Domestication, or domestication (from lat. domesticus- “domestication”) is the name given to 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, since 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, slightly less than the age of the remains discovered in the Chauvet cave in France - 26 thousand years.

As soon as man 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, through the domestication of a wild Nubian (Middle Eastern) cat. Millions of cats living today can “boast” of their Middle Eastern origin.

For almost the same amount of time (at least 10 thousand years), sheep and goats have lived next to humans. The ancestor of the domestic goat was the mountain sheep, which lives in Western Asia and Southern Europe. As a result of careful selection and crossing, more than 150 breeds appeared, vaguely reminiscent of their wild and ancient ancestor.

Around the same period, the first ones 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) - an inhabitant of the forest-steppe and steppe zones of Eurasia.

Domestication occurred, 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 their meat, milk and hide. They saddled the horse much later.

The first pigs were domesticated about 7 thousand years ago (from some sources - perhaps earlier) and they descended from the wild pig (lat. Sus scrofa). It spread mainly in East Asia, Western countries and 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 South-West 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 (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 thought that the first domesticated chickens appeared in India about 2,000 years ago, but more recent research has shown that the first chickens were domesticated in Southeast Asia and China about 6,000-8,000 years ago. And domestic chicken evolved from wild banker 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 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, and then they spread to other countries. Domestic ducks originated from the common wild duck, or mallard (lat. Anas platyryncha). The domestication of ducks took place very quickly.

The bee was domesticated by humans approximately 5 thousand years ago. Since those ancient times, people have been using beekeeping products: honey, wax, poison, propolis, beebread, 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) is a butterfly, thanks to which man learned what silk is. It was domesticated by humans in China approximately 3000 BC. Sericulture is the most important industry in China, breeding silkworms to produce silk.

Briefly about the article: Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind Civilization, real or imagined by a science fiction writer, is built not only on social relations, discoveries and religion, but also on contacts of the leading intelligent species with other species. Long before the search for our larger brothers began in the depths of space, homo sapiens turned his attention to our smaller brothers. The “friendship” of man with animals most directly influenced the formation of the current civilization. Using history as an example, we will trace what contacts with other species of creatures have given humanity.

Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind

Animal domestication

Civilization, real or imagined by a science fiction writer, is built not only on social relations, discoveries and religion, but also on contacts of the leading intelligent species with other species. Long before the search for our larger brothers began in the depths of space, homo sapiens turned his attention to our smaller brothers. The “friendship” of man with animals most directly influenced the formation of the current civilization. Using history as an example, we will trace what contacts with other species of creatures have given humanity.

The search for optimal (in terms of price and effort) options for cultural development has led our species to the variety of sources of clothing, food, raw materials, fertilizers, means of transportation, household aid and simply pleasure that are provided by countless and close relationships with domesticated animals.

Humanity's first partner

One of the first, and perhaps the very first, animals that people subjected to the pleasant but difficult procedure of domestication (and in scientific terms - domestication), became dog. This happened 9-17 thousand years ago.

There is less clarity about the ancestors of the dog itself. The following are called: 1) wolves - both our gray Tambov comrade and the Indian one (the most common hypothesis); 2) wolves and jackals; 3) the now extinct wild “ancestral dog” - this is what Carl Linnaeus, the creator of the first classification of living beings, believed.

Based on the method of application, there are five main types of dogs: mastiffs, wolfdogs, greyhounds, hunting pointer dogs and herding dogs.

Since ancient times, dogs have been painted, 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's dog, deified by the Egyptians, were found: thus, 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, many coins with images of dogs are known, the oldest of which date back to the 7th-6th centuries. BC e.

War dogs were in particular demand. They occupied an honorable place in the army of Alexander the Great. Assyro-Babylonian dogs, known as Epirus or Molossian Dogs, 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 Canes Venatici, which remained in the sky with their owner, Actaeon, was named after them).

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

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 its owner twice...

Shepherd's Pets

The next most domesticated species was probably goat. This happened 9-12 thousand years ago on the territory of modern Iran, Iraq, and Palestine. Its wild ancestors were bezoar and horned goats. The goat was respected as a nurse (according to legend, the goat Amalthea nursed the baby Zeus), and goat skin refers to the divine attire of Pallas Athena. There are also images of goats on the frescoes of Ancient Egypt.

Not all of the consequences of befriending goats were predictable. The domestication of goats gave man high-quality milk, wool, and leather, but also harmed his environment. Where herds of goats graze for a long time, all vegetation disappears, and the desert encroaches on the flourishing region. Goats not only completely destroy the shoots - they even get to shallow seeds that could germinate in the next rainy season. The soil exposed by goats is eroded. This fate befell the plateaus of Castile, Asia Minor, and the once famous Moroccan and Lebanese cedar groves.

Around the same time - 10-11 thousand years ago - on the territory of modern Iran it was domesticated sheep. From there, domestic sheep - 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-wool sheep with horns twisted in a spiral - spread widely: merino sheep later became the pride of Spain.

Those who walk on their own

7-12 thousand years ago appeared next to humans cat. Cats that settled near human habitation of their own free will are an exception among domestic animals. It is generally accepted that the single ancestor of the domestic murka is the North African and Central Asian steppe dun cat, 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, furry aliens met a local, wild European forest cat. The result of crossings is a modern variety of breeds and colors.

Fossil remains of cats were found in the Neolithic and Bronze Age layers of Western Asia and the Caucasus, in Jordan and the cities of Ancient India. On the paintings in the tombs of Saqqaraha (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 had a special position among other deified animals. Their corpses were embalmed and buried in luxurious 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 holidays. Archaeologists have discovered about 300 thousand cat mummies dating back to the 4th millennium BC. e. In the 19th century, one 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: killing a cat was punishable by severe punishment, including the death penalty (Herodotus tells about the unfortunate Greek who unknowingly killed a cat).

The export of cats abroad was prohibited for a long time. Only in the second millennium BC did domestic cats appear in Babylon, then in India, China and Japan. From Egypt, the cat came to many parts of the Mediterranean on the ships of Phoenician merchants, but until the beginning of the century. e. she was a rare and expensive animal.

The demand for cats began to fall sharply only with the spread of Christianity, which perceived them sharply negatively. If in the era of early Christianity cats could still live in monasteries (in a number of convents they were 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 Ypern, Wednesday in the second week of Lent was called “cat day” - 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 their owners.

