The Day Humans First Domesticated Animals The Dawn of Domestication Early Humans Documentary

The world over, certain animal species are being used by human beings in a multitude of different ways. Hooved mammals have been used as beasts of burden on farms. Some bird species are used for their eggs. And we keep a multitude of different creatures as pets. Everything from fish to dogs. Animals are also eaten by the human race. And specific breeds are developed for their tastes. Now you'll notice, not all of these animals exist in flourishing populations in the wild. It's not a common sight to see huge populations of wild horses anymore. Nor do you see packs of domestic dogs hunting prey in the wild. Many of these creatures are a product of human domestication. A process which started thousands of years ago. In today's video, we will be exploring the domestication of several different species. Focusing mainly on domesticated species that are common across the world today. We will go in chronological order, starting with the domestication of the dog, and ending with llamas and alpacas. The stories that take place between the domestication of these two species spans over 10,000 years. And will take us across the whole world in the process. We'll take a look at how these animals were domesticated. Where and when the domestication first took place. As well as the reasons for the domestication in the first place. Sit back and relax, as we take a journey through time to explore the earliest domestication of animals. Before we start examining individual domesticated animals, it's important to understand how animals actually come to be domesticated. There are certain routes towards domestication that animals tend to follow. Based on their behavior, or the nature of the humans that lived around the initial wild species. Three distinct pathways have been proposed, as to how domesticated animals came to be. Which we'll go into now. Many animals that are consumed for food in the modern day, were first domesticated by following the prey pathway. For example, let's take animals such as cows and pigs. Their ancient descendants were actively hunted by early humans. And the domestication pathway likely started when early humans across Europe and Asia, began to switch up their hunting strategies to target more individual animals. The movements of these hoved mammals, were likely controlled by early humans. Grouping creatures together in specific populations. For animals that were receptive to this control, the process became more and more intense. To the point where they actually began to rely on humans. Early humans may have brought these prey animals food, to keep them in one area. And certain traits shown in the prey animals, such as non-aggression, may have been passed down via selected and favorable breeding. Over time, the creature's physical appearances would have changed as a result of this control. And to cut a long story short, a new domestic species arose. Creatures such as dogs have followed what has become known as the commensal pathway. As early wolves, for example, began to on food scraps left around human settlements. Relationships built on companionship were formed between the two species. As these creatures became tamer, humans could more easily control what they ate, how they behaved, and how they lived. Over time, selective breeding completes the process, and we have the domesticated species we know today. Finally, we have the directed pathway. Essentially, this is the process followed when humans target an animal for a specific purpose. Domestication does not happen through a result of hunting, nor by chance, but by desire. The horse is a good example. A large, bulky animal, perfect for farm work or for transportation. Similar processes of isolation, selection, and control are implemented for these creatures. But it is often a longer process, as many directed domestications involve animals unlikely to have possessed the behavioral adaptations necessary for success. It's important to note that these processes, and the animals involved, aren't mutually exclusive. Some creatures most likely followed a combination of two paths, or even all three. Domestication is a long process, and it's hard to associate just one type of domestication with an animal. Today, over 300 distinct breeds of dog are recognized, and an estimated 470 million domestic dogs are kept as pets worldwide. We use these creatures for companionship, for hunting, for show, as guides, and even for security purposes. The term man's best friend is not just a coincidence. The dog was the earliest animal to become domesticated by humans, a process which is thought to have taken place across Asia and Europe in and around 13,000 BCE. Modern domestic dogs are descended from Pleistocene populations of gray wolves, and followed the commensal pathway of domestication. Wolves would wander around the outskirts of human settlements, towards the end of the Pleistocene Epoch, where they would subsist on scraps of food discarded by humans. At one point, humans would begin to feed the dogs intentionally, realizing the benefits of having them around, and thus one of the most perfect symbiotic relationships of all time was born. While dogs were once used to aid humans in their efforts to survive the Ice Age, modern humans have taken domestication to a diverse, but often dangerous new level. Many breeds of domestic dog are prone to health issues, as a result of interbreeding to achieve a certain appearance or feature. Take pugs for example. Their squashed skulls and mangled jaws present numerous musculoskeletal issues for the dogs throughout their lives, which raises a whole host of ethical questions surrounding their ownership and continued breeding. Around 10,000 BCE, the first goats were descended from populations of Ibexes, native to what is now Turkey and Iran. Initially herded and bred for their milk, meat, and skin, domesticated goats actually had a handful of more obscure uses to the