Domestication 2 Flashcards
What are wild, feral and tame animals?
Wild: left alone in its habitat
Feral: formerly domesticated, escaped and returned to semi-wild state
Tame: they don’t mind humans as much
Why are animals domesticated?
Food, materials, transport, power, fuel, feed, fertiliser, pleasure, sport, research
What were the first animals to be domesticated?
Farm animals and dog and horse
What percentage of DNA do dogs and wolves share?
99.96%
Why are comparative behaviour studies between dogs and wolves flawed?
Wolves used in studies are captive animals that do not show their natural behaviour because they are not in their usual social groups
Dogs behave very differently to wolves
Comparisons should not be made
What did the 2010 Bateson report on dogs find?
Found lots of problems with breeding dogs for cosmetic reasons
What is paedomorphosis and neoteny?
Breeding/selecting for puppy-like qualities or different stages of development
What is a favourable group structure?
Large social groups
Hierarchical group structure-less aggression
Males affiliated with female group
What is an unfavourable group structure?
Family only groups are harder to manage
Territorial structure
Males in separate group
What are favourable sexual behaviours?
Promiscuous matings
Males sexually dominant over females
Sexual signals by movement or posture
What are unfavourable sexual behaviours?
Pair bond matings
Male must establish dominance to appease female
Sexual signals by colour
What are favourable responses to humans?
Short flight distance
Little disturbed by man or sudden changes in environment
What are unfavourable responses to humans?
Extreme wariness and long flight distance
Easily disturbed by man or sudden changes in environment
What happens when natural behaviour is suppressed?
Many abnormal repetitive behaviours (stereotypies) resulting from frustrated attempt to express natural behaviour
What is the cost of domestication in the horse?
Deleterious mutations have caused gastrointestinal and neurological disease, endocrine system disorders and schizophrenia
