetically distinct from their wild ancestors and be considered domesticated.

In general, captured Asian elephants are not selectively bred. (Only a few have been selectively bred for more than two generations.) This makes them wild animals. They let people ride them just because they are trained. However, they are like any wild animal, which makes them unpredictable.

3. Bonobo

Bonobos are different from the 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 started about two million years ago when the Congo River formed in Africa. As a result, the ancestors of bonobos and chimpanzees who lived there split up. The primates north of the river evolved to become bigger and more aggressive because they had to compete for food with the big gorillas.

On the other side of the river were the primates who were to become bonobos. They had more than enough food, but the gorillas didn't. The females became picky and began to choose which males to mate with. Aggressive males died out because females preferred softer males.

2 Hippo

People have wisely decided to stay away from the hippopotamus, 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 human and a hippo is likely to end badly for the human. Hippos are big and incredibly fast. Despite their enormous weight, they can reach speeds of up to 48 kilometers per hour. Usain Bolt, the world's fastest man, can barely run 45 kilometers per hour.

However, there have been independent attempts to domesticate hippos. As expected, these efforts ended badly. In 2011, Marius Els, a South African farmer and army officer, was killed by a five-year-old 1.2-tonne hippo 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 didn't think Els was the father because the animal killed the man in the same river they swam in.

Prior to Els' murder, where they lived, Humphrey was known as a local terrorist. One day, a hippopotamus chased a man and his grandson and chased them up a tree after the two canoed down a river that ran past Els' farm. Humphrey was also notorious for killing calves and stalking golfers on a nearby golf course.

1. Coyote

All attempts to domesticate coyotes have failed because they avoid humans. Breeders are also wary of these animals because they can suffer from 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 away 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 domesticate coyotes have ended in a coyote attacking the breeder. This is because a coyote that lives close to a human may begin to view the human as prey and will look for the best time to attack. Interestingly, coyotes are gradually being domesticated. This happens naturally, just as it probably did with bonobos.

The history of pets dates back to the Stone Age. The process of domestication of wild animals is carried out by crossing certain species in order to achieve in the offspring the conditioned traits necessary for people. Individuals for this are selected according to certain characteristics. Particularly relevant in artificial, selective selection is the absence or significant decrease in aggression in an animal towards people and individuals of its own species. This maximally contributes to the so-called taming of the instincts of wild animals.

The purpose of domesticating a wild animal is to use it in agricultural activities, or to settle at home as a family friend, pet. If such a problem is solved, then this means that the animal has become completely domestic. 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 components of the breeds also change.

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 tame crocodiles, or, for example, cave bears. But to domesticate an animal is still something more. In fact, there are about 25 species of domesticated animals.

First of all, in order to domesticate a wild animal, it is necessary to create comfortable conditions for the reproduction of future offspring. Then you need to do the selection, thereby leaving the most developed individuals, so that after hundreds of years you can get a real pet. There are examples from antiquity, when wild cheetahs were kept in captivity at the palaces of kings. For example, the great conqueror Genghis Khan had a tamed cheetah. But it was not really possible to domesticate these individuals.
- Wolf and dog
The first domesticated wild animal is considered to be the wolf. This beast became a companion of people in the Stone Age. It is genetically proven that the lineage of wolves began in South Asia. So, after many centuries, a dog appeared. The calculations and data of scientists suggest that the wolf and the dog finally separated 12 thousand years ago. The first ever documentary proof of the friendship between a man and a domestic dog was found in a French rocky cave. It was the footprint of a wolf and the footprint of a child. These finds are 10,000 years old.
- Sheep, goats
Also, for ten thousand years, human contact with these animals has continued. As a result of crossbreeding and selection of mountain sheep, people have reproduced more than a hundred species of domestic sheep. The current goats originated from the bearded mountain goat that lived in southern Europe and Asia. People managed to get a wide variety of breeds of these animals. There are Angora goats with fine wool, Swiss, Cameroonian. The most useful domesticated animal for humans was the tour, a distant ancestor of the cows we know.
- buffalo
The ancient buffalo was a rather dangerous and scary beast. This animal became domestic 7 thousand years ago. In southern countries, its traction power, the value of meat, warm skins are well applied.
- Horse
The ancestor of the domestic horse was the tarpan. He was found in the fields of Eurasia. The horse was tamed 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 settled way of life, people began to be accompanied by a cat. She loved the leftover food in the first human settlements and barns. The history of the domestic cat begins in the East. All cats now living on earth are direct descendants of several species of Libyan and Nubian wild cats. Currently, 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. Around the same time, ducks were domesticated in China and Europe. And in hot Africa, guinea fowls were tamed.
Experiments in the history of pets have always taken place, and are ongoing to this day. Selection work is carried out with some breeds of antelopes, deer, minks, sables and many other furry 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 pets tamed by him. It is his sacred duty to take care of, 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 spread. Man cultivated plants and tamed animals for food and other needs; for many people, animals became pets.