early humans who domesticated them. Their dung provided useful manure for domesticated plants. Their remains could have provided house insulation and weaponry. And further down the line, goats were used as a means of clearing land and controlling farming areas. Modern goats are among the most commonly domesticated species across the world, whose appearances are characterized by their curved horns and beard-like fur tufts beneath the chin, the former of which has actually led to them becoming revered guard animals. Today, over 300 distinct goat breeds exist, from the tiny Nigerian dwarf to the bulky boar goat. Many goats haven't changed too much from the Ibexes that preceded them. Although large numbers of breeds possess atrophied horns, the general size and form of the ancestral species is still very easy to recognize. The domestication of the pig took some trial and error. It's no secret that modern domesticated pigs are descended from populations of wild boar, a species of large forest-dwelling swine found across Eurasia. But the tale of how they came to be isn't so familiar. The first pigs were actually domesticated twice, once in Turkey and once in China. But these aren't the pigs you'll find on modern-day European farms. Although Western Europe received its first domesticated pigs from the area which is now Turkey, the western populations of wild boar soon overtook the eastern traded ones. When humans from the west began domesticating their own boars. Of course, boars from both west and east will have contributed to the genetics of the pigs you find in the modern day. But for a long time, there were very distinct pig genomes in Europe and Asia. Today, there are hundreds of different pig breeds, used for a number of different purposes. The obvious one is food. Pork, bacon, ribs, and gammon are all made from domesticated pigs. But humans, both past and present, have used pigs for a multitude of different tasks. Truffle harvesting is a suid specialty. Pigs' senses of smell allow them to locate truffles, a type of fungi used in many different dishes, hidden up to three feet under the ground. That's not all though. Pigs throughout history have been used for fighting, racing, and for their skin, which is subsequently made into leather. But pigs have proven useful far into the future. Modern pigs are used both as pets and for research, the latter of which has taught scientists a great deal about their high intelligence. No matter where you live in the world, it's likely that if you take a drive out into the country, it won't be long before you encounter a field of sheep. They're one of the most numerous domesticated animals, and their earliest domestication can be traced back to around 9000 BCE in what is now modern-day Turkey and Iran. Early humans domesticated the modern sheep from the mouflon, a species of wild hoofed mammal known for its thick fur and long curved horns. The primary reason for the domestication was wool. Sheep wool provided excellent insulation for early humans out on the freezing steppes of Europe and Asia, and their skins would have been perfect for the lining of shelters and tents. Early sheep were favored for their thick coats and would have been selectively bred over time to gradually form into the widespread woolly creatures we know today. Before humans domesticated the sheep, the wild mouflons of Eurasia would have simply shed their coats in the summer, growing a new one closer to wintertime. But humans altered this process greatly. Sheep rely heavily on human interaction to shear them, just one result of the selective breeding pressure implemented on them over time. Today, more than 200 breeds exist, from the cute valley blacknose sheep to the bizarre four-horned manx lochtan. The domestic cow and the domestic zebu are actually descended from two different subspecies of the same extinct animal, the aurochs. The former is descended from the Eurasian aurochs, and the latter descended from the Indian aurochs. Both modern animals were domesticated around 8000 BCE and are used extensively for their meat, milk, leather, dung, and strength. But for those of you outside Asia, it's much more common to see cattle than it is a zebu. Why is this? Well, it's all to do with where the creatures were domesticated. The Eurasian cattle was first domesticated in Central and Western Asia, and were quickly introduced to Europe during the Neolithic Age. As a result, the cattle ended up being the first choice for the Europeans. And when the Americas were settled, they brought the cows with them. Today, vast fields of cows stretch across the countrysides of the Americas, Europe, Oceania, and parts of Asia, with an estimated 1 billion individuals across the world altogether. The zebu, meanwhile, number 200 million, and are centralized mainly in India, where they were domesticated. But scattered populations reside in Africa and Southeast Asia. Additionally, zebus were imported into Brazil at the start of the 20th century, where they have thrived in the intense heat. Some of the most familiar animalian faces on the globe are cats. Like dogs, they make extremely popular pets, with an estimated 220 million individuals cared for across the world. Unbelievably, an additional 480 million stray cats wander the world's cities and streets. Feral individuals descended from domestic populations, who avoid human contact. But how did cats come to be? Well, between 7,500 BCE and 8,000 BCE, populations of humans in Western Asia began to tame North African wildcats. This happened through one of two means. Either the humans specifically selected the friendliest and tamest cats, and coaxed them into forming breeding populations. Or like their distant cousins the dogs, they spent time feeding on scraps around human settlements, and eventually integrated. In these early days, however, they weren't just cuddly pets. Cats were at one point commonly used for their meat, furs, and even pest control purposes, keeping rodents and birds away from human food storage