Domesticated animals and plants are those species whose breeding and living conditions are under human control for the purposes of using them for food, as an aid to work, or as a pet.
Table of contents |
2 Limits on Domestication 3 Categories of Domesticated Organisms 4 See also 5 Reference 6 External links |
Domestication of Animals
According to physiologist Jared Diamond, animal species must meet six criteria, in order to be considered for domestication (see also Guns, Germs and Steel).
- flexible diet (not too cumbersome or expensive)
- growing up reasonably fast (see growth rate)
- breeding in captivity
- pleasant disposition
- unlikely to panic
- modifiable social hierarchy (recognise a human as its chief).
- wild animals,
- zoo animals, and
- domesticated or tame animals.
Petting is the act of a human stroking an animal for mutual pleasure.
Domesticated species, when bred for tractability, companionship or ornamentation rather than for survival, can often fall prey to disease: several sub-species of apples or cattle, for example, face extinction; and many dogs with very respectable pedigrees appear prone to genetic problems.
One side-effect of domestication has been disease. For example, cattle have given humanity various viral poxes, measles, and tuberculosis; pigs gave influenza; and horses the rhinoviruses. Humans share over sixty diseases with dogs. Many parasites also have their origins in domestic animals.
Limits on Domestication
Despite long enthusiasm about revolutionary progress in farming, few crops and probably even fewer animals ever became domesticated. While the process continues with plants (berryfruits, for example), it appears to have ceased with animals.Categories of Domesticated Organisms
Domesticated organisms and formal or informal biological categories that include domesticated individuals are the subjects of the following Wikipedia articles:
See also
See also: agriculture, feral, animal husbandryReference
Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs and Steel; a short history of everybody for the last 13,000 years, Jonathan Cape, London: 1979.