1 00:00:00,920 --> 00:00:04,080 Speaker 1: Hello, friends, It's me Josh, and for this week's select, 2 00:00:04,120 --> 00:00:07,480 Speaker 1: I chose our September two thousand and fourteen episode How 3 00:00:07,560 --> 00:00:11,280 Speaker 1: Animal Domestication Works. First, I want to congratulate you on 4 00:00:11,440 --> 00:00:15,000 Speaker 1: being curious enough that you pressed play and what seems 5 00:00:15,040 --> 00:00:17,600 Speaker 1: like it might be a very boring topic, but your 6 00:00:17,640 --> 00:00:21,079 Speaker 1: adventurousness will be rewarded. Indeed, because this is one of 7 00:00:21,120 --> 00:00:24,119 Speaker 1: those stuff you should know episodes that sounds dull, but 8 00:00:24,120 --> 00:00:26,639 Speaker 1: it turns out to be super interesting. I hope you 9 00:00:26,720 --> 00:00:28,920 Speaker 1: enjoy it and spend the rest of your day patting 10 00:00:28,920 --> 00:00:35,680 Speaker 1: yourself on the back. Go ahead, you deserve it. Welcome 11 00:00:35,800 --> 00:00:44,920 Speaker 1: to Stuff you Should Know, a production of I Heart Radio. Hey, 12 00:00:44,960 --> 00:00:47,840 Speaker 1: and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles 13 00:00:47,920 --> 00:00:52,680 Speaker 1: W Chuck Bright, and our buddy Noel who's producing us. Yeah. Uh, 14 00:00:52,800 --> 00:00:59,800 Speaker 1: and that's stuff you should know it. How's it going fine? 15 00:01:00,040 --> 00:01:04,440 Speaker 1: Why do you guys? That's just friendly? The ice breaker? Oh? 16 00:01:04,520 --> 00:01:08,040 Speaker 1: I see, yeah, as if we didn't just record another joke, 17 00:01:08,400 --> 00:01:12,760 Speaker 1: we did. It was on police and terrogage. That's right, 18 00:01:13,319 --> 00:01:20,640 Speaker 1: So Chuck, Yes, you've heard of Jared Diamond before? Right? No? Yes? 19 00:01:21,000 --> 00:01:26,399 Speaker 1: Rang familiar guns, germs and steel Okay, he uh he 20 00:01:26,640 --> 00:01:29,640 Speaker 1: Um wrote Collapse. He's known for that those two books. 21 00:01:29,680 --> 00:01:31,560 Speaker 1: Don't think I know that one. I think it came 22 00:01:31,600 --> 00:01:35,640 Speaker 1: after guns Terms and steel Um. But he wrote one 23 00:01:35,640 --> 00:01:38,840 Speaker 1: of my favorite journal articles of all time is called 24 00:01:38,959 --> 00:01:41,920 Speaker 1: the Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race 25 00:01:42,360 --> 00:01:45,920 Speaker 1: about agriculture, about transitioning to agriculture. I was going to 26 00:01:46,040 --> 00:01:48,640 Speaker 1: guess on what that might be. Oh, sorry, that's right. 27 00:01:48,720 --> 00:01:50,240 Speaker 1: What do you what do you guess that it's about 28 00:01:51,640 --> 00:01:54,920 Speaker 1: the agriculture. Well, the thing is is it may be 29 00:01:55,120 --> 00:01:56,840 Speaker 1: the worst mistake in the history of the human rights. 30 00:01:56,840 --> 00:02:00,320 Speaker 1: I've talked about it a million times. Um. The article 31 00:02:00,360 --> 00:02:03,480 Speaker 1: that is um. But he also wrote this really interesting 32 00:02:03,600 --> 00:02:08,600 Speaker 1: article called Evolution, Consequences and Future of Plant and Animal Domestication, 33 00:02:09,280 --> 00:02:13,560 Speaker 1: which sounds extremely boring, and it's in Nature, the journal Nature. 34 00:02:13,840 --> 00:02:17,720 Speaker 1: That it isn't boring. It's really really interesting because in 35 00:02:17,840 --> 00:02:21,720 Speaker 1: it he talks about animal domestication and he says that 36 00:02:21,800 --> 00:02:24,960 Speaker 1: it came about as a result of typically and about 37 00:02:25,040 --> 00:02:29,000 Speaker 1: the same time as agriculture, the Neolithic revolution, where we 38 00:02:29,040 --> 00:02:35,880 Speaker 1: went from hunter gatherers to agriculturists right to farmers, and 39 00:02:35,960 --> 00:02:39,440 Speaker 1: everything changed, like we grew shorter in stature, our brains 40 00:02:39,440 --> 00:02:44,920 Speaker 1: grew smaller, um our jaws grew shorter. Um. We we 41 00:02:45,320 --> 00:02:49,520 Speaker 1: got just weird in a bunch of different ways, right, Um. 42 00:02:49,800 --> 00:02:52,160 Speaker 1: And it was as a result of agriculture. And if 43 00:02:52,200 --> 00:02:55,560 Speaker 1: you look at what happens when we domesticate animals, when 44 00:02:55,600 --> 00:02:57,959 Speaker 1: we take them from the wild and we plant them 45 00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:01,320 Speaker 1: next to us on a farm, the same thing happens. 46 00:03:01,960 --> 00:03:04,920 Speaker 1: So his point is, what he's arguing is that not 47 00:03:05,080 --> 00:03:09,680 Speaker 1: only did humans domesticate animals, humans in turn have become 48 00:03:09,720 --> 00:03:15,440 Speaker 1: domesticated themselves through agriculture. Yeah, there's probably nothing that's had 49 00:03:15,520 --> 00:03:19,680 Speaker 1: a greater impact, no single transition or change or concept 50 00:03:19,720 --> 00:03:23,760 Speaker 1: that's had a greater impact on Homo sapiens than the 51 00:03:23,840 --> 00:03:28,080 Speaker 1: Neolithic revolution or the transition to agriculture. And a big 52 00:03:28,120 --> 00:03:31,320 Speaker 1: part of that was the domestication of animals. Yeah, they 53 00:03:31,360 --> 00:03:34,080 Speaker 1: kind of went hand in hand, in a hoof in hand, 54 00:03:34,840 --> 00:03:38,120 Speaker 1: which to me is hilarious because consider this, I think 55 00:03:38,200 --> 00:03:40,760 Speaker 1: this is the funniest thing I've ever thought of in 56 00:03:40,800 --> 00:03:45,160 Speaker 1: my life. Imagine being an alien come down to Earth, 57 00:03:45,240 --> 00:03:49,120 Speaker 1: all right, and uh, you're just walking along taking everything 58 00:03:49,200 --> 00:03:53,880 Speaker 1: in and you see a human riding horse and us 59 00:03:54,240 --> 00:03:56,920 Speaker 1: it's a human riding a horse. It makes during complete sense. 60 00:03:57,320 --> 00:03:59,720 Speaker 1: But if you're an alien, you see an animal riding 61 00:03:59,760 --> 00:04:02,200 Speaker 1: in their animal, and that would have to be the 62 00:04:02,240 --> 00:04:07,240 Speaker 1: funniest thing you've ever seen ever. If you're a margin, Yeah, 63 00:04:07,280 --> 00:04:10,600 Speaker 1: an animal riding another animal. Yeah, you know, like those 64 00:04:10,640 --> 00:04:13,520 Speaker 1: little cowboy monkeys that ride dogs and stuff like that. 65 00:04:13,680 --> 00:04:16,719 Speaker 1: It's hilarious. And that same thing, it's the exact same thing. 66 00:04:17,040 --> 00:04:19,000 Speaker 1: Or when you watch Planet of the Apes, the an 67 00:04:19,040 --> 00:04:24,320 Speaker 1: ape riding a horse. That's not funny, that's unsettling, that's terrifying. Yeah, 68 00:04:24,480 --> 00:04:28,120 Speaker 1: that is the funniest thing ever you've ever said, Yes, 69 00:04:28,200 --> 00:04:31,560 Speaker 1: it is. Um. So man, that was a good setup. 70 00:04:32,080 --> 00:04:33,680 Speaker 1: Thanks man, It's been a while since we've gotten an 71 00:04:33,680 --> 00:04:38,120 Speaker 1: old Josh story. I get really excited about anthropology. Uh, well, 72 00:04:38,160 --> 00:04:42,799 Speaker 1: we are covering um domestication, and I guess we should 73 00:04:42,800 --> 00:04:46,080 Speaker 1: say off the bat that not everyone is on board. Um. 74 00:04:46,279 --> 00:04:48,560 Speaker 1: Peter had to look this up because I wasn't sure 75 00:04:48,600 --> 00:04:53,840 Speaker 1: what their actual stance was regarding animal domestication. You had 76 00:04:53,839 --> 00:04:57,960 Speaker 1: to look that up. No about pets, sure, I wondered. Um, 77 00:04:57,960 --> 00:05:02,560 Speaker 1: officially they are against pet keeping, but they they know 78 00:05:02,680 --> 00:05:05,640 Speaker 1: it's too late. They hate pets, but they know it's 79 00:05:05,640 --> 00:05:08,040 Speaker 1: too late. They're like, well, we know we're not. What 80 00:05:08,120 --> 00:05:11,359 Speaker 1: they are not for is for setting these animals free. 81 00:05:12,480 --> 00:05:15,480 Speaker 1: Here's why. The original co founder, I think UM is 82 00:05:15,960 --> 00:05:20,000 Speaker 1: Ingrid new Kirk is an animal abolitionist. But Pete is like, 83 00:05:20,040 --> 00:05:21,640 Speaker 1: it's way too far gone. We don't want you to 84 00:05:21,680 --> 00:05:23,600 Speaker 1: set these animals free, So we're going to fight our 85 00:05:23,640 --> 00:05:26,600 Speaker 1: fight on spaying and neutering and reducing