Animal Domestication

Animal domestication research papers illustrate that anthropologically, man has been manipulating animals towards domestication for thousands of years. A custom research paper on animal domestication can be tailored to any aspect of the process you need examined.

Animal domestication is the process by which wild animals, through selective breeding, are made dependent upon human beings for survival. Domestication can refer to one of the following:

1. The adaptation of animals as pets
2. The raising of animals for livestock for food
3. The use of animals for commodities such as work or fur

The very first animals to be domesticated were dogs. Dogs were domesticated at a remote point in human prehistory, and were instrumental in helping human beings hunt and survive. Over time, these dogs were selectively bred in order to create the numerous species that exist today.

Animal Domestication and the Agricultural revolution

With the agricultural revolution at the end of the Neolithic period, human beings began to domesticate animals for both food and labor. Goats, sheep, pigs and cows were among the first large animals to be domesticated for food, while horses were used for their ability to both labor (pull plows) and transport humans, either on their backs or by pulling carts. Horses were domesticated around 4000 BCE, after dogs, sheep, pigs, goats, cats and chickens.

Domestication of animals continues. Rabbits, for example, were domesticated in the early middle ages. Russian scientist Dmitri Believe began a program in the 1950s to domesticated foxes. These new generations of fox greatly resemble dogs in appearance and behavior. However, many animals, such as zebras and other large animals have proven immune to attempts at domestication.