Egg and feather suppliers

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

Chickens As poultry, they first appeared in South Asia. Their wild ancestor was the bank rooster. Chickens were bred both for eggs and meat, and for fighting. Themistocles, preparing to go to war with the Persians, included cockfighting in the training program so that soldiers, looking at the birds, would learn from them perseverance and courage. The people of the Gauls got their name from the bold, cocky birds.

Does a buffalo give a lot of milk?

Buffaloes- the most valuable domestic animals in the countries of Southeast Asia - were domesticated 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 Western Asia and North Africa, from Egypt to Eastern Africa. The Arabs brought buffaloes to Sicily and Northern Italy, and the Turks brought them to the Balkans.

8.5 thousand years ago it was domesticated cow. This happened, according to various versions, on the territory of modern Turkey, in Spain, South Asia... Its wild ancestor, the aurochs, was exterminated in the Middle Ages, and the cow, which spread throughout 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, decorated 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 homeland of the bull-headed minotaur, bulls took part in the famous bull games - circus performances with religious overtones. And it’s 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 pulled heavy carts and ralas behind them, helping man do farming.

Their analogue in South America is lama And alpaca, domesticated 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 it itself weighs about a hundred. Alpacas are bred for their fine wool.

Acorn lovers

9000 years ago in China and Southeast Asia were domesticated pigs bred for meat and skins. Somewhat later, their images appear on the frescoes of Ancient Egypt. Pigs of those times looked not like the pigs we are used to, but like today’s boars: sinewy, agile, and by modern standards very thin.

In Europe, pigs were grazed on unique grounds - in oak groves. These artiodactyls love to feast on acorns, although they are able to digest almost any organic food.

Always 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 a city prison along with people, tried, sentenced to hang... And the little piglets were confiscated in favor of the court.

Perhaps the most famous story of antiquity, in which, although clearly against its will, a sheep was involved - the voyage of the Argonauts for the Golden Fleece. This treasure of King Eetes was kept in Colchis (Caucasus), in the sacred grove of Ares. Scientists have not come to a clear conclusion about what exactly the Golden Fleece was. There are at least two plausible versions:

1) that the Argonauts actually sailed for fine-wool sheep, which at that time were not in Greece, but were in Georgia;

2) that the fleece was indeed golden. This is how the precious metal was mined in gold-bearing rivers: a sheep's skin was placed on the bottom, and the wool retained the heavier particles of gold. If this happened long enough, the skin actually acquired a fair monetary value.

The sound of hooves

The first centers of domestication horses arose 4 thousand years BC. e. Supposedly, two types of wild horses were domesticated: small, broad-fronted steppe horses, vaguely similar to tarpans (wild European horses that became extinct in the Middle Ages), and larger forest horses, with a narrow forehead, long facial part of the head and thin limbs. Domestic horses retained the characteristics of their 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 Neseean horses of the Persian kingdom were considered the best in the world. The regions adjacent to the Caspian Sea were famous for horse breeding. At the end of the first millennium BC. e. the glory of the Nessean 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 a golden-red color were stately and tall for those times (one and a half meters), they became a desirable military prize for 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 military formations (individual riders were much earlier), this happened at the beginning of the 1st thousand years BC. e. among the Assyrians. It is interesting that at first the mounted warrior, as in chariots, had a driver-driver: in battle he controlled two horses (his own and his warrior’s), and at the same time the fighter had both hands free for shooting and throwing darts.

5-6 thousand years ago the African wild ass was domesticated. Domestic donkeys have long been the main transport animal, especially in countries where horses were unknown or for some reason donkeys were 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 riding and pack animals for many millennia, they were used in the construction of the Egyptian pyramids and even in battles. Thus, the Persian king Darius once, with the help of donkeys, dispersed an army of Scythians who had never seen these animals and were afraid.

In Europe and Asia, strong, tall breeds of domestic donkeys were bred, such as Khomad in Iran, Catalan in Spain, Bukhara in Central Asia. In Greece, the donkey was dedicated to the god of wine Dionysius and was included, along with the Silenians and Satyrs, in his drunken retinue.

Hunting and postal services

Originating about five thousand years ago in India, falcon hunting quickly conquered the world, and the “sport of kings” reached its peak in the early Middle Ages. In Europe, falconry was widespread: it was a hobby for both feudal lords and commoners. There was a special table of ranks that prescribed who should hunt and with what bird. In England, stealing or killing someone else's falcon was punishable by death.

Genghis Khan's hunts, involving hundreds of birds and thousands of dogs, were enormous and majestic. Many hundreds of birds were kept under Ivan the Terrible - they even took the road tax from merchants in pigeons for falcons.

Actually pigeons humans domesticated 6.5 thousand years ago (in Mesopotamia). Doves were often depicted on 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 “mad for 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.

In extreme conditions

Domesticated 5000-6000 years ago camels: in Arabia - one-humped (dromedary), in Central and Central Asia - two-humped (Bactrian). A figurine of a loaded dromedary was found in Egypt, which is more than 5,000 years old. Apparently, the drawings depicting dromedary camels on the rocks of Aswan and Sinai are of the same age. Both camels have been mentioned in literature since 700-600 BC. e. Herodotus wrote a lot about camels due to 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.

The north was not left without pets either. Two to three thousand years ago, it arose in Chukotka reindeer husbandry. In the rather poor world of the tundra, the deer became a real salvation for the northern peoples. The entire carcass of the animal was used, not just the meat and skin. Everything was eaten, including young horns, tendons, bone marrow and larvae of the subcutaneous gadfly!

The same salvation in the mountains, steppes and semi-deserts of Tibet became yak, domesticated in the first millennium BC. e. From fatty milk - twice as fat as cow's - milk, in addition to the usual butter and cheese, they make special cottage cheese, which does not spoil for a long time and weighs almost nothing (which is very convenient for travelers). Yak wool and skin provide protection from the cold, and dried dung was often the only available fuel in the mountains.

Winged six-legged

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 Arana Cave (Spain) - a drawing from the Paleolithic period is more than 15 thousand years old. The ancient Egyptians began the systematic breeding of bees, and in Egypt beekeeping was nomadic: hives on rafts, as honey wasp plants bloomed in the northern provinces of Egypt, slowly moved down the Nile.

From the second millennium BC, the custom arose in Assyria of covering the bodies of the dead with wax and immersing 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 his burial place in Egypt.

