wolves
Domestication of animals is a mutual relationship with people who have an impact on their care and reproduction. Charles Darwin at one time identified a number of signs on which domesticated species can be distinguished from their wild ancestors. He was also the first to find the difference between conscious selection, when people purposefully tamed specific animals, and unconscious selection, where the traits inherent in domestic animals develop as a by-product of natural selection.
The peaceful coexistence of wolves and humans began about 32 thousand years ago, and it was this species of animals that became the first that was domesticated. The wolf helped the ancient people in the hunt, and later guarded their homes. The first data on the coexistence of wolves and humans were found in the French cave of Shove, and later this fact was confirmed by excavations in Ukraine, Russia, Belgium and the Czech Republic.
It happened thousands of years ago and can be repeated again: wolves in different parts of the world are gradually on the path of becoming dogs. To this conclusion came the researchers, who found that animals more and more often attack cattle and dig in the garbage left by man, rather than hunt in wild conditions. Such proximity to a person and his habitation can eventually lead to a conflict between humans and wolves, which may lead to disastrous consequences for both.
The study also explains how a diet can change a large predator. To find out how gray wolves can suffer from eating a large amount of human food, the evolutionary biologist from Deakin University in Melbourne, Thomas Newsome (Thomas Newsome) and his colleagues investigated what happened to other large carnivores that live next to humans .
For example, Asian lions in the protected area of Gir of western India kill and eat only livestock, and therefore became so less aggressive towards people that tourists can visit them without fear. In Israel red foxes live longer and do not settle for long distances when they eat waste. In contrast, black bears in North America who eat with human garbage are more likely to die young because people are killing them.
A study of 2014 by Newsom on the dingo population in the Tanami desert in Australia showed that The habit of wild dogs to eat exclusively unhealthy food in the waste recycling facility made them too thick and less aggressive. They also became more prone to mating with local dogs and became “cheeky”. Newsom says that dogs dare to run between his legs when he puts traps for them.
The most interesting is that the population of the “garbage” dingoes has formed a genetic cluster different from all other dingoes, which indicates that they become genetically isolated. This, in turn, is a key step in the formation of a new species.
Is this really happening now with gray wolves? Conditions have been created for this, says Newsom, noting that human products already constitute 32% of the diet of the gray wolf around the world. Currently, animals live mainly in remote areas of Eurasia and North America, but some of them return to developed residential areas.
Wolves in Greece mainly consume pigs, goats and sheep. Those in Spain are fed mainly by ponies and other livestock. Iranian wolves rarely eat anything, except for chickens, domestic goats and garbage. “Based on what happened to these carnivorous animals [которые едят продукты человека]we think that the gray wolves will change,” says Newsom.
A new diet of wolves can affect everything from the size of their flocks to social behavior, Reports a team of scientists. Like dingo, these wolves are likely to mate with a large number of dogs, and in North America – with coyotes, say the researchers.
Newsom expects that they will also begin to move away genetically from wolf-hunters, just as it happened with the “garbage” dingoes. Since it is believed that the ancient wolves evolved into dogs, using food and garbage in human camps, we can now see the “makings of a new dog”, hypothesizes Newsom, which plans to begin testing his idea with wolves in Washington State.
Not all scholars share the position of Newsom. “I doubt that we are domesticating wolves who eat the waste left by humans,” said Robert Wayne, an evolutionary biologist and dog geneticist at the University of California, Los Angeles. “It’s more likely that this diet kills them.”
Unlike the “dump garbage” dingoes that have reduced their territories, wolves are still so widespread that wolves are less likely to be genetically isolated from the rest of the population, he says. Lynx, coyotes and other animals that are already well integrated into the human environment are more likely to become domesticated, he adds.
Wayne and News agree that for all these species the best result is not the domestication but the restoration of their habitats And natural extraction in places where they can avoid people, livestock and debris. Newsom says that if people do this, we will not have a new dog. But we will have wolves.
The scientific work is published in the journal Science
DOI: 10.1126 / science.aal1007