Domestication is the domestication of wild species. tamed for wool, milk, eggs and meat, or to work on farms. Today, there are a huge number of tamed animals that were domesticated at different times and for different purposes. Your attention is presented to tamed animals, which we used to consider as pets and have already forgotten that they were once wild.

Dogs: from 12000 liters. BC.

john malley

One of the first domesticated animals were their descendants of the dog. The earliest known evidence of a domesticated dog is its jawbone found in a cave in Iraq. It differs from the wolf in that it has smaller jaws and teeth. Selective breeding affects species quite quickly, and it is a natural process for humans, but it is likely that the first cases of domestication occurred by accident, and not intentionally.

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 from the same period even gave advice on the color of the dog: shepherd dogs should be white (to distinguish them from wolves in the dark), but farm dogs should be black (to frighten thieves).

Sheep and goats, pigs and cows: 9000-7000l. BC.

Bibrak Qamar

Soon after dogs, among the domesticated 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 settled communities. According to historical data, the pig was first domesticated in China. During their lifetime, 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); fat for tallow candles; hooves for glue.

Ox and buffalo: from 4000 l. BC.

Jennifer McLeod

Of the four major agricultural animal groups, cattle represent the most significant development in village life. The brute strength of an ox is an excellent addition to the muscular strength of a man. At first they carried sledges, a little later, plows and wheeled carts (almost simultaneously in the Middle East and Europe). In India and Southeast Asia, buffalo were used as cargo animals.

Cats: from 3000 liters. BC.

Tambako The Jaguar

Cats have been kept away from people for a long time. Their solitary lifestyle (not herd or group) helped a lot in this. Cats were attracted to the food and shelter they could find in human settlements. Once domesticated, cats quickly spread and increased in number 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 the folk stories of different peoples, the cat was a natural companion of man.

Horses: from 3000l. BC.

Moyan Brenn

Humans gained their most important ally in the animal kingdom when they domesticated the horse. Wild horses of various kinds 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 were found in the Americas, but they have since become extinct on that continent.

The original purpose of domesticating horses, like cattle, was to obtain a reliable source of meat and milk, and 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 l. BC.

Rinaldo R

Almost at the same time as the domestication of the wild horse comes the domestication of the donkey. They are often mentioned in such two ancient civilizations as Mesopotamia and Egypt.

Camels: 3000-1500 hp BC.

Renzo Ottaviano

As beasts of burden and transport, camels occupy an important place along with horses and donkeys. The two smallest members of the camel family, the llama and the alpaca, were domesticated primarily in South America. This saved both species from complete extinction. Neither the llama nor the alpaca currently exist in the wild.

In the scorched regions of North Africa and Asia, two different species of camel become 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.

1967

About 2000 years ago, wild birds of the jungle began to be tamed 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 elephants began to be trained for war, but there is a large amount of evidence that they were a valuable military force in India and North Africa. The ability to learn tricks also makes elephants popular animals in the Roman circus.

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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.

Geneticists have found that the first wolves were domesticated in South Asia. The oldest find, indicating the domestication of the wolf, is a skull found in the Goyet cave in Belgium, its age is 31,700 years, the age of the remains found in the Chauvet cave in France is somewhat less than 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 reserves stored in barns from rats and mice.

flickr/cat woman of 3

The first occurred in the Middle East, by domesticating a wild Nubian (Middle Eastern) cat. Millions of cats living in our time can "boast" of their Middle Eastern origins.

Almost as long (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 appeared, vaguely resembling their wild and ancient progenitor.

Around the same period, the first appeared, descended from a 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 do not have a common genetic root. The first domestic horses were kept by people for meat, milk and skins. We saddled the horse much later.

The first pigs were domesticated about 7 thousand years ago (from some sources - possibly earlier) and they originated from a wild pig (lat. Sus scrofa). It spread mainly in East Asia, in the countries of the West and in Oceania, where it became the main source of meat and fat.

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 (approximately 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 was domesticated (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 indispensable draft force.

It was previously believed that the first domesticated chickens appeared in India around 2,000 years ago, but more recent studies have shown that the first chickens were domesticated in Southeast Asia and China around 6,000-8,000 years ago. And there was a domestic chicken from a wild banking chicken (lat. Gallus gallus) native to Asia.

The goose is considered one of the oldest poultry and was domesticated quite early (more than 3-4 thousand years ago) in ancient China. Its ancestor is the wild gray goose (lat. anser anser). New breeds of domestic goose were bred 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 a wild common duck, or mallard (lat. Anas platyryncha). Domestication of ducks took place very quickly.

The bee was domesticated by humans about 5,000 years ago. Since those ancient times, people have been using bee products: honey, wax, poison, propolis, perga, 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. It was domesticated by man in China around 3000 BC. Sericulture is the most important industry in China, breeding silkworms to produce silk.