Judging by the frequency of mentions 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, by order of Emperor Constantine VII, an encyclopedia on beekeeping, “Geoponics,” was compiled. Honey was practically the only raw material for preparing sweet dishes until the middle of the Middle Ages, and wax was used to make candles.

At the opposite end of Eurasia, they found use for another insect - the butterfly - silkworm. The first mention of silk appears in an ancient Chinese manuscript ca. 2600 BC e. For more than twenty centuries, the Chinese maintained a monopoly on silk production. According to legend, the first successful attempt to smuggle caterpillar cocoons was made in the 4th century. n. e. one Chinese princess who married the king of Little Bukhara and brought him as a gift “silkworm eggs” hidden in her hair. It was not possible to breed silkworms outside of China.

The second smuggling was more successful in 552, when two monks carried cocoons in staves and presented them to Emperor Justinian. Since that time, sericulture began to develop outside China. True, then it died out for some time, but was revived after the Arab conquests.

Cabbage eaters

A 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 no less than a pig.

And already in ancient times, the rabbit began to cause a lot of trouble. In the Balearic archipelago, a pair of rabbits released into the wild produced so many offspring that local residents began to ask Emperor Augustus to help them cope with the scourge and send soldiers to fight the voracious animals. Judging by Australia, which was “eaten” by rabbits already in modern times, this story has taught no one anything.

There's a pair for each creature

Several thousand years BC. e domestication began in the New World guinea pigs. It is likely that these animals themselves came to human homes in search of protection and warmth. Among the Incas, pigs were sacrificial animals, which were brought as a gift to the Sun God, and were also eaten on holidays. Pigs with variegated brown or white colors were especially popular. 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 protected. Young animals were tamed and periodically plucked after reaching adulthood. Ostriches were also domesticated in eastern Sudan - there they were kept with herds of cattle and camels.

In ancient Egypt they began to breed and guinea fowl. For quite a long time, guinea fowl in Greece and Rome were only sacrificial birds. This continued until Emperor Caligula, who decreed that, as a sign of “divine greatness,” guinea fowl should be sacrificed to him—that is, to the table.

In the 5th century n. e. was bred from wild carp 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 provincial governors: the minister demanded that carps be regularly supplied to the table of King Theodoric (456-526).

Since ancient times, there have been pets whose functions were reduced to purely decorative ones. In the 10th century BC e. In China, various breeds were developed from crucian carp goldfish, which quickly spread to Japan and Indonesia. And in the Middle Ages (XV century) it was domesticated canary.

Today we can hardly imagine such animals as pets. blackbirds, partridges, swans, storks, cranes, pelicans- in Egypt they were fattened for meat and used as laying hens. bred for meat hyenas(!), they were also used as guard animals. In Ancient Rome sleepyhead(small rodents) were kept in special pots ( shares), where they were fattened with nuts. Their meat was valued as a great delicacy. It has long been a custom at feasts to place scales on the table, weigh the dormouse on them in the presence of a notary, and record its weight in the protocol. Serving the most well-fed dormice was a matter of prestige and pride for the rich. And in ancient Roman ponds, to the delight of gourmets, they bred moray eels.

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 they were much more popular as hunters cheetahs. Here and there with them, as well as with those tamed much later - 1000-2000 years ago - caracals(large wild cats) still hunt.

The use of domesticated animals goes back hundreds of years. cormorants- in China and Japan they are used as “live fishing rods”: an iron ring is placed around the bird’s neck, preventing it from 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: moose, muskoxen, antelope; as well as decorative animals - Syrian hamsters and many aquarium fish.

Since cats were rare in antiquity, the service of mouse catcher was performed by domesticated ferrets And caresses, and in Ancient Egypt - also a famous snake fighter, a relative of mongooses, ichneumon ("pharaoh's mouse" - see the picture). The albinistic form of the black ferret has been known since ancient times - furo(he, and not the ermine, is depicted in Leonardo da Vinci’s painting “Lady with an Ermine”). It was bred 2500-2000 years ago in Southern Europe and for a long time replaced the cat, and was also used for hunting rabbits. At the end of the 4th century. n. e. The Roman writer Palladius advised replacing the domestic ferret with a cat in the fight against mice and moles ("pests of artichokes"), but charming representatives of mustelids still remain pets, although they are much less common than cats.

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Humanity would have developed differently if its path had not crossed the paths of its smaller brothers. Would people be able to survive and create a modern culture without the participation of dogs, cows, horses, and sheep? Even the absence of such a simple insect species as bees on Earth would have greatly changed the way of life in the Middle Ages.

Domestication Animals are the most important condition in the development of civilization, and if you ever begin to create your own fantasy or fairy-tale world, your own peoples and countries, do not forget about the faithful friends of intelligent beings, about domestic 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 are subjected to artificial selection.

The process of domesticating wild animals begins with the artificial selection of individual individuals to produce offspring with certain characteristics necessary for humans. Individuals are typically selected for certain desirable characteristics, including reduced aggression 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 to use 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 based on breeding criteria. Thus, as part of domestication, the genetic properties of the species change.

One of the first animals domesticated by humans was the dog. This happened, according to some sources, from 9 to 17 thousand years ago.

The study of fossil remains of ancient dogs began in 1862, when Neolithic skulls were found in Switzerland. This dog was called "peat", and later its remains were found everywhere in Europe, including Lake Ladoga, as well as in Egypt. The peat dog did not change in appearance throughout the Stone Age; its remains were found even in deposits of the Roman era. The Spitz-shaped Samoyed dog is considered to be a direct descendant of the peat dog. The dog from Lake Ladoga, larger than a typical peat dog, is considered to be the ancestor of mastiffs and sometimes huskies. There is less clarity about the ancestors of the dog itself. The following are called: 1) wolves - both our gray Tambov comrade and the Indian one (the most common hypothesis); 2) wolves and jackals; 3) the now extinct wild “ancestral dog” - this is what Carl Linnaeus, the creator of the first classification of living beings, believed. Based on the method of application, there are five main types of dogs: mastiffs, wolfdogs, greyhounds, hunting pointer dogs and herding dogs. Since ancient times, dogs have been painted, 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's dog, deified by the Egyptians, were found: thus, 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, many coins with images of dogs are known, the oldest of which date back to the 7th-6th centuries. BC e. War dogs were in particular demand. They occupied an honorable place in the army of Alexander the Great. Assyro-Babylonian dogs, known as Epirus or Molossian Dogs, 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 Canes Venatici, which remained in the sky with their owner, Actaeon, was named after them).