that population is 86 00:05:26,680 --> 00:05:30,400 Speaker 1: much as possible. But they are still officially against pets. 87 00:05:31,680 --> 00:05:34,800 Speaker 1: But their position actually does make sense. It's extremely realistic 88 00:05:34,920 --> 00:05:40,520 Speaker 1: because there is a strict definition of a domesticated animal, 89 00:05:41,120 --> 00:05:45,560 Speaker 1: and domesticated animal is a is a species that was 90 00:05:45,640 --> 00:05:50,400 Speaker 1: formerly wild that has been taken in by humans and 91 00:05:50,640 --> 00:05:54,880 Speaker 1: whose characteristics have been so all ser radically altered by 92 00:05:54,960 --> 00:06:00,000 Speaker 1: humans that they can no longer feed themselves. Typically, Yeah, 93 00:06:00,000 --> 00:06:03,960 Speaker 1: it's it's when we actually change their genetic makeup. Yes, 94 00:06:04,080 --> 00:06:06,960 Speaker 1: And part of that change, part of the characteristic changes 95 00:06:07,040 --> 00:06:10,960 Speaker 1: that the food supply is controlled by humans. So if 96 00:06:11,040 --> 00:06:16,400 Speaker 1: you put say an average dog out, my dog luckily 97 00:06:16,400 --> 00:06:19,200 Speaker 1: would be dead in three days. Yeah, And somebody say, 98 00:06:19,200 --> 00:06:22,440 Speaker 1: well they would forage through garbage humanity. If you took 99 00:06:22,480 --> 00:06:26,760 Speaker 1: a dog out of any kind of human area and 100 00:06:26,800 --> 00:06:30,479 Speaker 1: put it in the area, it may return to a 101 00:06:30,520 --> 00:06:33,560 Speaker 1: primal state, in which case that dog is reverted to 102 00:06:33,760 --> 00:06:36,839 Speaker 1: a feral state. Now, a feral animal is one that 103 00:06:36,920 --> 00:06:39,719 Speaker 1: was formally domesticated and then went back to the wild. 104 00:06:40,880 --> 00:06:44,440 Speaker 1: If you take a single wolf and you teach it 105 00:06:44,760 --> 00:06:47,400 Speaker 1: to jump up and grab beef jerky out of your hands, 106 00:06:48,000 --> 00:06:51,320 Speaker 1: what you have there, because that's a tame wolf. Now, 107 00:06:51,440 --> 00:06:54,240 Speaker 1: tame wolf could still go fend for itself. It's a 108 00:06:54,560 --> 00:06:58,640 Speaker 1: it's a tame individual. A domesticated animal is one that's 109 00:06:58,839 --> 00:07:05,000 Speaker 1: born comfortable associating with humans. Yeah, And there's exceptions of course. Cats, 110 00:07:05,680 --> 00:07:07,800 Speaker 1: the domestic house cat being one. You could drop a 111 00:07:08,320 --> 00:07:10,440 Speaker 1: cat out in the middle of the woods and they 112 00:07:10,440 --> 00:07:16,040 Speaker 1: would survive. They would hunt mice and eat mice or whatever, squirrels, um. 113 00:07:16,200 --> 00:07:18,960 Speaker 1: So the and the domestic cat is its own species. 114 00:07:19,440 --> 00:07:22,880 Speaker 1: But that raises some questions under Jared Diamonds definition, the 115 00:07:22,960 --> 00:07:26,840 Speaker 1: stricter definition of a domestic animal. If if a cat 116 00:07:26,920 --> 00:07:29,680 Speaker 1: can just go like take care of itself, is it 117 00:07:29,720 --> 00:07:33,760 Speaker 1: technically feral or is it ever really domesticated? Yeah? Or 118 00:07:33,840 --> 00:07:37,120 Speaker 1: is it just an agreement, Hey, I'll catch the mice 119 00:07:37,160 --> 00:07:40,960 Speaker 1: in your house and I like that wet food every 120 00:07:41,040 --> 00:07:43,720 Speaker 1: day at five pm. So I'll just hang out here 121 00:07:44,520 --> 00:07:46,600 Speaker 1: and I like to sleep under your chin. Like the cat, 122 00:07:46,760 --> 00:07:50,080 Speaker 1: the cat is found an agreeable arrangement that it could 123 00:07:50,120 --> 00:07:53,000 Speaker 1: take or leave at any time. Yeah, mutually beneficial. As 124 00:07:53,040 --> 00:07:56,880 Speaker 1: we'll see that. That's a consistent thing in the domestication 125 00:07:56,920 --> 00:08:00,640 Speaker 1: of animals, is that, uh, some people believe that it's 126 00:08:00,640 --> 00:08:03,080 Speaker 1: good for the animal, it's good for the human. And 127 00:08:03,120 --> 00:08:05,560 Speaker 1: we have learned to uh scratch each other's backs in 128 00:08:05,600 --> 00:08:09,640 Speaker 1: many different ways literally even in some cases. So a 129 00:08:09,640 --> 00:08:12,560 Speaker 1: little bit of a good background for this one might 130 00:08:12,600 --> 00:08:17,640 Speaker 1: be to listen to our show on natural selection, because, um, 131 00:08:17,840 --> 00:08:20,600 Speaker 1: well it covers natural selection, but there's another kind of 132 00:08:20,600 --> 00:08:24,520 Speaker 1: selection called artificial selection when it comes to domesticating animals, 133 00:08:24,800 --> 00:08:26,640 Speaker 1: and that is not the same thing. That is when 134 00:08:27,120 --> 00:08:32,000 Speaker 1: humans are choosing these desirable traits and making it so 135 00:08:32,160 --> 00:08:36,680 Speaker 1: through breeding. Um, like the the original horses, the first 136 00:08:36,679 --> 00:08:40,760 Speaker 1: domesticated horses were they smoked cigars. They did. We broke 137 00:08:40,800 --> 00:08:43,040 Speaker 1: them of that have now there were small like ponies. 138 00:08:43,040 --> 00:08:45,640 Speaker 1: There were little ones, a little wild horses in Mongolia. 139 00:08:45,640 --> 00:08:53,160 Speaker 1: I think they call him the Zewalski's a family in Pittsburgh. No, 140 00:08:53,320 --> 00:08:55,680 Speaker 1: it was a Russian Army officer that they're named after. 141 00:08:55,800 --> 00:08:58,200 Speaker 1: But when you start your name with three consonants, I 142 00:08:58,280 --> 00:09:00,920 Speaker 1: never know which one is silent. Okay, so how do 143 00:09:00,920 --> 00:09:03,120 Speaker 1: you spell it? P r z oh. I was not 144 00:09:03,240 --> 00:09:06,480 Speaker 1: gonna guess that's w all Ski so I'm just gonna 145 00:09:06,520 --> 00:09:10,920 Speaker 1: say z Wolski's horse. But um, people were at one 146 00:09:10,920 --> 00:09:12,760 Speaker 1: point were like, man, I'd love to ride that thing, 147 00:09:12,760 --> 00:09:15,520 Speaker 1: but he's too small. So find the biggest one that's 148 00:09:15,520 --> 00:09:17,360 Speaker 1: a male, and find the biggest one that's a female. 149 00:09:17,520 --> 00:09:19,680 Speaker 1: Make them go have sex, and maybe they'll have a 150 00:09:19,679 --> 00:09:23,920 Speaker 1: bigger one, bigger son, and then make that one mate 151 00:09:23,920 --> 00:09:26,079 Speaker 1: with someone big. And eventually these things are going to 152 00:09:26,120 --> 00:09:27,800 Speaker 1: be big enough to where we can ride them, and 153 00:09:27,840 --> 00:09:30,400 Speaker 1: then by proxy throw away the ones that don't fit 154 00:09:30,480 --> 00:09:33,480 Speaker 1: the criteria that we want or use them for something else. 155 00:09:33,800 --> 00:09:36,719 Speaker 1: Sure food. But that's what we did with dogs too. 156 00:09:36,880 --> 00:09:43,720 Speaker 1: Like you got a bunch of different ones, right, say, big, small, soft, furry, um, fast, cuddly, 157 00:09:44,240 --> 00:09:46,640 Speaker 1: and we we said, well, we like this one for this, 158 00:09:46,720 --> 00:09:49,080 Speaker 1: and we like that one for that, and so artificial 159 00:09:49,120 --> 00:09:51,680 Speaker 1: selection was still going on. We were just spreading it 160 00:09:51,720 --> 00:09:53,960 Speaker 1: out all over the place. With like say a horse 161 00:09:54,080 --> 00:09:57,319 Speaker 1: or something. We wanted bigger and stronger because we wanted 162 00:09:57,360 --> 00:10:01,679 Speaker 1: to ride them. Uh, and we also wanted to apparently 163 00:10:01,960 --> 00:10:04,880 Speaker 1: drink their milk, which I did not know. But it 164 00:10:04,960 --> 00:10:07,560 Speaker 1: makes sense that horses produced milk because their mammals. But 165 00:10:07,880 --> 00:10:10,559 Speaker 1: apparently our ancestors used to drink horse milk. You never 166 00:10:10,600 --> 00:10:13,400 Speaker 1: had horse milk, no, I and I want to know 167 00:10:13,440 --> 00:10:17,120 Speaker 1: if there's anyone out there listening who's tasted horse milk, 168 00:10:17,480 --> 00:10:20,360 Speaker 1: please describe it. Did someone out there is drinking horse 169 00:10:20,400 --> 00:10:23,640 Speaker 1: milk right now while they're listening to the show. One 170 00:10:23,640 --> 00:10:26,920 Speaker 1: of our Mongolian listening straight from the teat. I think 171 00:10:26,960 --> 00:10:29,240 Speaker 1: they're like, they used the horse for all sorts of stuff. 