Some Useless Info to Kill the Wait...Domestication: Creating Whimps from the Wild (obviously by JB)

There are almost 10,000 birds and over 4,000 mammals in the world.

Possibly only 13 of these animals have truly been domesticated!

Humans have been able to “tame” a lot of wild animals, but if given the choice tame animals would escape and become wild again. True domestication is actually a rare event in the history of the world.

For an animal to be truly domestic, it must meet these six criteria:

1. The animal has to be an herbivore (plant eater) or at least an omnivore (plant and meat eater). In case you were wondering, dog food has a lot of plant material in it.
2. The animal has to grow fast. An elephant takes 15 years to mature while a chicken takes under 10 months.
3. The animal must breed in captivity.
4. The animal can’t be mean. All attempts to domesticate zebras have failed here.
5. The animal can’t panic easily. This is where deer have lost it.
6. The animal must accept humans as the top of their social structure. This is why cats are not truly domestic.
   

A few of these animals retain some of the traits that let them survive in the wild. But many of these animals can't even survive without humans anymore - they are fat, fluffy, stupid, or whimpy versions of their ancestors... King Arthur compared to Prince Charles.

So what are the 13 domestic animals, and where did they come from? Here's the list with photos of the original (if available) and modern versions:

1. Dog (early man – many locations) from the Wolf/Jackal
I love the great dane and chiuaua image

2. Goat (early man – Middle East) from the Persian Wild Goat

3. Sheep (8,000 BC - Asia) from the Urial

4. Pig (8,000 BC – Asia) from the Wild Boar

5. Cattle (8,000 BC – Middle East, India) from the extinct Aurochs
The aurochs was a prehistoric animal almost 7 feet tall at the shoulder and took 5 men to kill with spears... now we have Bessy.

6. Horse (4,000 BC – Ukraine) Asiatic Wild Horse

7. Donkey (4,000 BC – Egypt) African Wild Ass (no comments please!)


8. Chicken (3,500 BC – SE Asia) Red Jungle Fowl

9. Llama (3,500 BC – Peru)
10. Alpaca (3,500 BC – Peru)
11. Camel (2,500 BC – Arabia, Asia)
12. Turkey (100 AD – Mexico)

13. Rabbit (1500 AD – Europe)

A couple other animals to mention:

Ducks and Geese – not domestic, they would fly away if given the chance.
Pigeon – many consider these domestic as well, but they have not been selectively breed for long enough to be considered domestic by others.
Lab Mice – some consider these domestic because they have been breed for so long in captivity.
Guinea Pig – kept in Peru for food (yes food!) since about 900 AD, but would be gone if not caged.