In the 1st century BC. e. the first treatise on dogs known to us appears. In Marcus Terence Varro's encyclopedic work On Agriculture, he describes the different types of dogs, choosing a puppy, dog food, breeding, and how to train dogs. However, even earlier in China and Japan, written references to the education 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 its owner twice...

The next most domesticated animal was apparently the goat. This happened from 9 to 12 thousand years ago on the territory of modern Iran, Iraq, and Palestine. Its wild ancestors were bezoar and horned goats. The goat was respected as a nurse (according to legend, the goat Amalthea nursed the baby Zeus), and goat skin refers to the divine attire of Pallas Athena. There are also images of goats on the frescoes of Ancient Egypt. Not all of the consequences of befriending goats were predictable. The domestication of goats gave man high-quality milk, wool, and leather, but also harmed his environment. Where herds of goats graze for a long time, all vegetation disappears, and the desert encroaches on the flourishing region. 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 eroded. This fate befell the plateaus of Castile, Asia Minor, and the once famous Moroccan and Lebanese cedar groves.

Around the same time - 10-11 thousand years ago - sheep were domesticated on the territory of modern Iran. From there, domestic sheep - 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-wool sheep with horns twisted in a spiral - spread widely: merino sheep later became the pride of Spain. 7-12 thousand years ago a cat appeared next to man. Cats that settled near human habitation of their own free will are an exception among domestic animals.

It is generally accepted that the single ancestor of the domestic murka is the North African and Central Asian steppe dun cat, 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, furry aliens met a local, wild European forest cat. The result of crossings is a modern variety of breeds and colors. Fossil remains of cats were found in the Neolithic and Bronze Age layers of Western Asia and the Caucasus, in Jordan and the cities of Ancient India. On the paintings in the tombs of Saqqaraha (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 had a special position among other deified animals. Their corpses were embalmed and buried in luxurious 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 holidays. Archaeologists have discovered about 300 thousand cat mummies dating back to the 4th millennium BC. e. In the 19th century, one 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: killing a cat was punishable by severe punishment, including the death penalty (Herodotus tells about the unfortunate Greek who unknowingly killed a cat). The export of cats abroad was prohibited for a long time. Only in the second millennium BC did domestic cats appear in Babylon, then in India, China and Japan. From Egypt, the cat came to many parts of the Mediterranean on the ships of Phoenician merchants, but until the beginning of the century. e. she was a rare and expensive animal. The demand for cats began to fall sharply only with the spread of Christianity, which perceived them sharply negatively. If in the era of early Christianity cats could still live in monasteries (in a number of convents they were 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 day” - 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 their owners .

The “peers” of cats—in terms of time of domestication—are geese. Geese were the first to be domesticated among birds: the wild gray species in Europe, the Nile species in North Africa, and the Siberian-Chinese species in China. Drawings of the Nile goose bred in Egypt in the 11th millennium BC have been found. e.

In historical times, geese were kept in almost all countries of Europe, Asia and North Africa. In Ancient Greece, geese were sacred 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 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 bank rooster. Chickens were bred both for eggs and meat, and for fighting. Themistocles, preparing to go to war with the Persians, included cockfighting in the training program so that soldiers, looking at the birds, would learn from them perseverance and courage. The people of the Gauls got their name from the bold, cocky birds.

Buffaloes, the most prized domestic animals in Southeast Asia, were domesticated about 9,000 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 Western Asia and North Africa, from Egypt to Eastern Africa. The Arabs brought buffalo to Sicily and Northern Italy, and the Turks to the Balkans.

About 8.5 thousand years ago the cow was domesticated. This happened, according to various versions, on the territory of modern Turkey, in Spain, South Asia... Its wild ancestor, the aurochs, was exterminated in the Middle Ages, and the cow, which spread throughout 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, decorated 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 homeland of the bull-headed minotaur, bulls took part in the famous bull games - circus performances with religious overtones. And it’s 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 pulled heavy carts and ralas behind them, helping man do farming.

9,000 years ago, pigs were domesticated in China and Southeast Asia, bred for their meat and hides. Somewhat later, their images appear on the frescoes of Ancient Egypt. Pigs of those times looked not like the pigs we are used to, but like today’s boars: sinewy, agile, and by modern standards very thin.

In Europe, pigs were grazed on unique grounds - in oak groves. These artiodactyls love to feast on acorns, although they are able to digest almost any organic food. Always 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 a city prison along with people, tried, sentenced to hang... And the little piglets were confiscated in favor of the court.

The first centers of horse domestication arose 4 thousand years BC. e. Supposedly, two types of wild horses were domesticated: small, broad-fronted steppe horses, vaguely similar to tarpans (wild European horses that became extinct in the Middle Ages), and larger forest horses, with a narrow forehead, long facial part of the head and thin limbs. Domestic horses retained the characteristics of their 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 Neseean horses of the Persian kingdom were considered the best in the world.

The regions adjacent to the Caspian Sea were famous for horse breeding. At the end of the first millennium BC. e. the glory of the Nessean 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 a golden-red color were stately and tall for those times (one and a half meters), they became a desirable military prize for 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 military formations (individual riders were much earlier), this happened at the beginning of the 1st thousand years BC. e. among the Assyrians. It is interesting that at first the mounted warrior, as in chariots, had a driver-driver: in battle he controlled two horses (his own and his warrior’s), and at the same time the fighter had both hands free for shooting and throwing darts.

Originating about five thousand years ago in India, falconry quickly conquered the world, and the “sport of kings” reached its peak in the early Middle Ages. In Europe, falconry was widespread: it was a hobby for both feudal lords and commoners. There was a special table of ranks that prescribed who should hunt and with what bird. In England, stealing or killing someone else's falcon was punishable by death. Genghis Khan's hunts, involving hundreds of birds and thousands of dogs, were enormous and majestic. Many hundreds of birds were kept under Ivan the Terrible - they even took the road tax from merchants in pigeons for falcons.

Man actually domesticated pigeons about 6.5 thousand years ago (in Mesopotamia). Doves were often depicted on Assyrian bas-reliefs. In many countries, pigeons 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 “mad for 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.

5000-6000 years ago camels were domesticated: in Arabia - one-humped (dromedary), in Central and Central Asia - two-humped (Bactrian). A figurine of a loaded dromedary was found in Egypt, which is more than 5,000 years old. Apparently, the drawings depicting dromedary camels on the rocks of Aswan and Sinai are of the same age. Both camels have been mentioned in literature since 700-600 BC. e. Herodotus wrote a lot about camels due to 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.