172 00:10:29,280 --> 00:10:32,280 Speaker 1: The Mongolians. They're also like excellent riders. Yeah. I think 173 00:10:32,280 --> 00:10:37,440 Speaker 1: that that Zawolski's horses is in Mongolia again, Yeah, after 174 00:10:37,720 --> 00:10:40,559 Speaker 1: being nearly extinct. I might be wrong about that. So um. 175 00:10:40,640 --> 00:10:43,400 Speaker 1: In addition to selecting the big horse, we also did 176 00:10:43,440 --> 00:10:47,360 Speaker 1: some cool stuff with sheep. We um we selected out 177 00:10:47,520 --> 00:10:52,800 Speaker 1: there they had um, longer, coarser hair that we didn't want. 178 00:10:52,840 --> 00:10:55,839 Speaker 1: That's the camp. We wanted the softer stuff that was 179 00:10:55,880 --> 00:10:58,959 Speaker 1: inside a k a the wool, So we bred sheep 180 00:10:59,360 --> 00:11:02,680 Speaker 1: that had more wool than kemp until basically you can't 181 00:11:02,720 --> 00:11:04,680 Speaker 1: find kemp in sheep any longer. And they were one 182 00:11:04,720 --> 00:11:07,840 Speaker 1: of the first domesticated animals, right the sheep. Yet they 183 00:11:07,880 --> 00:11:12,480 Speaker 1: were um chickens uh don't normally produce eggs as frequently 184 00:11:12,559 --> 00:11:16,920 Speaker 1: as as they do uh once they've been domesticated, and 185 00:11:17,000 --> 00:11:19,760 Speaker 1: like a Rhode Island red will produce five to seven 186 00:11:19,800 --> 00:11:23,480 Speaker 1: a week. That's a lot of eggs. Yeah, apparently the 187 00:11:23,520 --> 00:11:25,640 Speaker 1: original chicken too. I didn't look this up, but I 188 00:11:25,720 --> 00:11:29,079 Speaker 1: remember a friend of mine that was a vegetarian. I 189 00:11:29,200 --> 00:11:31,719 Speaker 1: witnessed an argument between the vegetarian and mediate, which is 190 00:11:31,720 --> 00:11:35,319 Speaker 1: always fun because I don't get involved in that stuff. Um, 191 00:11:35,360 --> 00:11:36,680 Speaker 1: and I think when I was like, well, look at 192 00:11:36,679 --> 00:11:38,040 Speaker 1: the chickens. You know what else are they gonna do? 193 00:11:38,640 --> 00:11:40,640 Speaker 1: You know what are they good for? And he was like, dude, 194 00:11:40,640 --> 00:11:43,520 Speaker 1: the original chicken wasn't anything like this chicken. The original 195 00:11:43,520 --> 00:11:46,280 Speaker 1: wild chicken was like taller and leaner and ran super 196 00:11:46,320 --> 00:11:50,720 Speaker 1: fast and road runner. I guess, yeah, I guess, solve 197 00:11:50,800 --> 00:11:56,000 Speaker 1: crimes and and did all sorts of chicken e things 198 00:11:56,160 --> 00:11:59,200 Speaker 1: that weren't just being slaughtered for food. And apparently the 199 00:11:59,240 --> 00:12:04,320 Speaker 1: first chickens were domesticated. They think for um cock fighting, Yeah, 200 00:12:04,320 --> 00:12:07,680 Speaker 1: for entertainment. Yeah, crazy. We have a shameful, shapeful history, 201 00:12:07,679 --> 00:12:13,480 Speaker 1: don't we as people humans? Yeah? So Diamond, Um, you 202 00:12:13,480 --> 00:12:15,600 Speaker 1: you would think, if we can domesticate animals, why don't 203 00:12:15,600 --> 00:12:18,640 Speaker 1: we just domesticate them all and use them for purposes? Uh? 204 00:12:18,679 --> 00:12:21,920 Speaker 1: And Diamond rites that only about fourteen animal species out 205 00:12:21,920 --> 00:12:25,559 Speaker 1: of a hundred and forty eight cannets have been domesticated, 206 00:12:25,600 --> 00:12:30,240 Speaker 1: and that's because we can't domesticate every animal. There's certain things, 207 00:12:30,240 --> 00:12:34,240 Speaker 1: certain criteria that even opens up the possibility. Yeah, there's 208 00:12:34,280 --> 00:12:37,720 Speaker 1: like a six point checklist basically, and it's not progressive. 209 00:12:38,120 --> 00:12:41,439 Speaker 1: If any one of these with these characteristics or traits 210 00:12:41,840 --> 00:12:45,160 Speaker 1: isn't matt, Yeah, it pretty much just throws off the 211 00:12:45,160 --> 00:12:47,560 Speaker 1: whole deal. So you gotta have all six, all right? 212 00:12:47,640 --> 00:12:50,560 Speaker 1: Those six are the first. One is the right diet 213 00:12:50,559 --> 00:12:55,600 Speaker 1: if you're a picky animal like, um, what's what's the 214 00:12:55,600 --> 00:12:59,240 Speaker 1: one that only eats bamboo? The bamboo toad? Those dumb 215 00:12:59,840 --> 00:13:05,040 Speaker 1: the um koalas koalas now they eucalyptus. And yeah, man, 216 00:13:05,080 --> 00:13:07,280 Speaker 1: I'm glad you remember that. Yeah, you're not gonna be 217 00:13:07,320 --> 00:13:09,880 Speaker 1: able to domesticate a koala because what you want is 218 00:13:09,920 --> 00:13:13,240 Speaker 1: something that you can feed in mass quantities on cheap 219 00:13:13,400 --> 00:13:18,080 Speaker 1: accessible food. Oh well, actually bamboo would be the way 220 00:13:18,080 --> 00:13:21,160 Speaker 1: to go. It's eucalyptus. Yeah, I don't know how eucalyptus 221 00:13:21,160 --> 00:13:24,880 Speaker 1: because if they bamboo, they'd probably be domesticated in that. Well. No, 222 00:13:25,040 --> 00:13:28,200 Speaker 1: by cheap accessible food, I think they mean like millions 223 00:13:28,200 --> 00:13:30,120 Speaker 1: of pounds of feed that you can put in a 224 00:13:30,160 --> 00:13:32,439 Speaker 1: trough to Bamboo is like one of the fastest growing 225 00:13:32,480 --> 00:13:34,720 Speaker 1: plants on Earth. Not I realize that I've got it 226 00:13:35,080 --> 00:13:39,040 Speaker 1: still talking about eucalyptus, but it's eucalyptic. But this bamboo thing. 227 00:13:39,440 --> 00:13:41,960 Speaker 1: Have you heard about bamboo? You know, I have a 228 00:13:42,000 --> 00:13:47,280 Speaker 1: company that grows oh, Josh's Bamboo floors. The number two 229 00:13:47,320 --> 00:13:50,120 Speaker 1: thing is a fast growth rate. So um yeah, they 230 00:13:50,240 --> 00:13:53,360 Speaker 1: gotta you know, be able to grow quick and so 231 00:13:53,400 --> 00:13:55,920 Speaker 1: you can use them. Yeah. So, like if we'd figured 232 00:13:55,960 --> 00:13:59,640 Speaker 1: out how to use gorillas to build skyscrapers, that'd be 233 00:13:59,679 --> 00:14:01,920 Speaker 1: all him. But it would take forever to build a 234 00:14:01,960 --> 00:14:07,040 Speaker 1: skyscraper because gorilla is only reproduced fairly and frequently. Okay, 235 00:14:07,040 --> 00:14:09,840 Speaker 1: so we need something that can build a skyscraper fast. 236 00:14:09,960 --> 00:14:13,239 Speaker 1: And that's why that didn't work when they tried it. Yeah, 237 00:14:13,360 --> 00:14:15,760 Speaker 1: but that one gorilla wearing that hard hat a lot 238 00:14:15,840 --> 00:14:21,200 Speaker 1: of laughs. Uh, friendly disposition. Um, that's pretty clear. If 239 00:14:21,320 --> 00:14:25,520 Speaker 1: you're a Kodiak bear, you're not going to be domesticated. 240 00:14:25,680 --> 00:14:29,720 Speaker 1: They tried that. They tried grizzlies at one point. That's 241 00:14:29,720 --> 00:14:36,520 Speaker 1: a failed domestication. Yeah. Um. Zebras very famously can't be domesticated. Yeah, 242 00:14:36,520 --> 00:14:38,240 Speaker 1: because I imagine people would be like, man, I want 243 00:14:38,240 --> 00:14:40,280 Speaker 1: to ride that thing. It's cool looking. Yeah, and it'll 244 00:14:40,320 --> 00:14:44,000 Speaker 1: bite you to death. Really. Yeah. Apparently in that Jared 245 00:14:44,000 --> 00:14:48,280 Speaker 1: Diamond article, he says that zookeepers zebras account for more 246 00:14:48,360 --> 00:14:52,600 Speaker 1: injuries to zookeepers than any other animal at the zoo. Man, Yeah, 247 00:14:52,880 --> 00:14:58,600 Speaker 1: that is one piste off stripy horse. They're not horses 248 00:14:58,600 --> 00:15:02,280 Speaker 1: at all, though, are they? They're related for sure, But 249 00:15:02,440 --> 00:15:05,320 Speaker 1: the um so the zebras one and then koal is 250 00:15:05,360 --> 00:15:09,800 Speaker 1: too apparently are like ferocious little animals eat while that 251 00:15:09,880 --> 00:15:14,920 Speaker 1: they're try to eat in bamboo. Em right, um one 252 00:15:15,000 --> 00:15:18,840 Speaker 1: to three four, easy breeding, Yeah, that's pretty obvious. You 253 00:15:18,880 --> 00:15:21,840 Speaker 1: gotta be able to pump out little baby puppies quickly, yes, 254 00:15:21,880 --> 00:15:25,480 Speaker 1: because some animals like just shut down when you when 255 00:15:25,600 --> 00:15:29,800 Speaker 1: