The Domestication Of Animals

 by Siha Hoque

It is very common for humans to coexist with animals, a variety of them have become treasured within households due to their good natured behaviour, enjoyable companionship and their endearing looks. However, in some cases these animals can be traced back to prehistoric times, their ancestors depicted with unexpectedly wild characteristics that have been filtered out of their anatomy and psychology by domestication. Cats, for instance, originated from the intimidatingly large predatory Proailurus, yet are now most commonly seen within households or harmlessly in the streets. 

Domestication occurs when an animal is removed from their original environment (where they have evolved to have characteristics compatible with) and is placed with or around humans, adapting over time to form an inherited predisposition towards humans, or the capability to live alongside or work with them. This can often result in major physical changes due to genetic adaptation which occurs over numerous generations. Humans have been manipulating animal’s characteristics for their own benefits since the dawn of civilization. Once we settled into farming lifestyles, we began looking for and cultivating the animals that made the most milk or gave us the most meat or grew the thickest fleeces - selectively breeding those who possessed the genes for these qualities. There are three types of domestication: companionship, farming or work/draft.

There are several ‘pathways’ or domestication methods in which an animal can be permanently altered to tolerate and enjoy the presence of humans. These pathways are: commensalism, predation and direct pathways. Commensalism is a type of symbiosis (long-term relationship between two differing species). In this case, one species benefits from the relationship and the other is left with no gains or losses. An example of this is the remora fish, which relies on other larger animals to help them travel long distances and for food; and therefore can use a sucker on their bodies to stick onto them. The predation pathway refers to how humans, starting off with hunting certain animals (sheep, cows, pigs - which now form our main livestock), then managing them, followed by starting to find methods of selectively breeding them and then therefore building up the desired traits within those species. The direct pathway of domestication is fully deliberate; involving intentionally capturing animals and breeding them, typically so their characteristics are best suited for labour, such as horses for pulling carriages. 

Dogs are the first animals to be domesticated - and a great example of animals domesticated for work and companionship. They descended from a now extinct subspecies of wolf (the Late Pleistocene Wolf which lived from 56,000 to 7,500 years ago), creatures that are far less gentle natured and adapted to an extreme lifestyle of hunting and living in rural areas. There are many potential reasons for how dogs became the animals we are used to seeing in our everyday lives, some theories being that they had scavenged human waste/dump sites thousands of years ago and grown accustomed to us, or that neanderthals shared their extra food with them - a commensalistic pathway. Another is that we began to use them to help us hunt, in return sharing our food and resources with them, and therefore building up their tolerance with humans. 

Overall, the domestication of animals has resulted in numerous advantages and disadvantages for all involved species. The negatives include the spread of diseases from one species to another has increased, and that in some cases, such as dogs, they lose their ability to adapt to environments due to relying on us for food and shelter. However, some of the positives are the stable food supply, and the many mental and physical wellbeing improvements the companionship of pets offer.