Animal DOMESTICATION
How humans created modern-day farm animals
It’s fair to say that the domestication of animals is one of the most important advancements in human history. Known as the Neolithic Revolution, around 12,000 years ago humans began cultivating the land and breeding animals for livestock. The principle of livestock domestication centres around selectively breeding wild animals with traits beneficial for humans – for meat, milk or materials. Over millennia, humans have bred generations of animals like cows, sheep, pigs and chickens to enhance qualities such as their muscle mass for meat and wool production for fabrics.
The first wild animal to be taken by humans from its natural environment was the predecessor of the modern-day sheep, the Asiatic mouflon (Ovis orientalis), around 11,000 years ago. Since then, humans have captured and domesticated 38 different species, including 8,800 different breeds, from around the world.
The specific techniques that primitive farmers used to tame and domesticate livestock throughout history are largely unknown to archaeologists. However, in 2014 researchers uncovered some clues in an ancient settlement in Turkey. Around 11,000 years ago, a small village on the banks of the Melendiz River in Turkey was home to some of the earliest domesticated animals. By studying the changes in bones at the site, known as Aşıklı Höyük, archaeologists noticed a shift in the remains of wild animals such as hares, deer and goats, to predominantly sheep remains. By around 9,500 years ago almost 90 per cent of the bones being left at the site were from sheep, 58 per cent of which were from females, typical among flocks for breeding
purposes. The remains were found in areas researchers believed to be pens in the middle of the village, used to acclimatise the sheep to humans. Villagers likely introduced young sheep as pets to their villages, too.
The theory as to why wild sheep were originally stabled is related to other agricultural processes, such as crop growing. As prolific hunters, early farmers may have had to weigh up spending time further afield hunting compared to time spent on crop farming. To optimise their time, hunters brought their prey to the farm to breed and produce a sustainable supply of food to the village while still tending their crops.
Animal domestication and human evolution are intertwined. Not only have humans bred livestock and changed the biology of domestic animals, but domestic animals have also affected how humans have evolved. One of the most apparent examples lies in our ability to digest a sugar called lactose. As infants, many mammal species begin their lives suckling milk from their mothers. However, at varying points in time infants are weaned off their milk supply, losing their ability to process lactose and either becoming plant-munching herbivores or flesh-eating predators. Humans, on the other hand, developed a tolerance for the milk sugar, known as lactase persistence. A genetic mutation, lactase persistence enables the continued production of an enzyme that can break down lactose and metabolise it.
Although the ancient ancestors of modern cows, called aurochs, were originally domesticated solely for their meat around 10,000 years ago, around 6,000 years ago dairy farming began among European farmers, roughly around the same time humans developed a tolerance for lactose past infancy. Now lactose persistence is found in around 35 per cent of adults globally.
But domestication isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Although raising livestock has facilitated the advancement of human civilisation, it’s also brought with it disease. During the evolution of animal domestication, confining animals has facilitated the transmission of pathogens and parasites to humans – for example tuberculosis among cows and influenza from pigs.