they're captive, like they don't breed like pandas have a 256 00:15:29,840 --> 00:15:32,560 Speaker 1: lot of trouble breeding and captivity cheetahs too. Is that 257 00:15:32,600 --> 00:15:34,240 Speaker 1: why it's always such a big deal when they're born 258 00:15:35,080 --> 00:15:38,240 Speaker 1: at the zoo or when like twins are born, like 259 00:15:38,320 --> 00:15:41,520 Speaker 1: at the Atlanta Zoo. Oh yeah, Man, I don't know 260 00:15:41,560 --> 00:15:44,880 Speaker 1: about zoos. Well, we did a podcast on that. I 261 00:15:44,920 --> 00:15:46,960 Speaker 1: think that's the conclusion we came to. Huh. I think 262 00:15:47,000 --> 00:15:48,480 Speaker 1: that was the title of it. Man, I don't know 263 00:15:48,480 --> 00:15:51,080 Speaker 1: about zoosh. What does he call her? Zoo's good or 264 00:15:51,120 --> 00:15:53,560 Speaker 1: bad for animals? Yeah, that was a good episode. Yeah, 265 00:15:53,560 --> 00:15:55,880 Speaker 1: that's one of those long lost, overlooked ones that are 266 00:15:55,920 --> 00:15:58,280 Speaker 1: so good. That's polarizing to man. I did some Facebook 267 00:15:58,320 --> 00:16:04,640 Speaker 1: posting about killer whales and captivity and people really feel 268 00:16:04,680 --> 00:16:09,000 Speaker 1: passionately about like Blackfish, about supporting Sea World or not 269 00:16:09,040 --> 00:16:12,280 Speaker 1: supporting Sea World. Um, and that black Fish is a 270 00:16:12,280 --> 00:16:18,080 Speaker 1: bunch of bunk. And apparently Blackfishes was highly manipulated. The 271 00:16:18,360 --> 00:16:20,680 Speaker 1: documentary was. But at the end of all of that, 272 00:16:20,720 --> 00:16:22,000 Speaker 1: I was like, I don't care. I just don't think 273 00:16:22,000 --> 00:16:26,320 Speaker 1: they should be kept in captivity this one particular thing. Um. 274 00:16:26,360 --> 00:16:30,000 Speaker 1: But that was just me respect of a social hierarchy. 275 00:16:30,080 --> 00:16:32,600 Speaker 1: That's a big one because if you don't, if you 276 00:16:32,640 --> 00:16:35,120 Speaker 1: can't be the alpha dog and the leader of the pack, 277 00:16:35,480 --> 00:16:38,560 Speaker 1: then you're gonna have a very hard time domesticating that animal. Yeah, 278 00:16:38,600 --> 00:16:41,560 Speaker 1: but with a cat being an exception, an animal um 279 00:16:41,560 --> 00:16:45,960 Speaker 1: that does follow a social hierarchy is basically pre arranged 280 00:16:46,040 --> 00:16:48,880 Speaker 1: to be domesticated because you just take that alpha male, 281 00:16:49,080 --> 00:16:50,760 Speaker 1: you punch him in the face a couple of times 282 00:16:50,760 --> 00:16:53,360 Speaker 1: in front of everybody, make them cry, and then now 283 00:16:53,440 --> 00:16:56,880 Speaker 1: you're the alpha male and you say start laying eggs, 284 00:16:57,640 --> 00:17:01,200 Speaker 1: and they listened to you, and then they're domesticated at 285 00:17:01,240 --> 00:17:04,200 Speaker 1: least in that respect, after you've punched the chicken. Yeah, 286 00:17:04,280 --> 00:17:07,040 Speaker 1: but that's a that's a big one. Is with that 287 00:17:07,119 --> 00:17:10,360 Speaker 1: social hierarchy, it sets them up there predisposed to our 288 00:17:10,440 --> 00:17:13,639 Speaker 1: method of domestication, which is listening to humans. And like sheep, 289 00:17:14,080 --> 00:17:19,280 Speaker 1: it's mind blowing because sheep there herd animal that follows 290 00:17:19,320 --> 00:17:23,280 Speaker 1: an alpha leader. Right. Yeah, and so we have gotten 291 00:17:23,440 --> 00:17:26,280 Speaker 1: so we're just show offs when it comes to animal domestication. 292 00:17:26,359 --> 00:17:29,920 Speaker 1: We're so good that we've taken one of our domesticated animals, 293 00:17:29,960 --> 00:17:33,840 Speaker 1: the dog, and put the dog in as the alpha 294 00:17:33,920 --> 00:17:36,720 Speaker 1: male of the sheep. Yeah, that's how sheep are hurted. 295 00:17:37,320 --> 00:17:40,720 Speaker 1: That's that's just showing off the aliens. That's another good 296 00:17:40,760 --> 00:17:45,280 Speaker 1: alien laugh. Well, the double domestications and the dog leading 297 00:17:45,280 --> 00:17:48,280 Speaker 1: the sheep. Um. And it's funny too if you've ever 298 00:17:48,320 --> 00:17:51,520 Speaker 1: had a dog that's a hurting has the hurting instinct 299 00:17:51,800 --> 00:17:54,800 Speaker 1: when you see that play out in your own home. Uh, 300 00:17:54,880 --> 00:17:56,240 Speaker 1: we used to see it all the time with Lucy. 301 00:17:56,280 --> 00:17:58,359 Speaker 1: She would totally hurt us, and when we let her 302 00:17:58,440 --> 00:18:01,280 Speaker 1: out in the backyard, she would walk the perimeter of 303 00:18:01,320 --> 00:18:03,320 Speaker 1: the fence, you know, instead of running through the middle 304 00:18:03,320 --> 00:18:08,720 Speaker 1: of it. Very interesting stuff to that original those original tendencies. Uh. 305 00:18:08,760 --> 00:18:10,720 Speaker 1: And then the last one is they want panic. Um. 306 00:18:10,760 --> 00:18:13,760 Speaker 1: If you have an animal that freaks out behind defence, 307 00:18:14,160 --> 00:18:17,720 Speaker 1: de yeah, it's it's uh that you're gonna have a 308 00:18:17,760 --> 00:18:19,399 Speaker 1: real hard time there. But like we said, there are 309 00:18:19,400 --> 00:18:24,320 Speaker 1: exceptions because wolves were fierce and cats uh don't follow 310 00:18:24,320 --> 00:18:27,080 Speaker 1: a pack leader. Um. And we're gonna get to dogs 311 00:18:27,200 --> 00:18:51,040 Speaker 1: and cats a little later. So if you listen to 312 00:18:51,119 --> 00:18:56,679 Speaker 1: our show on Cave Art, you know that. And on Egyptology, 313 00:18:57,240 --> 00:19:02,399 Speaker 1: you know the animals Mama vacation, Yeah probably, so you 314 00:19:02,400 --> 00:19:05,080 Speaker 1: know the animals have been tied to humans for a 315 00:19:05,080 --> 00:19:07,200 Speaker 1: long time and revered by humans for a long time, 316 00:19:07,520 --> 00:19:09,840 Speaker 1: as evidenced by the fact that they buried them and 317 00:19:09,840 --> 00:19:12,040 Speaker 1: they mummified them, and they painted them on their walls, 318 00:19:12,119 --> 00:19:16,600 Speaker 1: painted pictures of us riding them. Yeah yeah, um yeah. 319 00:19:16,640 --> 00:19:19,800 Speaker 1: They they think that the um the first animal to 320 00:19:19,840 --> 00:19:24,000 Speaker 1: be domesticated by far was the dog. How awesome is 321 00:19:24,000 --> 00:19:28,280 Speaker 1: that hunter gatherer society was and the dog were pals 322 00:19:28,320 --> 00:19:32,680 Speaker 1: long before agriculture ever came along. But about the time 323 00:19:32,720 --> 00:19:35,840 Speaker 1: of the agricultural revolution, which is and get this, check 324 00:19:35,920 --> 00:19:40,680 Speaker 1: this out, uh, ten thousand, five hundred years BP to 325 00:19:40,840 --> 00:19:45,600 Speaker 1: about forty five hundred years BP. Now what's before present? 326 00:19:46,400 --> 00:19:48,719 Speaker 1: Is that the new one? Yeah, that's like the scientific 327 00:19:48,760 --> 00:19:52,160 Speaker 1: way of saying, there's no like zero year or anything 328 00:19:52,200 --> 00:19:55,800 Speaker 1: like that. It's just ten thou five hundred years before present, 329 00:19:55,960 --> 00:20:01,080 Speaker 1: the full present, before present. Not British, that was New Zealand. 330 00:20:01,480 --> 00:20:07,600 Speaker 1: Uh So basically, at some point about ten thousand five 331 00:20:08,080 --> 00:20:13,440 Speaker 1: years ago, what they think happened is the Earth's climate changed. Um, 332 00:20:13,440 --> 00:20:16,080 Speaker 1: maybe we killed off enough of the mega fauna through 333 00:20:16,119 --> 00:20:19,560 Speaker 1: over hunting or through climate change they just went extinct. 334 00:20:20,040 --> 00:20:24,200 Speaker 1: And um, about that time, some plants came around that 335 00:20:24,240 --> 00:20:28,640 Speaker 1: we noticed we really liked and maybe accidentally, we started 336 00:20:28,760 --> 00:20:30,760 Speaker 1: growing them and then we figured out that we could 337 00:20:30,760 --> 00:20:34,200 Speaker 1: just select these ones, and through a process of artificial 338 00:20:34,240 --> 00:20:38,040 Speaker 1: and natural selection merged together, we got agriculture. And about 339 00:20:38,040 --> 00:20:44,440 Speaker 1: that same time we started to domesticate pigs, sheep, and cattle. 