Transcription
The animals we encounter the most are the ones that we choose to live alongside. Over the course of human existence, our species has relied on other species for our own survival. And we've developed a huge variety of animals for our own benefit that now look and act very differently from their wild counterparts.
Last week, we looked at 10 animals that we keep as pets. And in this video, we're looking at 10 animals that humans have domesticated for farming and learning where they actually came from and how we morphed them into the forms that we have today.
In the grasslands and forests of Eurasia and North Africa, once lived a massive long-horned wild boine known as the orox. They were huge with bulls standing about 190 cm tall at the shoulder. Having muscular bodies and forward curving horns that could exceed a meter in length each. They were an important source of meat for early humans. But they were a dangerous game. However, about 10,000 years ago, two domestication events would change the way humans interacted with this animal forever.
Orooxs in the Near East were brought into captivity, giving rise to torine cattle, which eventually developed into many of the breeds kept across tempered Africa, Europe, and North America today. Another domestication event in the Indis Valley around the same time gave rise to the Sebu cattle, recognizable by their distinctive shoulder hump and heat tolerance, and they now exist in a variety of breeds found primarily in South Asia and parts of Africa. The domestication of the oroxs gave humans easy access not only to meat but leather, bone, manure and milk, and they began to be used in agriculture to plow fields. All of which have played major roles in the development of human cultures around the world.
As domestic cattle spread, the wild orox became rarer and rarer. And in 1627, we have the last record of a wild orox from the forests of Poland. In fact, cattle are one of the few major livestock species whose wild ancestor is now completely extinct. Today, there are over a thousand recognized cattle breeds worldwide, ranging from compact dwarf varieties to heavily muscled beef lines and ultraroductive dairy strains. Despite their enormous physical and behavioral transformation under domestication, genetically they're still Orox. And several attempts have been made to backbreed cattle to produce animals that look as similar to orox as possible.
But the orox isn't the only wild boine humans have domesticated. The water buffalo was domesticated in the Indis Valley and in China and Southeast Asia in two separate domestication events. The yak was domesticated on the Tibetan plateau around 5,000 years ago. It's believed that the gay from India and Myanmar is primarily descended from the gower, a large wild bovine from the same region. And Bali cattle are thought to come from the Bantang, a critically endangered wild species now limited to a few wild spaces on the Indonesian island of Java, the island of Borneo, as well as parts of Cambodia.
Sheep were first domesticated in the fertile crescent in what is now southeastern Turkey, northern Iraq, and western Iran. Some of the earliest farming communities began to manage wild flocks between 10 and 11,000 years ago, making sheep one of the first large animals to be domesticated. Initially they were valued primarily for their meat, milk and hides forming a dependable source of protein and raw materials in early agricultural societies. Sheep became central to daily life in the ancient Near East and as a result they took on major cultural and symbolic importance in the religious traditions that later emerged from the region like Judaism and Christianity.
Over time, however, humans began selecting sheep less for meat and more for the natural fiber that they produce, transforming them from short-haired animals into breeds capable of producing dense, continuously growing wool that needs regular shearing. This shift helped support growing textile industries that shaped economies across Europe, Asia, and eventually the wider world. Modern domestic sheep look so unlike any known wild species with their thick fleces and often reduced horns that for centuries naturalists debated their wild origins. Various species were proposed as ancestors including the European mulon and the Uriel. But the true source remained uncertain. That is until genetic studies in the late 20th century finally clarified that domestic sheep actually descend primarily from the Asiatic Mulan. A wild sheep native to the mountains and dry grasslands of the Middle East and parts of Central Asia.
Today, populations of Asiatic Mulan still survive in fragmented habitats across Iran, Armenia, Eastern Turkey, and neighboring regions. Though many of these populations are facing pressure from habitat loss, hunting, and hybridization with domestic sheep. Meanwhile, selective breeding has pushed domestic sheep into extremes. From fine wool marinos capable of producing exceptionally soft fleece to heavily muscled meat breeds and fat tailed varieties adapted to aid climates.
Goats were domesticated in the same region as sheep in the rugged landscapes of the fertile crescent around 10,000 years ago. As well, early farming communities domesticated wild bizarre ibecks, a sure-footed mountain goat with long sweeping scimitar-shaped horns, and a thick seasonal coat. Unlike sheep, which were gradually transformed into wool producing specialists, goats have remained closer in form and behavior to their wild ancestors. They're valued for their adaptability, being able to browse shrubs and rough vegetation that other livestock ignore, tolerate dry climates, and thrive on marginal land, which has made them especially important for agriculture in harsher environments.
