X 



DOMESTICATED MAMMALS 



At a very remote period primitive man began the subjugation of cer- 

 tain species of mammals, and before the dawn of written history 

 some species of cattle, horses, sheep, dogs, cats and perhaps others had 

 been brought completely under his dominion. It is asserted that in 

 Europe various mammals had been domesticated at least as early as 

 the Lake Dweller period. At the beginning of the historic period ani- 

 mals under domestication were widely distributed in Europe, Asia 

 and Africa. Cats were undoubtedly domesticated in ancient Egypt. 

 Egyptian monuments show that hump-backed cattle were domesticated 

 as early as 2100 B.C., and pigs are believed to have been domesticated 

 in China about 5,000 years ago. 1 Dogs were living under domestication 

 among the American Indians when Europeans first began to explore 

 the two continents, and undoubtedly had been for a long time previ- 

 ously. Mummified dogs are found among the very ancient relics of 

 prehistoric cultures in southwestern United States, and several breeds 

 of dogs were distributed over the Americas before the arrival of 

 Columbus. A very large amount of research has been devoted to the 

 origin of various domesticated mammals, with rather definite results 

 in some cases, but many of the origins are still very obscure. 2 



It is not always easy to determine just what should be included in 

 the term domesticated. The word is incapable of very exact definition, 

 but means to become wholly adapted to life in close association with 

 human beings and about human habitations, with the approval of 

 the owner of the premises. Thus house cats and dogs, and the or- 

 dinary farm cattle, sheep, goats, horses and hogs are clearly domesti- 

 cated. However, house cats often leave home and may be found liv- 

 ing far out in forests in a feral state. Cattle on western North American 

 plains and in portions of South America, derived from unquestionable 

 domestic stock, owned by men, who catch and market them, but do not 

 have them under constant control, are sometimes very wild and may 



1 Hewitt, The conservation of the wild life of Canada, p. 310, 1921. 



*As examples consult: Keller, The derivation of European domestic animals, 

 Ann. Rept. Smithsonian hist, for 1912, pp. 483-491 ; Ewart, The principles of breed- 

 ing and the origin of domesticated breeds of animals, 27th Ann. Rept. U. S. Bureau 

 of Animal Industry, pp. 125-186; Morse, The ancestry of domesticated cattle, ibid., 

 pp. 187-239. 



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