THE DERIVATION OF THE EUROPEAN DOMESTIC 



ANIMALS.i 



By Prof. Dr. (". Keller (Zurich). 



The tremendous advances made in zoogeographic investigations, 

 especially those of the last decade, are very gratifying, and the results 

 have proven especially fruitful in shedding new light upon certain 

 geological problems, but they likewise emphasize another fact, 

 namely, that in dealing with zoogeographic questions zoologists 

 have so far concerned themselves chiefly with wild faunas. The 

 domesticated fauna seems to have been overlooked and it is seldom 

 indeed that a modern zoogeographic work touches this phase in 

 more than an exceedingly superficial way. Although the domesti- 

 cated fauna is still considered a negligible quantity by many, this is 

 evidently due to old traditions which one might well dispense with 

 at the present time. 



It is true that this relatively young fauna, produced under the 

 influence of man, can throw no light upon general geographic and 

 geologic problems, but it becomes important in the history of culture 

 and offers valuable points in the discussion of anthropological ques- 

 tions. The faunal character of a given region is very often domi- 

 nated by the domesticated fauna, and while the latter is small as far 

 as the number of species is concerned, yet it makes up for this by a 

 large number of individuals. The domesticated animals enter into 

 close competition with the surrounding wild fauna and force it into 

 the background or even to extinction. A long account might be 

 written upon the changes which have thus taken place in certain 

 regions. I will simply allude to what has occurred in North America, 

 South Africa, and Australia, where the native fauna was forced to 

 retreat all along the line, in parts even exterminated, (ku'ing tlie last 

 century, to make room for an entirely new fauna, that of the domesti- 

 cated species. On European soil these changes took place in a le^s 

 vigorous manner, tliough the keeping of domesticated animals had 

 its beginning here in neolithic times, when it was very generally 



1 Translated by pennlssion from Verhandlungen des VIII Internationalen Zoologen-Kongresses zu Graz. 

 15-20 Aug., 1910, pp. 356-365. Jena, 1912. 



483 