The north was not left without pets either. Two to three thousand years ago, reindeer herding arose in Chukotka. In the rather poor world of the tundra, the deer became a real salvation for the northern peoples. The entire carcass of the animal was used, not just the meat and skin. Everything was eaten, including young horns, tendons, bone marrow and larvae of the subcutaneous gadfly!

The yak, domesticated in the first millennium BC, became the same salvation in the mountains, steppes and semi-deserts of Tibet. e. In addition to the usual butter and cheese, a special cottage cheese is made from high-fat milk—twice as fat as cow’s milk—that does not spoil for a long time and weighs almost nothing (which is very convenient for travelers). Yak wool and skin provide protection from the cold, and dried dung was 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 Arana Cave (Spain) - a drawing from the Paleolithic period is more than 15 thousand years old. The ancient Egyptians began the systematic breeding of bees, and in Egypt beekeeping was nomadic: hives on rafts, as honey wasp plants bloomed in the northern provinces of Egypt, slowly moved down the Nile. From the second millennium BC, the custom arose in Assyria of covering the bodies of the dead with wax and immersing 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 his burial place in Egypt. Judging by the frequency of mentions 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, by order of Emperor Constantine VII, an encyclopedia on beekeeping, Geoponics, was compiled. Honey was practically the only raw material for preparing sweet dishes until the middle of the Middle Ages, and wax was used to make candles.

At the opposite end of Eurasia, another insect has found use - the silkworm butterfly. The first mention of silk appears in an ancient Chinese manuscript ca. 2600 BC e. For more than twenty centuries, the Chinese maintained a monopoly on silk production. According to legend, the first successful attempt to smuggle caterpillar cocoons was made in the 4th century. n. e. one Chinese princess who married the king of Little Bukhara and brought him as a gift “silkworm eggs” hidden in her hair. It was not possible to breed silkworms outside of China. The second smuggling was more successful in 552, when two monks carried cocoons in staves and presented them to Emperor Justinian. Since that time, sericulture began to develop outside China. True, then it died out for some time, but was revived after the Arab conquests.

Rabbits began to be domesticated back in Ancient Rome - there the animals were kept in special pens called 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 no less than a pig. And already in ancient times, the rabbit began to cause a lot of trouble. In the Balearic archipelago, a pair of rabbits released into the wild produced so many offspring that local residents began to ask Emperor Augustus to help them cope with the scourge and send soldiers to fight the voracious animals. Judging by Australia, which was “eaten” by rabbits already in modern times, this story has taught no one anything.

Several thousand years BC. e in the New World, the domestication of guinea pigs began. It is likely that these animals themselves came to human homes in search of protection and warmth. Among the Incas, pigs were sacrificial animals, which were brought as a gift to the Sun God, and were also eaten on holidays. Pigs with variegated brown or white colors were especially popular. 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”.

The ostrich was domesticated by the ancient Egyptians five thousand years ago for its feathers and eggs. Birds were kept in flocks and protected. Young animals were tamed and periodically plucked after reaching adulthood. 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 quite a long time, guinea fowl in Greece and Rome were only sacrificial birds. This continued until Emperor Caligula, who decreed that, as a sign of “divine greatness,” guinea fowl should be sacrificed 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 provincial governors: the minister demanded that carps be regularly supplied to the table of King Theodoric (456-526).

Since ancient times, there have been pets whose functions were reduced to purely decorative ones. In the 10th century BC e. In China, various breeds of goldfish were bred from crucian 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 thrushes, partridges, swans, storks, cranes, pelicans as domestic animals - in Egypt they were fattened for meat and used as laying hens. Hyenas (!) were also bred for meat, and they were also used as guard animals. In Ancient Rome, dormice (small rodents) were kept in special pots (doli), where they were fed with nuts. Their meat was valued as a great delicacy. It has long been a custom at feasts to place scales on the table, weigh the dormouse on them in the presence of a notary, and record its weight in the protocol. Serving the most well-fed dormice 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 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 still hunted with them, as well as with caracals (large wild cats) that were domesticated much later - 1000-2000 years ago. 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 placed around the bird’s neck, preventing it from 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: moose, 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 characteristics that distinguished 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 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 coloring has disappeared; Pets come in a variety of colors. Compared to wild animals, they have a lighter skeleton, less strong bones, and thinner skin. The internal organs have also undergone changes. Many domestic animals have less developed lungs, hearts, and kidneys, but their mammary glands and reproductive organs function better than wild animals (domestic animals, as a rule, are more fertile); many of them have lost seasonality in reproduction. 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 living conditions, 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 paths of its smaller brothers. Would people be able to survive and create a modern culture without the participation of dogs, cows, horses, and sheep? Even the absence of such a simple insect species as bees on Earth would greatly change the way of life of humans.

One of the first animals domesticated by humans was the dog. This happened, according to some sources, from 9 to 17 thousand years ago.

The peat dog did not change in appearance throughout the Stone Age; its remains were found even in deposits of the Roman era. The Spitz-shaped Samoyed dog is considered to be a direct descendant of the peat dog. The dog from Lake Ladoga, larger than a typical peat dog, is considered to be the ancestor of mastiffs and sometimes huskies.

Based on the method of application, there are five main types of dogs: mastiffs, wolfdogs, greyhounds, hunting pointer dogs and herding dogs. Since ancient times, dogs have been painted, 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's dog, deified by the Egyptians, were found: thus, 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, many coins with images of dogs are known, the oldest of which date back to the 7th-6th centuries. BC e. War dogs were in particular demand. They occupied an honorable place in the army of Alexander the Great. Assyro-Babylonian dogs, known as Epirus or Molossian Dogs, 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 Canes Venatici, which remained in the sky with their owner, Actaeon, was named after them).

The law also protected the sacred animal: killing a cat was punishable by severe punishment, including the death penalty (Herodotus tells about the unfortunate Greek who unknowingly killed a cat). The export of cats abroad was prohibited for a long time. Only in the second millennium BC did domestic cats appear in Babylon, then in India, China and Japan.

From Egypt, the cat came to many parts of the Mediterranean on the ships of Phoenician merchants, but until the beginning of the century. e. she was a rare and expensive animal. The demand for cats began to fall sharply only with the spread of Christianity, which perceived them sharply negatively. If in the era of early Christianity cats could still live in monasteries (in a number of convents they were 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.