340 00:20:45,080 --> 00:20:47,200 Speaker 1: I think we're the big first three and they still 341 00:20:47,240 --> 00:20:51,480 Speaker 1: are the big three, Like those are the money domesticated animals, 342 00:20:51,480 --> 00:20:53,359 Speaker 1: you know. Well, yeah, and like you said, it's tied 343 00:20:53,400 --> 00:20:56,240 Speaker 1: to human natural selection as well, because if you are 344 00:20:56,280 --> 00:20:59,679 Speaker 1: the tribe that has figured out how to keep cattle, 345 00:21:00,280 --> 00:21:03,320 Speaker 1: then you're going to do better than your neighboring tribe 346 00:21:03,359 --> 00:21:06,040 Speaker 1: that hasn't yet. And so you are going to be 347 00:21:06,080 --> 00:21:09,000 Speaker 1: more successful as a civilization. Yeah, you are, and you're 348 00:21:09,040 --> 00:21:11,440 Speaker 1: going to conquer like we talked about and I think 349 00:21:11,480 --> 00:21:14,800 Speaker 1: the Royalty one when we talked a lot about UM 350 00:21:15,040 --> 00:21:19,880 Speaker 1: tribes conquering other tribes through agriculture, through exporting agriculture and 351 00:21:20,000 --> 00:21:23,200 Speaker 1: um as a result. Jared Diamond points out eight percent 352 00:21:23,240 --> 00:21:27,800 Speaker 1: of humans alive today speak one of seven language families 353 00:21:28,640 --> 00:21:31,600 Speaker 1: and they come from two places in Eurasia, which were 354 00:21:31,600 --> 00:21:34,920 Speaker 1: the first places for agriculture to take group. So basically 355 00:21:35,520 --> 00:21:42,479 Speaker 1: those tribes were so effective because of agriculture. Today we 356 00:21:42,600 --> 00:21:45,920 Speaker 1: still basically the vast majority of speak one of seven 357 00:21:46,000 --> 00:21:51,280 Speaker 1: language groups. That's crazy years, all these thousands of years later, 358 00:21:52,000 --> 00:21:56,119 Speaker 1: that's how effective agriculture was, it, asserting Authorida, we should 359 00:21:56,119 --> 00:21:59,200 Speaker 1: do one on agriculture, the birth of agriculture. I can't 360 00:21:59,200 --> 00:22:02,919 Speaker 1: believe we haven't it. Yeah, let's do it, agreed. So 361 00:22:03,000 --> 00:22:07,960 Speaker 1: back to animals. Uh, here's a little breakdown of where 362 00:22:08,040 --> 00:22:12,080 Speaker 1: some of your favorite animals came from. So in Southeast 363 00:22:12,080 --> 00:22:16,000 Speaker 1: Asia's where you uh first got your goats, pick pigs, 364 00:22:16,920 --> 00:22:21,800 Speaker 1: sheep and dogs. Southwest Asia. Yeah, we've gone over to 365 00:22:21,840 --> 00:22:26,040 Speaker 1: Central it's like Mesopotamia. Okay, these are the birth of 366 00:22:26,040 --> 00:22:29,439 Speaker 1: it all. Yes, um, Central Asia, you're gonna get your 367 00:22:29,520 --> 00:22:34,440 Speaker 1: chickens and you're too humped bactry in sadlets pronounced Yeah, 368 00:22:34,440 --> 00:22:39,360 Speaker 1: it looks like camel Central Asia. Yeah. And those camels 369 00:22:39,359 --> 00:22:42,520 Speaker 1: were actually, um, well known for long hair and they 370 00:22:42,520 --> 00:22:44,840 Speaker 1: can survive in cold climates. Yes, and they're not just 371 00:22:45,000 --> 00:22:49,520 Speaker 1: desert dwellers right. No. Apparently when they were domesticated, it 372 00:22:49,640 --> 00:22:53,679 Speaker 1: created such a revolution that some societies stopped using the 373 00:22:53,680 --> 00:22:56,200 Speaker 1: wheel because they're like, we don't need the wheel anymore. 374 00:22:56,440 --> 00:22:58,920 Speaker 1: We got camels. Like the wheel left all together and 375 00:22:58,960 --> 00:23:02,240 Speaker 1: then came back when someone said, uh, cars are pretty 376 00:23:02,240 --> 00:23:06,240 Speaker 1: cool too. Yeah, actually as much sooner than that. Um. 377 00:23:06,320 --> 00:23:09,119 Speaker 1: Arabia is where you have the Arabian camel with a 378 00:23:09,200 --> 00:23:15,000 Speaker 1: single hump. Um China they domesticated pigs and the water 379 00:23:15,040 --> 00:23:19,320 Speaker 1: buffalo and dogs. Move over to the Ukraine and you've 380 00:23:19,359 --> 00:23:23,600 Speaker 1: got the wild Tarpaan horses and uh so what most 381 00:23:23,600 --> 00:23:26,960 Speaker 1: folks think are the original um, the original the o 382 00:23:27,119 --> 00:23:30,760 Speaker 1: g the original horse, even though I read about the 383 00:23:30,880 --> 00:23:35,200 Speaker 1: small ones of Mongolia the Yeah it was new Ski 384 00:23:35,359 --> 00:23:40,600 Speaker 1: or the Kowalskie. Um. Yeah, I'm gonna have to look 385 00:23:40,640 --> 00:23:44,040 Speaker 1: that up. And then Egypt you've got your donkeys, and 386 00:23:44,080 --> 00:23:46,760 Speaker 1: then South America you've got your lama and your alpaca. 387 00:23:47,200 --> 00:23:49,240 Speaker 1: Lama as a beast of burden in the alpaca for 388 00:23:49,320 --> 00:23:52,760 Speaker 1: their soft wool, and the guinea pig for their meat. 389 00:23:53,520 --> 00:23:57,360 Speaker 1: Really yeah in South America, Yeah, the andies. I don't 390 00:23:57,400 --> 00:23:59,399 Speaker 1: want to eat a guinea pig. That's what they were 391 00:23:59,440 --> 00:24:05,639 Speaker 1: britt for. Ariginally wow. Um and those were some of 392 00:24:05,720 --> 00:24:08,439 Speaker 1: the earliest ones in Jared Diamond. Again, I know I 393 00:24:08,520 --> 00:24:13,280 Speaker 1: keep sighting them, but man, this guy's great ideas. Yeah, Okay, 394 00:24:13,320 --> 00:24:16,080 Speaker 1: so he's he's a modern man. Yeah, he's got a 395 00:24:16,080 --> 00:24:19,119 Speaker 1: little beat nick pointy beard and everything. Yeah, he's a 396 00:24:19,119 --> 00:24:22,280 Speaker 1: good guy. Let's get in touch with him. Okay, attention 397 00:24:22,400 --> 00:24:27,400 Speaker 1: Jared Diamond, please contact us for reasons we'll figure out later. Yeah, 398 00:24:27,520 --> 00:24:30,080 Speaker 1: stuff podcast at how Stuff works. Put in the subject 399 00:24:30,119 --> 00:24:33,480 Speaker 1: line I'm Jared Diamond, and now we're gonna get five. 400 00:24:34,640 --> 00:24:39,640 Speaker 1: It'll be lou Bega posing as Jared Diamond. Um So, 401 00:24:41,240 --> 00:24:45,280 Speaker 1: Diamond pointed out that over the last thousand years, only 402 00:24:45,400 --> 00:24:50,199 Speaker 1: one substantial animal has been added to the list of 403 00:24:50,240 --> 00:24:55,359 Speaker 1: domesticated animals. So basically we were good at it to start, 404 00:24:55,520 --> 00:24:59,960 Speaker 1: and we did everything we could. Basically almost all animal 405 00:25:00,000 --> 00:25:02,240 Speaker 1: holes that are going to be domesticated on Earth have 406 00:25:02,359 --> 00:25:05,639 Speaker 1: been domestically the hamster, it was the reindeer. Oh, the 407 00:25:05,680 --> 00:25:10,400 Speaker 1: hamster would until yes, I know. And if you read that, 408 00:25:10,400 --> 00:25:13,960 Speaker 1: that's technically a tamed animal. Oh, it's not domesticated, not 409 00:25:14,080 --> 00:25:17,800 Speaker 1: under the strictest definition, where it's like the animals are 410 00:25:17,920 --> 00:25:22,360 Speaker 1: born in their genetically, they're comfortable around humans, are born 411 00:25:22,400 --> 00:25:25,359 Speaker 1: that way. With it, with a tamed animal, you're like 412 00:25:25,440 --> 00:25:29,560 Speaker 1: inventing the wheel with each individual organism. With this, with 413 00:25:29,640 --> 00:25:32,800 Speaker 1: a domesticated animal. You've taken a wild species and you've 414 00:25:32,840 --> 00:25:35,840 Speaker 1: selected it enough so that when an animal is born, 415 00:25:36,400 --> 00:25:39,440 Speaker 1: it's cool being around a human, Whereas like if you're 416 00:25:39,440 --> 00:25:43,199 Speaker 1: around like a gerbil or a hamster baby, it's not 417 00:25:43,240 --> 00:25:46,280 Speaker 1: gonna be cool around you. It doesn't have, you know, 418 00:25:46,600 --> 00:25:50,040 Speaker 1: thousands of years of genetic information telling it that from 419 00:25:50,119 --> 00:25:52,600 Speaker 1: birth it can be comfortable with you because you're gonna 420 00:25:52,600 --> 00:25:56,200 Speaker 1: give it some pellets to eat, okay, Whereas a dog, 421 00:25:56,240 --> 00:25:59,919 Speaker 1: a puppy will just automatically snuggle up with you, right, 422 00:26:00,119 --> 00:26:03,880 Speaker 1: But think about getting close to a wolf pup. It's 423 00:26:03,880 --> 00:26:09,840 Speaker 1: gonna be problematic. M let's go try right now. Jever 424 00:26:09,920 --> 00:26:12,960 Speaker 1: see that movie Never Cry Wolf, the Disney movie from 425 00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:15,440 Speaker 1: like the mid eighties. It was so good. It wasn't 426 00:26:15,880 --> 00:26:19,280 Speaker 1: it was live action. No, it was way before his time. 427 00:26:19,400 --> 00:26:20,560 Speaker 1: No, no no, no, I totally know what you mean. I 428 00:26:20,600 --> 00:26:22,120 Speaker 1: can picture the guy in my head. He like goes 429 00:26:22,160 --> 00:26:24,560 Speaker 1: and lives with the wolf by himself. Man, that's a 430 00:26:24,560 --> 00:26:28,560 Speaker 1: good movie. Yeah, he was in I can't remember. He's 431 00:26:28,600 --> 00:26:32,159 Speaker 1: in another movie. So when when we did domesticated, like 432 00:26:32,200 --> 00:26:36,480 Speaker 1: I said, we we took a wild animal, underwent a 433 00:26:36,560 --> 00:26:40,000 Speaker 1: process through artificial selection to where it just became something different. 