areas. Hundreds of chicken breeds exist in the modern day, and some of them are almost unrecognizable, as the plump little farmyard birds we know and love. An astounding 19 billion individuals are estimated to be living in the world at any given time. And under pork, chicken meat is the most commonly eaten animal flesh in the world. Around 6,000 BCE, modern chickens were domesticated in India from the Indian red jungle fowl, a species of striking game bird which bears great resemblance to the classic depiction of the rooster. Many chicken breeds haven't strayed too far from the path when it comes to appearance, who around the time of domestication began congregating around farmers' rice fields, picking at the crops and their seeds. Fast forward several thousand years into the future, and chickens are used for innumerable purposes. Meat and eggs are the big two, but chickens are also favored for their skin, feathers, and dung. Some breeds also make excellent guard animals, preventing pests and thieves alike from stealing from humans. On a shadier note, many chickens are used for fighting, with large sums of money placed on potential winners. Research, pest control, and shows are all other chicken domestication purposes, but some people simply like them for their company. Many are kept as pets. All living donkeys can trace their family trees back to the African wild ass, a species of wild horse native to various regions around the Horn of Africa. It was the ancient Nubians that first domesticated the donkey in what is now modern-day Egypt and Sudan. While the first donkeys were domesticated by early humans for their meat and milk, new technologies allowed donkeys to prove invaluable in assisting with work on farms, mills, and plow required manpower to run, manpower that could have been completed by another creature entirely. The first plows, for example, were simple wooden devices pulled by a donkey at the front and guided by a human at the back. A thin ridge would typically have been dug into the ground by a blade at the back of the plow, in which the human guiding the donkey would have sown seeds. Cows and horses were also used in this practice, but even in the modern day, rural communities rely on these sturdy equines for plowing their fields. Donkeys were first domesticated around 5000 BCE, and while common on farms across the world, huge feral populations persist in the wilds of Asia and Africa. Their ancestral relatives are pushed closer and closer towards impending extinction. The African wild ass is now sadly critically endangered. Ducks are some of nature's most charming and charismatic birds. Over 130 species exist in the wild today, but surprisingly only around 20 domestic breeds have been established. Two very different duck species were domesticated to lead to the iconic farmyard birds we see today. The ubiquitous mallard, common across almost the entire world, and the strange red-faced muscovy duck, native to South and Central America. A huge time difference spans the two species. The mallard, responsible for the common white domesticated ducks, was first domesticated in China around 4000 BCE. It wasn't until 700 BCE that the muscovy duck first became domesticated in South America, however, and has typically changed much less than its mallard cousins. Ducks were first domesticated for a myriad of reasons. Meat and eggs are the obvious ones, but surprisingly ducks do make good guard animals. In the modern day, while duck is still a commonly eaten dish, many people prefer to use them as pets, or for show. The mallard of East Asia were the first ducks to become domesticated, who like the chickens we met earlier, likely spent a lot of time wandering around the rice paddy farms manned by humans, where they would have been able to feed on excess food and seed produced by the farmers. As the ducks spent more and more time around their human hosts, it is likely that the humans developed a taste for them too, where they began to tame and breed them in huge numbers. Muscovy ducks, on the other hand, were domesticated for their strong-tasting meat, often held in higher regard than the flesh of the domesticated mallard. Similar to the domestication of the duck, both extant species of camel have been domesticated, the single-humped dromedary and the double-humped bactrian. Also like the ducks, one species was way ahead of the other when it came to domestication, the dromedary. Initially domesticated in Arabia in 4000 BCE for their meat and milk, the locals of desert settlements taming camels soon began to utilize them for their transport properties. Often referred to as the ships of the desert, many people in Northern Africa and Western Asia continue to camels as a means of transport, an alternative to the horses used in the North and the East. Since their domestication, camels have been used as racing animals, a leading sport in some regions of Western Asia. One bull racing camel was once sold for the It's a profitable industry indeed. Bactrians on the other hand appeared on the domestic scene much later. Wild Bactrians, now critically endangered, are a much more northerly camel species, and were first domesticated around 2400 BCE in what is now Afghanistan, As well as meat and transport, Bactrian camels were commonly used as pack animals, helping nomadic peoples of Central Asia to transport their belongings across distant lands. As both Bactrian and dromedary caravans traveled great distances, camels were spread across Eastern Europe and Southern Asia, where their genetic diversity increased. Today there is even a feral population of dromedary camels living in Australia, a population that were imported from Northwest India in the late 1800s. There is no domesticated insect quite like the bee, which was first brought into human hands in roughly 4000 BCE from a population of wild Western honeybees living in Europe. It is hard to tell where the first bees were domesticated from, but it would seem that Western European regions, such as