Today, one can hardly imagine a person’s life without pets. They are a source of food, clothing, fertilizers, household assistance. For many, pets become loyal friends. But once our favorites lived in the wild, independently got their own food and avoided the strange two-legged creatures. Let's talk about which animal man first tamed.
Let's deal with the terms
To tame an animal means to form in him a sense of affection for a person, to make a wild beast obedient. Probably primitive people did not set themselves such tasks. However, after killing the female on a hunt, they took with her her cubs. In any case, this is what modern savages do, without any back thought, bringing young animals to their homes.
From this point of view, it is difficult to name the very first animal tamed by man. It could be a deer, or it could be a cave teddy bear, a crocodile or a fox. It is known that many emperors, for example, Genghis Khan, kept tame cheetahs.
However, it is not enough to raise an animal in captivity so that it becomes domesticated. Painstaking work is needed to select the resulting offspring. Only by selecting the most valuable specimens (with reduced aggressiveness) from each litter and raising them in a circle of people, you can get a domesticated animal.
Plunge into history
There is no accurate data on the first domestic animal tamed by a person. In the earliest images of 5-6 centuries BC already found dogs, pigs, cattle. In the oldest written monuments, in prehistoric myths and legends, the main domestic animals are featured. Some of them were revered as sacred.
To dig deeper, we will have to turn to archaeologists for help. Thanks to the remains of camps, bones, cave drawings, they draw conclusions about life, activities, nutrition, and other life features of primitive people. The early Stone Age sites show that at that time a person had not yet entered into alliances with animals, earning his own food by hunting or gathering. However, in the era of the Upper Paleolithic, when Europe was covered with ice, and reindeer roamed in the Crimea, the situation changed.
Friendship with a dog
What animal and why was the person first tamed? Archaeologists claim that the dog or its closest ancestor, the wolf, became the faithful friend of savages in time immemorial. The remains of these animals are found in parking lots at the age of 13-17 millennia. In Israel, a grave was discovered in which a woman and her dog have been resting nearby for 12 thousand years. Dog skulls dating to the 34th and 31st millennia BC were found in Belgium (Goya) and Altai (Robbery Cave) Scientists still find it difficult to determine the exact date when the process of domestication of a four-legged friend took place.
It is unlikely that he was focused. Most likely, the animals came to the savage cave, smelling food. Getting bones, they began to visit more often, getting used to unusual neighbors. People, in turn, found that the dog could be a great guard. Puppies raised by humans provided invaluable assistance on the hunt, finding wild animals and helping to cope with them. In each clan, they tried to keep several dogs, which were trained to track the beast, bark in case of danger. People and animals became very close, they lived in the same room and slept together, fleeing from the cold.
Livestock Development
The first animal, tamed by man, proved the undoubted benefit of such unions. With the development of agriculture, our distant ancestors began to lead a sedentary lifestyle. This created the prerequisites for the emergence of cattle breeding.
Sheep and goats were trained at least 10 thousand years ago. This happened in North America, Africa, Southern Europe, the Middle East. Most likely, after hunting the little lambs were left "in reserve". Soon, a man realized that they can give not only meat, but also wool, milk. Goats began to purposefully breed.
Domestication of the tour, which happened 10 or 9 millennia ago, turned out to be extremely useful. This ancestor of a cow was used as a traction force, females gave milk. It was harder to tame buffalo and horses. The first became friends of a man 7.5 thousand years ago, the second - 6 thousand years ago.
Holy cat
The first animals tamed by man led a flock or herd lifestyle. Another thing is an independent cat walking at night. For a long time it was believed that the furry Murok was domesticated by the Egyptians in the 4th millennium BC. At least the oldest cat mummies date back to this time. The graceful animal in Egypt was revered as the embodiment of the goddess Bast, a symbol of the moon and fertility. For killing a cat, an Egyptian could pay with his life.
However, many researchers believed that the animal could be tamed before, along with the birth of agriculture. After all, cats are indispensable helpers in protecting the crop from rodents. In 2004, these conjectures were confirmed. On the island of Crete, the remains of a kitten of 9 months were found. He was buried next to a man. The age of the find is 9.5 thousand years. It is significant that wild cats have never been found on the island itself. Therefore, the animal was specially introduced there.
Poultry yard
We talked about the first animals that humans trained. It's time to remember the birds. Initially, a man hunted them, but, moving to a settled life, he wanted to have food at hand. According to researchers, geese were first domesticated. Drawings with their image were found in Egypt and date back to 11 thousand BC.
Ducks were originally bred in Mesopotamia and China. They were tamed in the 5th millennium BC. For a long time it was believed that they became the second domesticated bird. However, recently paleozoologists discovered the remains of chickens in North China. They were dated to the 6th millennium BC.
The first animal, tamed by man, was the beginning of a long process of domestication, which continues to this day. Currently, people are actively working on the taming of zebras and ostriches. Next in line are moose, deer, mink, sable. Some successes in their taming already exist.