Domesticated goats provide meat, milk, hides, and bone, and have become central to pastoral economies across Africa, Europe, and Asia. Because they're hearty and relatively easy to transport, they've been spread widely with human migration and trade, becoming one of the most globally distributed livestock animals, and in many cases becoming seriously invasive pests when left unchecked. Selective breeding produced a wide range of modern forms from high yield dairy breeds like the Sanin and Nubian to fiber producing breeds such as the Angora known for mohare and the cashmere goat valued for its fine undercoat. While there are millions of domestic goats around the world today, the wild type, the bizor ibeck, is listed as nearthreatened by the IUCN. And they currently only number around 70,000 mature animals left in the wild.
The wild boar is a highly adaptable species that once ranged across much of Europe, North Africa, and Asia. Long being an important source of protein for humans, the species has been domesticated twice. Between 9 and 10,000 years ago, in what is today Turkey, Syria, and Iraq, people were beginning to build up permanent human settlements. Wild boores being scavengers were drawn in by human waste and stored grain, and over time they were brought under human control in captivity. Around the same time, a separate domestication event happened in East Asia, producing distinct lineages. Today, both the eastern and western pig breeds have been mixed together through trade and agricultural exchange.
Unlike cows, sheep, or goats, pigs were not used for their milk, their wool, or for labor, but primarily as a source of meat. Not only do they produce a higher number of offspring each year, but they're highly valued for their rapid growth and ability to convert scraps and agricultural byproducts into edible protein. Over time, domestication altered their bodies and behavior. Domestic pigs have shorter snouts, smaller tusks, more varied coat colors, and less aggressive temperaments than their wild counterparts. Once domesticated, they were also now being housed and fed with a breeding strategy focused on rapid growth. And as a result, many breeds stopped producing the wild undercoat of fur that wild boar rely on to survive colder temperatures, making their pink or black skin easily visible through the bristly hairs that remain.
Selective breeding in recent centuries has produced an enormous range of modern pigs. There are breeds that are used primarily for commercial meat as well as heritage breeds like the Birkshire and Tamworth. And in more recent years, people have begun to recognize that pigs are really smart. They've been growing in popularity as household pets with breeds like the potbelly, cooni, and gooning and mini pig being popularly kept. Meanwhile, wild boar remain one of the most widespread large animals on Earth. In many regions, hybridizing with feral domestic pigs and establishing invasive populations that can reshape ecosystems far outside of their native range.
Chicken is the most consumed animal on Earth with about 200 million chickens being eaten daily. But where did they come from originally? They're descended primarily from the red jungle fowl, a brightly colored galform related to feeasants that's found across parts of South and Southeast Asia. And while they've been kept domestically for up to 8,000 years, they weren't originally kept to be eaten. Males have beautiful feathers that they use to court the more subtle colored females. And in order to keep other males away, they have to be highly aggressive and territorial. when they were first domesticated. It seems that the main reason was for a pastime that's still popular in many parts of the world today, fighting. But over time, as farming intensified, they became an important source of both meat and eggs. Their small size, rapid reproduction, and ability to live in close proximity to humans allowed them to spread quickly along trade routes into South Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and eventually the rest of the world.
Selective breeding has dramatically altered their biology. Modern laying hens can produce hundreds of eggs per year, far beyond the limited seasonal clutches of wild jungle fowl, while broiler chickens have been bred for extremely rapid growth and heavy muscle development. And there are countless other domestic varieties that come in a wide range of shapes, colors, and feather patterns. Meanwhile, the wild type can still be found in Asian forests, although many modern populations have hybridized with domestic chickens.
Both ducks and geese were domesticated for practical reasons from the start. Most domestic ducks descend from the widespread malard, which can be found across much of the northern hemisphere. Domestication likely began in East Asia around 2 or 3 thousand years ago, where ducks were integrated into wet rice agriculture and raised for both their meat and their eggs. Many domestic breeds still resemble their wild ancestor, but selective breeding has produced some duck varieties that are a little more extreme, like the heavier all-white peacin, which is raised for meat. the upright Indian runner from Indonesia, which was bred to be able to move more effectively through rice fields, or the strange crested duck, which was bred for egg production, but also suffers from a gene mutation that keeps its skull from forming properly, and as a result, it grows a strange tuft of feathers on the top of its head.
Meanwhile, geese were domesticated from two different species. In Europe and Western Asia, domestic geese descend from the greyle goose, while in East Asia, they descend from the swan goose. Geese have long been raised for meat, fat, and feathers, and are also valued as loud territorial guard animals around farms. Unlike ducks and chickens, most goose breeds still look a lot like their wild counterparts, with the most obvious changes being in feather color and body proportions.
Not all farm animals are kept for the sake of food. There are several species that humans have maintained in captivity specifically to help them get work done. The first horses emerged in North America about 5 million years ago. Around two or three million years ago, some of these horses crossed the Bering land bridge into Asia, eventually spreading all the way over to Europe and into Africa. Ironically, horses eventually went extinct in their continent of origin around 10,000 years ago, while populations in Eurasia and Africa survived. It was from the surviving Eurasian horses that domestication began.