Their analogues in South America are the llama and alpaca, domesticated 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 it itself weighs about a hundred. Alpacas are bred for their fine wool.
9,000 years ago, pigs were domesticated in China and Southeast Asia, bred for their meat and hides. Somewhat later, their images appear on the frescoes of Ancient Egypt. Pigs of those times looked not like the pigs we are used to, but like today’s boars: sinewy, agile, and by modern standards very thin.

Compared to wild animals, they have a lighter skeleton, less strong bones, and thinner skin. The internal organs have also undergone changes. Many domestic animals have less developed lungs, hearts, and kidneys, but their mammary glands and reproductive organs function better than wild animals (domestic animals, as a rule, are more fertile); many of them have lost seasonality in reproduction. 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 living conditions, a change in the phenotypic expression of mutations under the influence of an altered gene pool, and a general increase in variability.

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Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………..3

Domesticated animal species……………………………………………….4

Predatory…………………………………………………………………………………5

Herbivores…………………………………………………………………………………8

Signs of domestication of animals…………………………………………….13

Problems of domestication………………………………………………………..14

Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………15

References……………………………………………………………16

Introduction

Domestication(from Latin domesticus - domestic), all types of taming, domestication of animals, accompanied by the emergence and development of new characteristics in them.

The entire history of the human race took place next to animals, but not all species of animals are able to get along with humans, only a few were able to overcome their fear of people. Animals have been and remain suppliers of meat, fluff, feathers, fur, honey, wax, medicines, and organic fertilizers for humans. Different peoples tamed many of the most unexpected animals - antelopes, cranes, ostriches, pythons, and even crocodiles. A grandiose experiment in the domestication of wild animals, initially dogs, goats and, possibly, sheep, was begun by humanity 15 thousand years ago, during the Mesolithic period, when man himself still had a rather limited vocabulary. Some scientists believe that primitive people even kept and tamed megatheriums (now extinct giant sloths) and cave bears in captivity. And the Carthaginian commander Hannibal in the wars with the Romans at the end of the 3rd century. BC e. used war elephants. However, taming does not mean domesticating. The number of species of domesticated animals is very small - no more than 25. For domestication, it is necessary that the animal kept in captivity bear offspring. Only then can we engage in selection and, preserving individuals with the most valuable properties for humans, after many centuries we can obtain not just a domesticated animal, but a real pet. For example, in ancient times, at the courts of the rulers of Syria, India, Central Asia, and even Europe, cheetahs were often kept, valued for their beauty and excellent hunting qualities. History knows two examples when tame cheetahs belonged to great people: one - Genghis Khan, the other - Charlemagne. However, domesticated cheetahs have not become domesticated because they cannot breed in captivity.

Domesticated animal species.

The first domesticated animal was the wolf, of which the dog is a subspecies. Initially, the dog served as a hunting assistant, and later performed security and guard functions. The domestication of dogs began in the Aurignacian period of the Upper Paleolithic (France and Spain 30-25 thousand years BC). The first evidence of the coexistence of man and dog (footprints of a wolf or dog and the feet of a child) was discovered in the French Chauvet Cave. The age of these traces is 26,000 years. This fact is also confirmed by the finds of canine remains from the Upper Paleolithic era, discovered as a result of excavations in Ukraine (Cherkassy and Chernigov regions) and in Russia (Kursk region).

The domestication of cats occurred much later than dogs. Most experts are now of the opinion that the domestication of cats occurred in the Nile Valley in Ancient Egypt around 5000 BC. e. Her ancestor was the Libyan cat. Consequently, the domestic cat has accompanied humans for more than 6,000 years. A domestic cat, in the full sense of the word, is not and never has been. Despite its rather modest size, the cat was and remains a wild, ferocious, bloodthirsty, capricious, intelligent, cynical and merciless predator. A cat can be called a domestic cat only insofar as it has been living with humans for almost 6,000 years. Currently, about 200 breeds of domestic cats are recognized by various international felinological organizations.

About 8,000 years ago, people domesticated goats, sheep, cows, and pigs. The domestication of horses about 5,500 thousand years ago was also a significant event. Before horses were used as work animals, they served as a source of meat and milk. Research has shown that living horses do not share a common genetic root. After the last ice age, isolated “residual” populations lived in different places. It is likely that the first domestication was successful in the steppes of the northern Black Sea region.

Predatory.

1. Dog – Asia. Wild ancestor: wolf. Nowadays it is distributed throughout the world.

2. Cat - Egypt. Wild ancestor: Libyan wild cat. Nowadays it is distributed throughout the world.

Domestication of a dog.

The first domesticated animal was the wolf; this happened in the Stone Age (10-15 thousand years ago). Geneticists have found that wolves were first domesticated by humans in South Asia. This is how the domestic dog evolved from the domesticated wolf. The oldest evidence of the coexistence of humans and domestic dogs was bone remains found in the same burial as human ones. At the moment, the age of the oldest dog bones is about 30 - 17 thousand years; they were found in peat bogs in France and Switzerland. By the Bronze Age, 5 types of dogs were already known to coexist with people, namely greyhounds, mastiffs, wolfdogs, pointers and herding dogs.

Even a tiny lapdog carries wolf genes. How many dogs look like wolves? Sheepdog. Partially like. All other breeds are extremely different from the appearance of their wild relatives. So, looking at a dachshund or an Italian greyhound, it is difficult to imagine that the pedigree of these dogs goes back to the wolf. The enormous diversity of dogs is the result of partly spontaneous, partly targeted selection that has been going on for thousands of years. Through selection and crossing, man bred vicious watchdogs, shepherd dogs - shepherd's assistants, sled dogs; It would take a long time to list hunting dogs - they are excellent runners (greyhounds), dogs that follow animals into holes (short-legged dachshunds), there are brave dogs that are not afraid of fights with bears and wild boars. Breeds of fire rescue dogs and diving dogs have been developed. Such mutant animals are almost always rejected by the wild. In the course of domestication, a person, noticing a deformity, gave it a go, crossed its bearer with the same deformity and received a curiosity that attracted attention. This is how a large number of decorative dogs were bred - long-haired or, on the contrary, hairless, huge and tiny, long-legged and slender or squat and bow-legged. What mattered was the color of the coat, the structure of the muzzle, and the benevolent or ferocious appearance. The found forms were legalized, they were protected from the influx of unnecessary blood. The dogs themselves do not at all encourage human fantasies and, if you are not careful, they act according to their nature - lapdogs can mate with wolves.