the lands now comprising Italy, Germany, Greece, and even the UK, played their parts in the process. Eastern Europe and North Africa also seem to have domesticated bees early on in human history, each of them domesticating different subspecies of the Western honeybee, depending on which insects were common in their respective areas. Beehives, or apiaries, were set up initially to attract bees to human settlements, so colonies could thrive centralized around a queen bee. From there, the bees would gradually begin to build up reserves of wax and honey, materials which were then stolen by the humans keeping them. There is some debate as to whether or not the bee has been domesticated at all in fact. It is proposed that humans merely managed the insects, which would be self-sufficient with or without the aid of humans. Bees have been more closely involved with humans over the years than you might think. There are even examples of ancient cave paintings, which depict these winged stinging insects swarming around honeycombs and hives, and honey was likely consumed from wild beehives long before the bee was officially domesticated. Few animals are as synonymous with human history as the horse. They are graceful, powerful, and speedy, providing excellent ground coverage on the battlefield and racing tracks alike. Horses can be found all over the world, but the first horses are thought to have become domesticated in what is now Kazakhstan around 3500 BCE. These horses were targeted specifically for domestication by the humans living in those areas, likely from a population of wild horse, possibly the tarpan, an extinct horse population from the Russian steppe. Many horse breeds look very similar to their wild ancestors, their long legs and muscular bodies having already provided an excellent form for the function humans desired of them. Although horse meat is eaten, it is not the most common reason these animals are domesticated. Horses living among human populations have served as mounts, having been used in battle from ancient times right up to the modern day. Horse hair and skin has been harvested in the past. Their manure was used for fertilizing crops, and like their cousins the donkeys, they are used in farm work. More specifically, horses are bred for racing, as pack animals, for sporting purposes, the means of controlling lawns and weeds, and for pets. Humans from Eurasia brought horses with them to the Americas when they first settled the West, and these lightning-fast hoved animals are synonymous with the continent's histories. To this day, in the United States alone, around 40,000 feral mustang horses thunder across the plains and hills of the nation's expansive countryside. We often think quite lowly of pigeons, rats with wings, that disgrace our cities and towns with their droppings, mangled appearances and general filth. That might be the case now, but believe it or not, pigeons were once held in extremely high regard. Domesticated from a population of rock dove around 3000 BCE around the Mediterranean, pigeons were used for a multitude of different reasons when they were first brought into human hands. As with nearly all domesticated animals, their meat was favored, but pigeons have many other human uses. They were used both in racing and as messengers, making use of the bird's inbuilt ability to navigate back to their home roosts. Many ornamental pigeon breeds exist in modern day, and some private keepers keep small flocks of the birds as pets. Pigeons have even been invaluable to humans throughout the numerous wars we have waged across our time on Earth. One pigeon, lovingly named Winky, was awarded the Dickin Medal, the highest prestige a military animal can hope to earn, in World War II when he saved the crew of a downed RAF bomber plane from certain death. Winky wasn't even carrying a message. The crew simply set the pigeon free, in the hopes that his return to his roost, which was successful, would alert a nearby base of the danger. And the crew were rescued within 15 minutes. Next time you see a feral pigeon huddled up on the side of the street, spare it a thought for how revered and respected its ancestors once were. You can actually still see ancestral wild populations of rock doves on the British Isles today, found only on the northern coasts of Scotland and Ireland. Llamas and alpacas are South American relatives of the camels, domesticated from populations of Guanaco and Ficuña respectively, in the Andes Mountains, around 2400 BCE. While llamas typically look like bulkier, woolier versions of their ancestors, alpacas look considerably different. They are the product of intense selective breeding, used primarily for their meat, wool, and milk. Llamas were useful for the early mountain residents of what would one day become Peru and Bolivia, in transporting their belongings across difficult terrain, similar to the way the camels of Central Asia were utilized. Later on, they would also become invaluable to humans working on farms, for their strength, manure, and lawn mowing capabilities. And much later, were even used as racing animals. Feral populations of both species are now fairly common across the Andes, and the lowlands surrounding them. And it's even become increasingly common to see these creatures utilized on farms outside of South America in the modern day. So, there we have a brief history of animal domestication, starting with the late Pleistocene, and traveling across the dawn of civilization. This is by no means an exhaustive list, and many animals have been left out. In the modern day, we have domesticated, or at least begun to domesticate hundreds of individual species, from the tiny silkworm to the massive Asian elephant. As time progresses, who knows where domestication could take us? One thing to be careful of, is the impact domestication may have on the animals themselves. Through selfishness, we have the power to negatively impact plenty of animal lives. But perhaps this is a debate for another time.