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Apr 3, 2024 · Powered by. Article. Vocabulary. Domestication is the process of adapting wild plants and animals for human use. Domestic species are raised for food, work, clothing, medicine, and many other uses. Domesticated plants and animals must be raised and cared for by humans. Domesticated species are not wild. Plant Domestication.
- Overview
- The domestication process
- Domestic vs. tame
Domestic animals such as dogs, cats, and cattle have been genetically adapted over generations to live alongside humans.
Domesticated animals are animals that have been selectively bred and genetically adapted over generations to live alongside humans. They are genetically distinct from their wild ancestors or cousins.
Animal domestication falls into three main groupings: domestication for companionship (dogs and cats), animals farmed for food (sheep, cows, pigs, turkeys, etc.), and working or draft animals (horses, donkeys, camels).
Animals that make good candidates for domestication typically share certain traits:
Domestication happens through selective breeding. Individuals that exhibit desirable traits are selected to be bred, and these desirable traits are then passed along to future generations.
Wolves were the first animal to be domesticated, sometime between 33,000 and 11,000 years ago. After domesticated dogs came the domestication of livestock animals, which coincided with a widespread shift from foraging to farming among many cultures.
Because most major acts of domestication began before recorded history, we don’t know much about the exact process behind the generations-long journey from wild animal to domesticated pet or livestock. What is clear is that the ancestors of domesticated animals must have already exhibited traits that made them somehow useful to humans—traits that may have ranged from tasty meat to warm coats to a natural affinity for people.
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A History of Dogs 101
A 2017 study found evidence that early dog-like wolves were indeed genetically disposed to be friendly. That friendliness may have triggered the first mutually beneficial relationships between humans and dogs, in which people gave dogs food or shelter in exchange for the animals’ service as guards or hunting companions. Other genetic evidence has been discovered to support a similar “self-domestication” theory for cats.
Domestication is not the same as taming. A domestic animal is genetically determined to be tolerant of humans. An individual wild animal, or wild animal born in captivity, may be tamed—their behavior can be conditioned so they grow accustomed to living alongside humans—but they are not truly domesticated and remain genetically wild.
Captive Asian elephants, for example, are often misinterpreted as domesticated, because they have been kept by humans for thousands of years. However, the majority have historically been captured from the wild and tamed for use by humans. Although then can breed in captivity, like big cats and other wild animals, they are not selectively bred, largely because of their long reproductive cycle. For this reason, there are no domesticated breeds of Asian elephants: They remain wild animals.
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May 10, 2024 · domestication, the process of hereditary reorganization of wild animals and plants into domestic and cultivated forms according to the interests of people. In its strictest sense, it refers to the initial stage of human mastery of wild animals and plants.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Jul 17, 2023 · Domestication is a process, says Sarah Crowley. She studies the relationship between humans and animals at the University of Exeter in England. And it’s a process that many familiar animals have undergone. These include dogs, of course, as well as cats, sheep, cattle, pigs and goats.
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Jan 27, 2019 · David Wilmot. By. K. Kris Hirst. Updated on January 27, 2019. Animal domestication is what scholars call the millennia-long process that created the mutually beneficial relationship that exists today between animals and humans.
Domestication is a multi-generational mutualistic relationship in which an animal species, such as humans or leafcutter ants, takes over control and care of another species, such as sheep or fungi, so as to obtain from them a steady supply of resources, such as meat, milk, or labor.
Over time, some animals become gentler and submit to human instruction -- what's called domestication. In this process, an entire animal species evolves to become naturally accustomed to living among and interacting with humans.