The evolution of the dog's ancestry has been most extensively documented in China. For many centuries, the small Pekingese dog lived only in the imperial palace and its gardens in Beijing; she was not allowed to go beyond this mysterious place. The right to breed Pekingese was granted only to the Chinese Emperor; others were prohibited on pain of death. The cult of Pekingese breeding reached its apogee when one of them was declared a reincarnated Buddha and was given high honors.

Domestication of the cat

According to genetic studies, all domestic cats descend from representatives of the subspecies - the steppe cat (Libyan wild cat), a small predator of the cat family, which appeared in nature about 130 thousand years ago.

The domestication of cats occurred approximately 9,500 years ago in the Middle East in the Fertile Crescent region, where the earliest human civilizations originated and were located. The domestication of cats began with the transition of humans to a sedentary lifestyle and with the beginning of the development of agriculture, when surplus food appeared and the need arose to preserve it and protect it from rodents.

In one of the oldest agricultural settlements in the world - Jericho, in layers dating back to 7000 thousand BC, the bone remains of this ancient domestic animal were found. It was a lean, long-legged steppe cat. The Egyptian goddess Bastet, or Bast, was depicted with a cat's head and was the patroness of love. She served as a symbol of the Sun and Moon, was the patroness of the souls of the dead in the afterlife, and was responsible for the fertility of animals and people. Such a variety of “responsibilities” was common for ancient Egyptian deities. Perhaps the connection between the cat and the name of the ancient Egyptian goddess has survived to this day: it is believed that one of the names of kittens and cats - russ, russy, russycat is a transformation of the ancient Egyptian Bastit-Psht. Dead cats, as Herodotus reports, were taken to the city of Bubastis (the center of the cult of the goddess Bast in Lower Egypt), embalmed, and buried in sacred chambers. In one of the necropolises in Beni Hassan (Central Egypt) there are up to 130 thousand cat burials.

Now there are cats in all countries of the world, and they occupy first place among domestic animals in many countries. Psychologists have found the most convincing argument in favor of cats: people who have cats live longer and happier than others.

Herbivores

1. Sheep. Wild ancestor: Asian mouflon, native to Western and Central Asia. Nowadays it is distributed throughout the world.

2. Goat. Wild ancestor: bezoar (bearded) goat, native to Western Asia. Nowadays it is distributed throughout the world.

3. Cow (cattle). Wild ancestor: an extinct aurochs that formerly lived in Eurasia and North Africa. Nowadays it is distributed throughout the world.

4. Pig. Wild ancestor: wild boar (boar), native to Eurasia and North Africa. Nowadays it is distributed throughout the world.

5. Horse. Wild ancestor: extinct wild horses that lived in southern Russia; Another subspecies of the same species has survived in natural conditions to this day - this is the Przewalski's horse living in Mongolia. Nowadays it is distributed throughout the world.

Domestication of sheep.

Sheep and goats were domesticated immediately after dogs, approximately 5-6 thousand years BC. It is quite difficult to indicate the specific place where sheep were domesticated, but the most likely territories for the domestication of sheep are Europe, North Africa and Western Asia.
Domestic sheep are believed to have evolved from two groups of wild sheep: mouflon and argali. Mouflons. These wild sheep have two varieties - mountain and steppe. Mountain mouflon lived in the south of Europe, the islands of the Mediterranean, Transcaucasia, and Central Asia. Currently, it is found in the mountains of Sicily, Corsica, Cyprus, Iran, Kazakhstan and the Central Asian republics.

The closest relatives of domestic goats are considered to be bezoar goats, which still live in the mountains of Turkey, the South Caucasus and Afghanistan. Sheep and goats are two close but independent genera of artiodactyl animals. It is believed that goats were domesticated earlier than sheep - 8 - 9 thousand years BC, since during archaeological excavations of ancient sites only bones of goats, or bones of goats and sheep together, are found.

In the thousands of years since domestication, domestic goats and sheep have undergone a number of changes, both in appearance and productivity. In particular, the exterior changed - the legs became shorter and wider, the neck shortened, the body became relatively longer and deeper, mainly due to the development of the rear part. The domesticated sheep turned out to be a very valuable acquisition for our ancestors. Providing milk, meat, lard, wool and sheepskin, the sheep clothed and fed its owner and even supplied him with material for his light, portable home.

The sheep is of very great importance as an animal that allows people to profitably use dry areas inconvenient for agriculture, and from these scarce pastures provides a number of valuable products, and primarily the main raw materials for textile factories.

Domestic cows

The cow's pedigree goes back to the aurochs. This large animal lived throughout Europe. In a rare local history museum, next to the tusks of a mammoth, you will not find a skull with large horns - these are the remains of an aurochs. As a result of widespread hunting for the tur, he disappeared everywhere. His last refuge was the Mozavetsky forests in Poland. In 1627, the last Turkish woman was killed here too.

The wild horned animal was most likely domesticated in different places. People everywhere immediately appreciated the enormous benefits of keeping these animals under their care, receiving from them meat, skins, and most importantly, milk. Even with initially low milk yields, one cow could feed an entire family. The Apis bull was a deity in Egypt, and in India, the worship of the cow crossed all boundaries - the animal became sacred.

A similar attitude can be observed in Africa among the Maasai. For the Maasai, a herd of cows is the basis of their nomadic life. The people of the tribe feed almost exclusively on milk mixed with blood, which they obtain by opening the jugular vein of bulls. But for the Masai, a cow is also a position in society. The Watussi tribe, which lives next to the Maasai, deifies certain breeds of cows. Cows with fantastically large horns are held in high esteem.

In Europe, a rational attitude towards cows prevails. The Dutch back in the 5th century. They bred a breed of cows that produced an unprecedented amount of milk at that time - 5 thousand liters per year. Holland is even called the country of canals, tulips, windmills, lapwings and black and white cows. Selection with constant improvement of living conditions has made it possible to breed cows that today produce 20 thousand liters of milk per year. Currently, all high-yielding cows, including our Kholmogory and Yaroslavl cows, trace their ancestry to Dutch cows. This selection began on the initiative of Peter I, who transported four hundred breeding bulls from Holland - even then it was known that milk yield and milk fat content are transmitted through the male line.

