Domestic Animals

A critical trait that has profoundly influenced human history is the ability to gain cooperation with those outside our immediate group or pack. Humans have the ability to cooperate with many other species. This trait makes us nearly unique in the natural world. The ability to work with a different species isn't unusual, but the ability to do so with multiple species is definitely a trait that few other animals seem to possess.

Symbiotic pairing in the animal would isn't unusual at all. Cattle egrets hang around cows and eat insects to the mutual benefit of both. Crows and wolves have a symbiotic relationship that goes a bit further in that the crows seem to call wolves' attention to possible prey. In turn the wolves allow the crows to eat with them. There are many such examples of intra species cooperation in nature.

What sets humans apart is the fact that we deliberately cultivate these partnerships with a wide variety of other animals. Whether we did it on purpose in the beginning or certain animals such as wolves and cats self-domesticated as is now suggested by Dr. Raymond Coppinger's studies of wolves and dogs is not yet clear. However, once the process began humans learned to use it to their advantage. At first it was a very loose cooperation; almost incidental I am sure, but in time grew until all humans had some domesticated animals working for them.

My reason for believing it was incidental at first is because over the years I've dealt with a lot of feral cats and dogs. Some remain wild and skittish of humans and some, even though parents and siblings are wild, will form a bond.

Currently we have a number of feral cats in residence in our barn. We don't know where these cats come from, but the population varies from year to year. Most of them are only seen by accident, a tail or rump disappearing here and there. Occasionally one will get brave enough to let us see it more often. Right now one black cat is getting bold enough to come out and fuss if we forget to fill the food bowl in the mornings. This cat would be an ideal candidate for self-domestication.

There is one coyote from the pack that lives out in our big pasture that shows signs of being a possibility. I occasionally see it getting water from on of the horse troughs. At first as soon as I opened the back door it would leave. Lately though it will stay and continue drinking until it is through. I have aided this by judging the coyote's "bubble" or personal space and staying just outside of it. Over time this bubble has shrunk until it will tolerate my presence within a hundred yards or so. Again a good possibility for self-domestication.

This applies to animals such as horses, cows, goats, sheep and other domesticated species as well. In working for many years with people who've adopted BLM horses I learned some important lessons. The main one being that, while a master horseman such as Parelli can form a working relationship with almost any equine, most people are better off adopting wild horses that have a high tolerance for the nearness of a human to begin with.

I've walked through pens containing up to fifty or more wild horses. Some have been BLM horses and some just ranch horses raised semi-wild. Within moments it is possible to see which ones will be harder to tame. These are the ones that bolt every time a human enters the enclosure. They will fight the fence and try to get through or over it to escape the human. A highly skilled horseman might tame one of these, but they are not an ideal candidate for domestication.

In these herds I've seen horses that will look at a human and move away slowly or not at all. This is one I'll immediately put on my list of possible prospects. If a horse begins to take a step or two after me as I leave it gets a higher place on the list. If one begins to attach itself and follow me consistently then that is the horse I choose.

After years of doing this I've come to believe that the domestication and use of animals is a mutual agreement. It was not accomplished solely at the instigation of humans. That said, some humans are especially good at recognizing such behaviors and using them to their advantage.

I believe, in time, as other scientists add to the studies of Dr. Raymond Coppinger, Dr. Richard Wrangham and Dr. Dmitri Belyaev (1917-1985) of Russia will shed more light on just how big a role self-domestication played in human history.

Dogs and Wolves

Many believe that the very first domesticated animals were decendents of wolves. Once domesticated they could no longer be considered wolves because they differed in one particular way.

A critical difference between wolves and dogs is that wolves have bigger brains. Wolves also are smarter than dogs in many ways. Researchers theorize that this is because the wolf needs to be smarter in order to survive.

Dogs may not be as smart as wolves, but all dogs share a trait that stands them in good stead, as well as assures their survival. At least as long as humans survive that is.

Researchers discovered this trait during the course of many different trials when attempting to measure the intelligence of wolves as compared to dogs. The test is simple; put a piece of meat in a spot where it is difficult to get to and wait to see what happens.

This particular test is a favorite of animal researchers everywhere. Those investigating the intelligence of the great apes will place a banana well out of reach. They also provide various tools and then watch to see how the chimp, gorilla or orangutan uses them to get the banana.

In one of these early trials the researchers thought they'd figured out all the ways a chimp could use the tools provided to obtain the banana. To their surprise the chimp demonstrated a way they had not thought of. Rather than use the pole provided to knock the banana down she set it up under the dangling fruit and ran up the pole, grabbing the banana before the pole overbalanced.

There have been similar surprises in the wolf tests, but the main thing researches learned is that while wolves communicate and cooperate among themselves they don't seem to consider humans as a possible help in getting what they want. Not even wolves raised by humans would consider the human a possible solution to their dilemma. Almost every dog tested, when confronted with the task, sooner or later, looked to the human to help them.

In watching many of these tapes I did see the occasional wolf glance at a human, but most didn't even do that. Were I trying to breed a cooperative wolf, recreate the dog, from scratch, I would begin with those individuals. These were probably the type of wolves that selected themselves in the beginning of the change from wolf to dog.

In an experiment began in 1959 by Dr Dmitri Belyaev in Russia with blue foxes it was found that it took less than thirty generations to create a dog like animal. There were some interesting side effects in the tests, such as when only temperament was selected for the foxes developed white markings, floppy or bent ears, crooked tails and other traits not usually seen in the wild.

Now there is a group of foxes in Russia that behave very much the way any of our modern breeds of dog behave. They like to be around people and depend on humans to care for them. In turn they are easy for people to socialize and train. It seems humans are still in the business of domesticating animals.