434 00:26:40,640 --> 00:26:44,720 Speaker 1: And there's certain traits that they're not quite sure how 435 00:26:44,760 --> 00:26:47,960 Speaker 1: they happen, but they're clearly linked to the genes that 436 00:26:48,040 --> 00:26:51,560 Speaker 1: lead to domestication, that take an animal and turn it 437 00:26:51,600 --> 00:26:55,879 Speaker 1: from wild to tame to domesticated. Um, and that have 438 00:26:56,080 --> 00:27:02,280 Speaker 1: outward signals and signs like floppy ears. Yeah. Um. The 439 00:27:02,400 --> 00:27:05,440 Speaker 1: only other animal in the wild that has floppy years 440 00:27:05,600 --> 00:27:08,639 Speaker 1: is the African elephant. Every other animal in the wild 441 00:27:08,640 --> 00:27:12,120 Speaker 1: has perky years. But it's almost like it's a signal like, Okay, 442 00:27:12,240 --> 00:27:14,640 Speaker 1: we're tame now, our ears don't need to perk up. 443 00:27:14,920 --> 00:27:18,600 Speaker 1: It totally is smaller brain size, Yep. They don't need 444 00:27:18,640 --> 00:27:21,480 Speaker 1: to be as smart um over the years if you're feeding. 445 00:27:22,119 --> 00:27:25,200 Speaker 1: As evidenced by my dumb dog Buckley, like I said, 446 00:27:25,240 --> 00:27:28,719 Speaker 1: he wouldn't survive two days in the wild. Um. My 447 00:27:28,760 --> 00:27:31,800 Speaker 1: neighbor one time left his dog out all night by accident, 448 00:27:32,520 --> 00:27:34,000 Speaker 1: and I was going out to the car the next 449 00:27:34,040 --> 00:27:36,399 Speaker 1: morning and this big rottweiler comes running over at me, 450 00:27:36,880 --> 00:27:38,400 Speaker 1: and I was like At first, I was like, oh man, 451 00:27:38,760 --> 00:27:40,960 Speaker 1: and then I realized it was Carter, and uh. I 452 00:27:41,000 --> 00:27:43,000 Speaker 1: went and banged on his door and he finally woke 453 00:27:43,080 --> 00:27:45,280 Speaker 1: up and he was like, Carter's in here. I was like, 454 00:27:45,359 --> 00:27:48,320 Speaker 1: I don't think so. And he had come home from 455 00:27:48,359 --> 00:27:50,800 Speaker 1: a long night let him out and forgot to let 456 00:27:50,920 --> 00:27:53,240 Speaker 1: back in a little Carter just slept on the front 457 00:27:53,240 --> 00:27:57,560 Speaker 1: porch like the sweetest thing ever. But Carter survived, is 458 00:27:57,600 --> 00:27:59,920 Speaker 1: my point. But sleeping on the front by sleeping on 459 00:27:59,960 --> 00:28:01,919 Speaker 1: the foot porch and being like scratching on it like 460 00:28:01,960 --> 00:28:07,040 Speaker 1: please let me in. Um so yeah, smaller brains, uh, 461 00:28:07,240 --> 00:28:12,080 Speaker 1: curly hair, um, sharp sense of sight and hearing. Um, 462 00:28:12,200 --> 00:28:14,600 Speaker 1: well it's lessoned. Yeah, it's lesson because they don't need 463 00:28:14,600 --> 00:28:17,920 Speaker 1: that stuff either, right, because they're being cared for by humans. 464 00:28:18,520 --> 00:28:21,479 Speaker 1: The humans are saying, you just get dumb or in charge. 465 00:28:21,520 --> 00:28:25,320 Speaker 1: Now we'll we'll teach everything you need to know. Um. 466 00:28:25,440 --> 00:28:29,400 Speaker 1: We got a lot of this data, this information from 467 00:28:29,560 --> 00:28:33,719 Speaker 1: a Jared Diamond very no, not even a very famous 468 00:28:33,760 --> 00:28:38,120 Speaker 1: study that went on for about forty years um by 469 00:28:38,160 --> 00:28:43,760 Speaker 1: a Russian geneticist named Dmitri Balleyev. And ballete said, Hey, 470 00:28:43,800 --> 00:28:46,800 Speaker 1: I'm going to figure out how domestication actually works, and 471 00:28:46,840 --> 00:28:50,959 Speaker 1: I'm gonna take um silver foxes and I'm going to 472 00:28:51,440 --> 00:28:55,160 Speaker 1: compress the domestication process and basically, over the course of 473 00:28:55,200 --> 00:28:57,520 Speaker 1: like thirty or forty years. Even after he died, his 474 00:28:57,760 --> 00:29:03,120 Speaker 1: UM his colleagues and UM interns and assistance carried on 475 00:29:03,200 --> 00:29:05,760 Speaker 1: this experiment. So it's been going on for maybe fifty years. 476 00:29:06,520 --> 00:29:10,880 Speaker 1: And UM they've found that you can get predictable results 477 00:29:10,920 --> 00:29:15,720 Speaker 1: from domesticating animals. And they've domesticated some silver foxes. Um, 478 00:29:15,760 --> 00:29:19,280 Speaker 1: their ears started getting floppy, their skulls started to get smaller, 479 00:29:19,480 --> 00:29:22,000 Speaker 1: they started to get curly hair, some of them started 480 00:29:22,000 --> 00:29:26,920 Speaker 1: to bark, um, and they were born comfortable around humans. Yeah, 481 00:29:26,960 --> 00:29:30,160 Speaker 1: and here's the thing, um, if you've seen there's a 482 00:29:30,160 --> 00:29:32,320 Speaker 1: really cute video on the internet about a little fox 483 00:29:32,360 --> 00:29:35,400 Speaker 1: getting his belly rubbed, it looks sort of like dogs, 484 00:29:35,440 --> 00:29:38,600 Speaker 1: but they are DNA evidence. They have pretty much proven 485 00:29:39,080 --> 00:29:42,120 Speaker 1: that dogs are descended from the Asian gray wolf and 486 00:29:42,200 --> 00:29:45,200 Speaker 1: have nothing to do with foxes. But um, that's just 487 00:29:45,280 --> 00:29:49,880 Speaker 1: proof through this experiment that taming and domesticating this animal 488 00:29:49,960 --> 00:29:52,240 Speaker 1: can lead to these traits. Yeah, because a lot of 489 00:29:52,240 --> 00:29:55,400 Speaker 1: people are like, how do you get a Pomeranian from 490 00:29:55,400 --> 00:29:58,000 Speaker 1: a gray wolf? From hug from a gray wolf or 491 00:29:58,040 --> 00:30:00,080 Speaker 1: something like that. Have you seen that picture of that 492 00:30:00,240 --> 00:30:03,640 Speaker 1: pug who's um, who is clearly messing around with a 493 00:30:03,680 --> 00:30:07,400 Speaker 1: crawfish and gets his tongue bit and it's like in 494 00:30:07,520 --> 00:30:09,320 Speaker 1: mid air, and you know they have huge eyes that 495 00:30:09,400 --> 00:30:12,200 Speaker 1: are bulging out. Anyway, he's trying to like have sex 496 00:30:12,200 --> 00:30:14,360 Speaker 1: with the crawfis no, no, Like he was sniffing it 497 00:30:14,400 --> 00:30:17,200 Speaker 1: and just the crawfish like grabbed onto his tongue and 498 00:30:17,240 --> 00:30:19,960 Speaker 1: now the crawfish is hanging onto his tongue in mid air. 499 00:30:20,040 --> 00:30:24,520 Speaker 1: Is the pugs like squealing or Whatever's hilarious anyway? Um, 500 00:30:24,760 --> 00:30:31,040 Speaker 1: they they figured out that because of domestication, these traits change, 501 00:30:31,640 --> 00:30:35,240 Speaker 1: and like I said before, with you know, different kinds 502 00:30:35,240 --> 00:30:39,200 Speaker 1: of dogs, you get different kinds of well, different looking 503 00:30:39,280 --> 00:30:42,320 Speaker 1: dogs that we've selected for over time. Yeah, and it 504 00:30:42,600 --> 00:30:46,440 Speaker 1: didn't take that long apparently. Um, Apparently with canine specifically 505 00:30:46,480 --> 00:30:50,760 Speaker 1: selected breeding can affect the species really rapidly. And um, 506 00:30:50,800 --> 00:30:53,640 Speaker 1: there's been evidence of Pekinese dogs as far back as 507 00:30:54,120 --> 00:30:58,000 Speaker 1: first century a d. China. So, um, they weren't wolves 508 00:30:58,000 --> 00:31:01,040 Speaker 1: for long once we decided. And you know, there's different 509 00:31:01,040 --> 00:31:03,520 Speaker 1: theories on how that very first happened. Um. One of them, 510 00:31:03,520 --> 00:31:09,040 Speaker 1: which I like, is that people found abandoned pups and 511 00:31:09,120 --> 00:31:11,720 Speaker 1: it's just a natural human instinct to see a little 512 00:31:11,720 --> 00:31:14,440 Speaker 1: puppy and care for it. So they said, well, let 513 00:31:14,480 --> 00:31:17,160 Speaker 1: me take this little wolf puppy because it needs a home. 514 00:31:17,560 --> 00:31:20,000 Speaker 1: We should talk about the science of cute sometime. It's 515 00:31:20,080 --> 00:31:24,400 Speaker 1: really interesting an email the other day. We'll have to 516 00:31:24,400 --> 00:31:27,400 Speaker 1: do that one. Um. So yeah, that's one of the theories. 