Tameability and DomesticationBio 342 By Alex Winters |
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IntroductionWhat is tameability?Tameability is a behavioral measure of the ability of an animal to be domesticated. It is usually measured by an animal’s fear response at the approach of a human. Tameability can also be seen as a kind of index showing how well an animal would adapt to living with humans. Tameability and DomesticationTaming an animal, making it not fear or lash out at humans, is the first step to domestication. To begin the process of domestication, one must start by selecting animals on the basis of tameability. Selection EffectsBy selecting for this one key trait, many different animal populations have become domesticated, and the result of the selection has been very similar. Changes in size, coat color, fertility, neurochemicals, and retention of juvenile traits have been observed in most if not all domesticated animals in surprisingly similar ways, especially in the so-called “big five” (cows, goats, sheep, horses, and pigs) (Figure below from Trut 1999). Recent studies of tameability using foxes as a model (Trut 1999; Belyaev 1979)The most well known experiments on tameability to date
were
performed (and are still ongoing) using farm-foxes (Vulpes
vulpes) by Trut and Belyaev in the former USSR and now in Russia. The
experiments begun in 1959 with Belyaev who was then the head of fur
breeding in Moscow. He noticed the changes that took place in
domesticated foxes and how
they compared to other long-domesticated animals. |