As a result of long domestication, the cow still has natural instincts. Having noticed a wolf, the cows stand in a circle, sticking their horns out to protect the young. In forest cordons, where cows walk freely, without a shepherd, they strive to calve somewhere in a secret place and, like their wild ancestors, try not to give away the shelter of a hidden calf. Nowadays, as in the distant past, the main product produced by cows is milk.

Domestication of the pig

A type of wild boar is the domestic pig. Domesticated by humans about 7,000 years ago, and distributed mainly in Western countries, East Asia and Oceania. Feral pigs (razorbacks) are found in North America, Australia and New Zealand. A study of DNA from pig teeth and bones found in Neolithic European settlements suggests that the first domestic pigs were brought to Europe from the Middle East. This stimulated the domestication of European wild pigs, which led in a short time to the displacement of breeds of Middle Eastern origin in Europe, and then in the Middle East itself. The high adaptability and omnivorous nature of wild pigs allowed primitive man to quickly domesticate them. Pigs were raised primarily for meat, but skins (for shields), bones and bristles were also used. Domestic pigs have significant fat reserves and have difficulty moving and would die in their natural environment.

Currently, pigs are bred primarily for meat; also in France, specially trained pigs search for truffles.

Horse domestication

Some domestic animals, such as cows and horses, have lost their wild relatives in nature. But even today, deprived of human care, they do not disappear in the wild, quickly run wild, fit into the biocenosis and thrive in suitable conditions. Feral horses lived in our country in the Crimea, and after the civil war in the reed thickets of the Caspian region.

It is assumed that the horse was first tamed by ancient people in the Southern Urals at the sites of Mullino and Davlekanovo (territory of Bashkortostan). The most ancient remains of a horse were also found there, which date back to the turn of the 7th-6th millennium BC. e. In the steppes of Eurasia, horses were domesticated many thousands of years before they came south, into the territory of the ancient Near Eastern civilizations. Before the excavations in Mullino, it was assumed that the oldest horse was domesticated in the steppes of Ukraine. The Kazakhs and Bashkirs had 22 names for horses depending on gender, age and breed. Horses returned to America along with European conquerors and settlers, where they had the opportunity to go wild again and form herds of thousands of wild mustangs. The horse requires care from childhood. Even domesticated horses, taken from the herd as adults, have to be tamed and gradually tamed. When released, such horses run wild and have to be hunted like wild ones. North American Indians tamed wild Spanish mustangs and mastered the local steppes and prairies in less than 60 years. Mustangs prospered until the plow appeared on the prairies, and wild horses turned out to be a nuisance - they were killed for canned food for cats. The surviving mustangs acquired a saving genetic fear of humans and live in the American state of Wyoming in barren mountains where there are no pastures. Despite mechanization and automation, working horses are still needed for transporting small-sized cargo, plowing gardens, harvesting hay in hard-to-reach places, in small forest clearings, when hauling hay, moving along mountain trails, and grazing animals. They are necessary for veterinarians, foresters and other specialists, especially in taiga and mountainous areas.

Signs of animal domestication.

Domesticated animals have diverged from their wild ancestors in several ways. Many species have changed in size: cows, pigs and sheep have become smaller. Sheep and alpaca were selected according to the criterion of increasing undercoat (fluff) and decreasing or complete loss of hair (hair), and cows - according to the criterion of increasing milk yield. Several species of domestic animals have reduced brain size and less developed senses compared to their ancestors because, living close to humans, they no longer needed what once helped them protect themselves from wild predators. Characteristic signs of animal domestication include:

· change in size: shortening of the limbs, in large animals - a decrease in body size, in small animals - a possible increase in size and wider morphological variability of different parts of the body;

· greater humility, obedience, understanding, as well as a longer duration of juvenile characteristics in animals, neoteny (an evolutionary process of development, as a result of which children's forms of behavior are preserved in adulthood);

· disruption of the wild type mating system, loss of male dominance, decrease in sexual dimorphism;

· change in fat distribution, reduction in muscle mass;

· changes in coat type and coat or feather cover;

· change in color, weakening of the value of natural protective coloring.

Problems with breeding in captivity .

Just like us humans, some valuable species of animals also do not like to have sex under the watchful gaze of strangers. It was this circumstance that stopped any attempts to domesticate the cheetah, the fastest of land animals, despite the fact that for thousands of years people had serious motives for this.

Tame cheetahs were valued in Ancient Egypt and Assyria, and also later in India as hunting animals, immeasurably superior to dogs in this quality. One of the Indian Mughals kept a “cheetah stable” - similar to a stable or kennel - with a thousand trained animals. But despite the great love for cheetah hunting and the enormous funds that numerous eastern rulers spent on it, all their animals were domesticated. Attempts to breed cheetahs were unsuccessful for the rulers, and even under the supervision of modern biologists, the first cheetah cub in the zoo was born only in the 60s. XX century Under natural conditions, several cheetah brothers chase a female for several days, and, apparently, without such an difficult courtship, during which vast distances are covered, the female simply does not begin to ovulate and does not allow a sexual partner to approach her. As a rule, in captivity cheetahs refuse to perform this sophisticated courtship ritual.

Conclusion.

The economic benefits of breeding them were of decisive importance in the domestication of animals. Domesticated animals were a more reliable source of food than wild ones, the number of which quickly decreased around human settlements as hunting techniques improved. All domestic animals descended from wild ancestors, but differ from them in behavior, external forms, internal organization, productivity, which was the result of human influence.

References

1. “Atlas of dog breeds.” Naymanova D., Gumpal Z. – Prague, 1983. – P. 316.

2. “All about the horse” Livanova T.K., Livanova M.A.,. - M.: AST-PRESS SKD, 2002. - 384 p.

3. “Domestication of animals in the historical process and in experiment.” Trut L.N. VOGiS Bulletin, 2007, Volume 11, No. 2

4. “Zoology for teachers: Chordates” Yakhontov A. A. /Ed. A. V. Mikheeva. - 2nd ed. - M.: Education, 1985. - 448 p., ill.

5. “Guns, germs and steel. The Fates of Human Societies" (Jared M. Diamond. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies). Jared Diamond - AST Publishing Group, 2010. - 752 p. Translation from English by M. Kolopotin.

6. "The Origin and Transformation of Domestic Animals." Bogolyubsky S.N. - "Soviet Science", 1959.

7. http://www.zooprice.ru/articles/detail.php?ID=99405