517 00:31:27,440 --> 00:31:30,640 Speaker 1: The other one is that, um, maybe some of the 518 00:31:30,680 --> 00:31:35,640 Speaker 1: more tame wolves would rummage around our garbage and for food, 519 00:31:35,800 --> 00:31:38,120 Speaker 1: and so if you were a more tame wolf, you're 520 00:31:38,120 --> 00:31:40,680 Speaker 1: more likely to survive, and eventually that would evolve into 521 00:31:40,760 --> 00:31:43,880 Speaker 1: a more dog like species. Yeah, because you're the human 522 00:31:44,000 --> 00:31:47,400 Speaker 1: garbage pile was much more reliable source of food than say, 523 00:31:47,520 --> 00:31:50,040 Speaker 1: like whatever was growing in the wild. So exactly, they 524 00:31:50,080 --> 00:31:55,080 Speaker 1: would be that's natural selection basically through artificial means almost yeah, um. 525 00:31:55,160 --> 00:31:59,560 Speaker 1: But either way, they think that dogs descended from wolves 526 00:31:59,640 --> 00:32:01,800 Speaker 1: or dive verged from wolves as long as a hundred 527 00:32:01,800 --> 00:32:05,080 Speaker 1: thousand years ago, but they didn't really start to undergo 528 00:32:05,160 --> 00:32:11,640 Speaker 1: the drastic morphological changes until maybe fifteen thousand years ago. Um. 529 00:32:11,680 --> 00:32:15,400 Speaker 1: And again all of this predates the advent of agriculture, 530 00:32:15,440 --> 00:32:18,040 Speaker 1: so that means that hunter gatherers and dogs were friends 531 00:32:18,080 --> 00:32:20,120 Speaker 1: for a while. And they think that the reason that 532 00:32:20,200 --> 00:32:22,880 Speaker 1: happened was because they figured out that a dog could 533 00:32:22,880 --> 00:32:26,320 Speaker 1: go flush out some corry, a hunter gatherer could spirit 534 00:32:26,920 --> 00:32:29,760 Speaker 1: and then tear off a piece and give the dog 535 00:32:29,840 --> 00:32:32,560 Speaker 1: some and eat some himself. And they had a symbiotic 536 00:32:32,720 --> 00:32:36,320 Speaker 1: hunting relationship that was aces Yeah, like we said earlier, 537 00:32:36,600 --> 00:32:39,520 Speaker 1: mutually beneficial. It was great for the dog. They were 538 00:32:39,840 --> 00:32:43,640 Speaker 1: fast and fierce, and we were smart and uh, because 539 00:32:43,680 --> 00:32:48,160 Speaker 1: we already mentioned dogs are are innately want to follow 540 00:32:48,720 --> 00:32:51,720 Speaker 1: a lead dog, an alpha dog. It just it was 541 00:32:51,800 --> 00:32:54,600 Speaker 1: kind of like the perfect relationship and it has been 542 00:32:54,640 --> 00:32:57,200 Speaker 1: ever since. Yeah. And one of the other cool things 543 00:32:57,240 --> 00:33:01,680 Speaker 1: about the domestication of the dog is they in ancient Rome, 544 00:33:01,680 --> 00:33:04,160 Speaker 1: apparently women. That's where they had the first evidence of 545 00:33:04,160 --> 00:33:09,080 Speaker 1: little lap doggies because they were supposedly cured stomach aches, 546 00:33:09,920 --> 00:33:11,760 Speaker 1: which of course they didn't. But I think it just 547 00:33:11,800 --> 00:33:14,200 Speaker 1: made someone feel better having a little dog curled up 548 00:33:14,200 --> 00:33:16,280 Speaker 1: on their lap. So how's your tummy feel? Now? We 549 00:33:16,320 --> 00:33:18,400 Speaker 1: selected them for that, So we selected them for that. 550 00:33:18,440 --> 00:33:22,920 Speaker 1: We selected um, oh, I don't know, sheep dogs to 551 00:33:23,080 --> 00:33:27,480 Speaker 1: herd and terriers to catch rats. And you know that 552 00:33:27,480 --> 00:33:30,600 Speaker 1: that explains all this variation in dog breeds. Yeah, I 553 00:33:30,640 --> 00:33:33,720 Speaker 1: saw a cold special on it the other day. It 554 00:33:33,800 --> 00:33:35,760 Speaker 1: was on I think it was on Animal Planet, but 555 00:33:35,800 --> 00:33:37,880 Speaker 1: it wasn't one of those just like look how cute 556 00:33:37,880 --> 00:33:40,400 Speaker 1: everything is. It was kind of like the science behind 557 00:33:41,040 --> 00:33:43,800 Speaker 1: the history of these animals. It was really cool. So 558 00:33:44,200 --> 00:33:46,040 Speaker 1: let's take a break and we'll come back and we'll 559 00:33:46,040 --> 00:33:49,160 Speaker 1: talk about cats and other stuff too right after this. 560 00:33:50,680 --> 00:34:07,560 Speaker 1: So okay, So cats don't follow in alpha male, which 561 00:34:07,640 --> 00:34:09,680 Speaker 1: leads to a puzzle of how they could possibly have 562 00:34:09,719 --> 00:34:12,600 Speaker 1: been domesticated, and if you talk to certain people, they 563 00:34:12,600 --> 00:34:15,839 Speaker 1: may not have ever really been domesticated. Cats don't look 564 00:34:15,960 --> 00:34:19,560 Speaker 1: different than their their ancestors, right, which means that it 565 00:34:19,640 --> 00:34:22,400 Speaker 1: makes it tough to go back and compare modern cats 566 00:34:22,440 --> 00:34:24,279 Speaker 1: to the cats and the fossil record and say, oh, 567 00:34:24,360 --> 00:34:27,520 Speaker 1: they diverged X number of years ago or whatever. Yeah. 568 00:34:27,560 --> 00:34:29,520 Speaker 1: That's one of my favorite things about cats is when 569 00:34:29,560 --> 00:34:33,160 Speaker 1: you look at a cat in the backyard, you know, 570 00:34:34,000 --> 00:34:36,239 Speaker 1: crouched down to leap on the bird, it looks just 571 00:34:36,360 --> 00:34:39,200 Speaker 1: like a big lion about to leap on the big bird. 572 00:34:39,360 --> 00:34:41,680 Speaker 1: The thing is, they're pretty sure that cats did not 573 00:34:41,840 --> 00:34:46,600 Speaker 1: diverge from big cats like lions. They think they came 574 00:34:46,640 --> 00:34:50,120 Speaker 1: instead from a couple of different wildcats a European wildcat 575 00:34:50,200 --> 00:34:52,799 Speaker 1: and an African wildcat, and both of those are still 576 00:34:52,800 --> 00:34:56,120 Speaker 1: around today, and they think that that's what the cats 577 00:34:56,640 --> 00:35:00,839 Speaker 1: last common ancestors were, or if you look like it, yeah, 578 00:35:00,880 --> 00:35:02,799 Speaker 1: like if you look at the African wildcat, looks like 579 00:35:02,840 --> 00:35:05,920 Speaker 1: just a bigger version of a dabby. Yes, And they 580 00:35:06,239 --> 00:35:10,360 Speaker 1: don't know exactly when they were domesticated, but there's evidence 581 00:35:10,400 --> 00:35:15,640 Speaker 1: that as far back as um years ago there's at 582 00:35:15,719 --> 00:35:18,720 Speaker 1: least one grave site where a cat was clearly buried 583 00:35:18,719 --> 00:35:22,800 Speaker 1: with the human, which indicates some sort of importance and um, 584 00:35:23,600 --> 00:35:28,480 Speaker 1: familial nous with a cat. And they love cats and dogs, 585 00:35:29,040 --> 00:35:32,279 Speaker 1: and I think cats were even had like a religious significance, 586 00:35:33,000 --> 00:35:36,759 Speaker 1: but or maybe both of them did. But because Anubis 587 00:35:37,040 --> 00:35:40,080 Speaker 1: that was the dog, right, I don't remember. I just 588 00:35:40,200 --> 00:35:44,400 Speaker 1: remember Horace was the hawk, right right. But ancient Egyptians 589 00:35:44,400 --> 00:35:47,080 Speaker 1: love their dogs and cats. It was Horace the dog. 590 00:35:48,400 --> 00:35:53,640 Speaker 1: I think Anubis was the dog. So um again, cats 591 00:35:54,200 --> 00:36:01,160 Speaker 1: probably are not technically domesticated, but um well, the reason 592 00:36:01,200 --> 00:36:03,600 Speaker 1: why we we took them in though, is the same 593 00:36:03,640 --> 00:36:06,160 Speaker 1: reason that some people still take them in now is 594 00:36:06,239 --> 00:36:10,960 Speaker 1: because they're good mousers. And that's pretty much the explanation 595 00:36:11,080 --> 00:36:14,840 Speaker 1: for domestication in a lot of ways. Like they animals 596 00:36:15,080 --> 00:36:20,360 