Around 5,000 years ago on the Eurasian step, likely in what is now Kazakhstan, horses were initially domesticated because they were valued for their milk and meat. But these early pastoral cultures quickly realized that they had far greater potential for transport. Eventually, humans began riding them and later developed harnesses to allow horses to pull chariots and carts, dramatically increasing the speed at which people, goods, and armies could move. Few animals have reshaped human history so profoundly.
The wild ancestor of the domestic horse was once widespread across Eurasia, but true wild populations gradually disappeared. For a long time, the tarpen, which went extinct in the 19th century, was considered the last true wild horse. But modern research suggests that many of the horses described as tarpans may have actually been feral or hybrid animals rather than a distinct wild species. Today, there is only one surviving wild horse species in the world, Savski's horse. But this is not the species that domestic breeds are descended from.
In the 15th and 16th centuries, Europeans began to arrive in North America and they brought horses with them. To many indigenous communities, these animals were unfamiliar despite the fact that the first people to arrive in the Americas would have likely encountered several wild species that have since gone extinct. Horses were quickly adopted into daily life, transforming culture, trade, and warfare across the Americas. Today, several wild populations of horses can be found in the western parts of Canada, the United States, and Mexico, as well as a few isolated populations on the east coast, bringing these longlost American animals back to the very land that gave rise to them millions of years ago.
Also in the genus Equis are the wild asses. Donkeys trace their origin to the arid regions of northeastern Africa. Domestication began around 5 to 6,000 years ago, probably in northeastern Africa, where early pastoral communities relied on wild asses to transport goods across dry landscapes where wheeled vehicles were impractical. Unlike horses, which were valued for their speed and use in military conquest, donkeys were valued for their endurance, sure-footedness, and their ability to survive on sparse vegetation with limited water. As trade networks expanded across North Africa and into the Near East, donkeys became essential pack animals, helping move goods along caravan routes long before the camel became the dominant animal used in desert transport.
Because horses and donkeys are related, they can be crossed, producing mules, which combine the strength of a horse with the resilience of a donkey. The wild species that donkeys descend from is the African wild ass. A hearty desert adapted species that once ranged across parts of Egypt, Sudan, Eratria, Ethiopia, and Somalia. It can still be found in a few small areas of northeastern Africa where it's now considered critically endangered.
In the high Andes of South America, there were historically no horses or bovits for people to domesticate. So instead, people domesticated two closely related camelids, the guanako and the vikunia. Guanakos are a large wild species that ranges across open grasslands, shrublands, and semi-arid plains, especially across Patagonia and the Andian foothills. Vikunas are found further north and are better adapted to high alitude Andian environments, typically living above 3,500 m in cold, dry puna grasslands. They're smaller than wanakos and have a much finer fleece.
Sometime between 4 and 6,000 years ago, both species became domesticated and societies needed to develop hering systems suited to the cold mountainous terrain of the high Andes. Neither of these species was suitable for riding or pulling carts, and instead they were bred for unique uses in daily human life. Wanakos were bred into llamas which were valued primarily as pack animals capable of carrying goods across steep trails and also provided meat and hides. Meanwhile, theunas were bred into alpacas and valued specifically for their soft hair. Over time, selective breeding made their fleece denser and softer, and alpaca fleece is still a highly priced animal fiber to this day. Both alpacas and llamas can now be found in a wide range of colors and coat patterns that differentiate them from their wild ancestors.
Interestingly, we haven't just domesticated mammals and birds for use in farming. One of the most extreme cases of domestication in history is that of the silkworm. It descends from the wild mulberry silkworm, bombix mandarina, which is native to East Asia. Domestication began in ancient China over 5,000 years ago when people discovered that a single cocoon could be unwound into an exceptionally long continuous silk thread. Over generations, breeders selected caterpillars that spun larger, more uniform cocoons, tolerated crowded rearing conditions, and produced higher yields of silk. And as a result, domestic silkworms became dramatically different from their wild ancestors. So much so that they can no longer survive without humans and are now classified as their own species. Bombic smorai. The adult moths are largely flightless and far less responsive to predators and environmental changes than they would need to be in order to survive in the wild. While wild malberry silkworms are still capable of completing their life cycle without human intervention. Through selective breeding of this small insect, humans have built one of the most influential textile industries in history, turning a small moth into a fully domesticated species of livestock.
And that's it for this week's video. If you enjoyed it, make sure you check out last week's video where we looked at 10 domestic animals that we keep as pets and explored their origins. I need to say a special thanks to my patrons and YouTube members. Without their ongoing support, I wouldn't be able to make a video like this every week. If you want to support the channel, consider joining us on Patreon. The link is in the video description below. Or become a member here on YouTube by hitting the join button below the video. Members also get early access to videos as well as exclusive perks like special badges and custom emojis to use in the comments. Your support helps me to keep making the best content that I can. Thanks for watching and I'll see you next time.