Speaker 1: were useful for work, that's right. Um, so some of 597 00:36:20,400 --> 00:36:24,000 Speaker 1: the other animals, very ancient domesticated animals that we domesticated 598 00:36:24,000 --> 00:36:25,919 Speaker 1: for work, and I guess I should say it wasn't 599 00:36:25,920 --> 00:36:28,840 Speaker 1: just for work. Probably initially we domesticated animals for a 600 00:36:28,880 --> 00:36:34,560 Speaker 1: food supply, like their milk. Yeah. Um, things like cattle cows, 601 00:36:34,960 --> 00:36:38,560 Speaker 1: we domesticated them for milk, of course. Yeah, they're ancient 602 00:36:39,120 --> 00:36:44,520 Speaker 1: ancestor it's now extinct called the a rock and um, yeah, 603 00:36:44,560 --> 00:36:48,400 Speaker 1: that's what led to modern tame cattle apparently, right. Um, Oxen, 604 00:36:48,840 --> 00:36:52,919 Speaker 1: we domesticated them for work. Although there's milk from them, 605 00:36:53,080 --> 00:36:56,560 Speaker 1: you can pretty much drink milk from anything. Yeah, I 606 00:36:56,600 --> 00:37:00,400 Speaker 1: think was you can milk anything right at just a 607 00:37:00,440 --> 00:37:04,160 Speaker 1: little milking. Um. The ox I think was was even 608 00:37:04,200 --> 00:37:07,719 Speaker 1: stronger than the cow. And they would pull initially sledges, 609 00:37:08,480 --> 00:37:10,960 Speaker 1: like put a bunch of junk on that thing and 610 00:37:11,000 --> 00:37:13,520 Speaker 1: pull it over here, and then eventually plows and of 611 00:37:13,560 --> 00:37:17,760 Speaker 1: course wheeled wagons and um. Some say that we wouldn't 612 00:37:17,800 --> 00:37:19,760 Speaker 1: have even gotten to where we were with a wheel 613 00:37:19,760 --> 00:37:21,719 Speaker 1: if it hadn't have been for things like ox Yeah, 614 00:37:21,760 --> 00:37:23,759 Speaker 1: because we would have had to pull it. Yeah, that's 615 00:37:23,760 --> 00:37:28,040 Speaker 1: no good. Um, cheap. We eventually figured out that we 616 00:37:28,080 --> 00:37:31,560 Speaker 1: could breathe them for their wool, although apparently there was 617 00:37:31,600 --> 00:37:35,600 Speaker 1: a five thousand year differential between the time we domesticated 618 00:37:35,640 --> 00:37:40,720 Speaker 1: cheap in the time we started um using wool. Oh yeah, 619 00:37:40,840 --> 00:37:46,080 Speaker 1: before the loom, before they started weaving by hand. Goats. 620 00:37:46,640 --> 00:37:50,239 Speaker 1: Goats are great because they'll eat anything. Um, so they're 621 00:37:50,239 --> 00:37:54,919 Speaker 1: super useful. Um. You can be on infertile rocky land 622 00:37:54,960 --> 00:37:58,320 Speaker 1: and a goat is pretty happy. They're great climbers. Uh, 623 00:37:58,360 --> 00:38:00,960 Speaker 1: they eat them. Yeah, I got meat. Unfortunately, you can 624 00:38:00,960 --> 00:38:03,680 Speaker 1: make cheese out of their milk. Yeah. Um, did you 625 00:38:03,719 --> 00:38:06,560 Speaker 1: know that Kashmir comes from goats? Yeah, I do not 626 00:38:06,680 --> 00:38:09,520 Speaker 1: know that. I did not know that. Um. I think 627 00:38:09,520 --> 00:38:13,000 Speaker 1: they're just good for looking at and thinking are cute? Sure, 628 00:38:13,280 --> 00:38:16,839 Speaker 1: that's one thing. Uh. Pigs, of course are descended domesticated 629 00:38:16,880 --> 00:38:22,080 Speaker 1: from the wild boar and um. Pigs were domesticated mainly 630 00:38:22,120 --> 00:38:27,359 Speaker 1: because they would eat waste and trash, and so they 631 00:38:27,360 --> 00:38:29,560 Speaker 1: were handy to have around because they would eat our 632 00:38:29,560 --> 00:38:32,040 Speaker 1: trash and then we would eat them, right. And you know, 633 00:38:32,120 --> 00:38:35,239 Speaker 1: it's interesting. North America has a pretty fascinating history as 634 00:38:35,280 --> 00:38:40,040 Speaker 1: far as domesticated animals go. With pigs in particular, the 635 00:38:40,080 --> 00:38:44,160 Speaker 1: wild hogs in North America were not around. There are 636 00:38:44,160 --> 00:38:46,480 Speaker 1: a couple of pig like animals, but there's no true 637 00:38:46,920 --> 00:38:50,520 Speaker 1: wild pigs in North America, or there weren't until the 638 00:38:50,719 --> 00:38:54,200 Speaker 1: sixteenth century when De Soto brought a bunch of domesticated 639 00:38:54,239 --> 00:38:57,520 Speaker 1: pigs who wandered off, some of which wandered off and 640 00:38:57,600 --> 00:39:01,000 Speaker 1: became the wild hogs of the America's Well, that's the 641 00:39:01,000 --> 00:39:03,399 Speaker 1: same thing happened to the horse exactly. They originally came 642 00:39:03,440 --> 00:39:05,320 Speaker 1: over on the bearing Land Bridge and then went extinct. 643 00:39:05,400 --> 00:39:08,720 Speaker 1: And then the Spanish brought them over and they said, hey, 644 00:39:08,840 --> 00:39:10,680 Speaker 1: I don't know why they aren't horses here already, because 645 00:39:10,719 --> 00:39:13,239 Speaker 1: this is pretty great. The horses said that, and some 646 00:39:13,320 --> 00:39:15,960 Speaker 1: of them went feral. And now you have the horses 647 00:39:16,000 --> 00:39:19,520 Speaker 1: on Cumberland Island. Yeah they're still wild, aren't they. Yeah, 648 00:39:19,600 --> 00:39:24,839 Speaker 1: that's pretty amazing. They're faking it. Cumberland Island is here 649 00:39:24,840 --> 00:39:26,560 Speaker 1: in Georgia. For those of you that don't know, we're 650 00:39:26,560 --> 00:39:30,520 Speaker 1: not talking about some like South American country. No, Cumberland Island, Yeah, 651 00:39:30,600 --> 00:39:33,719 Speaker 1: right here in the South. Um. And you know it's 652 00:39:33,719 --> 00:39:35,840 Speaker 1: cool is and for me this is the fact of 653 00:39:35,880 --> 00:39:39,719 Speaker 1: the podcast. After the horse, the next step forward and 654 00:39:39,960 --> 00:39:46,680 Speaker 1: speed transportation was five thousand years later with the steam 655 00:39:46,840 --> 00:39:53,400 Speaker 1: traind years, horses were as fast as we could go 656 00:39:54,320 --> 00:39:56,640 Speaker 1: and uh, you know, tie up twelve of them to 657 00:39:56,719 --> 00:40:00,759 Speaker 1: that stage coach and we'll be twelve horses strong. But um, yeah, 658 00:40:00,800 --> 00:40:03,320 Speaker 1: for five thousand years is just amazing. And then finally 659 00:40:03,320 --> 00:40:05,400 Speaker 1: the invent of the steam engine, and the horses were like, 660 00:40:05,920 --> 00:40:10,520 Speaker 1: all right, fine, we'll go over here. But event apparently 661 00:40:10,560 --> 00:40:13,560 Speaker 1: at first they were used for their meat and their milk. Yeah, 662 00:40:13,640 --> 00:40:16,960 Speaker 1: horse milk again again, and then they were used as 663 00:40:17,000 --> 00:40:21,200 Speaker 1: a mode of transportation. Um. Donkeys also good for transporting. 664 00:40:21,440 --> 00:40:23,000 Speaker 1: Like we said in Egypt, you know they came out 665 00:40:23,000 --> 00:40:25,560 Speaker 1: of Egypt. Camels give for transport, and you've got a 666 00:40:25,560 --> 00:40:30,840 Speaker 1: couple of different kinds, the Bactrian and the Arabian camels. Um, 667 00:40:30,880 --> 00:40:35,920 Speaker 1: and the just using animals for transport and for work 668 00:40:36,960 --> 00:40:40,480 Speaker 1: kind of allowed for not only the agricultural revolution to 669 00:40:40,480 --> 00:40:43,120 Speaker 1: take hold, but for it to spread as well through 670 00:40:43,160 --> 00:40:46,040 Speaker 1: trade routes and stuff that allowed humans to just move 671 00:40:46,520 --> 00:40:49,840 Speaker 1: longer distances faster. So that was another big way that 672 00:40:49,920 --> 00:40:54,120 Speaker 1: domestication changed humanity helped spread like a plague over the 673 00:40:54,160 --> 00:40:58,040 Speaker 1: face of your so we could ruin everything. Yeah, I 674 00:40:58,080 --> 00:41:01,600 Speaker 1: guess we can talk about some other um, smaller livestock 675 00:41:01,680 --> 00:41:04,960 Speaker 1: like chickens and roosters. Um, like you said earlier, this 676 00:41:05,040 --> 00:41:07,320 Speaker 1: was I think maybe the second fact of the show 677 00:41:07,960 --> 00:41:13,200 Speaker 1: is possibly domesticated for entertainment as cock fighters. Yeah, which 678 00:41:13,200 --> 00:41:16,520 Speaker 1: is sad um turkeys. I didn't know this. They were 679 00:41:16,560 --> 00:41:22,520 Speaker 1: the um one of the few indigenous North American domesticated animals. Yeah, 680 00:41:22,719 --> 00:41:26,560 Speaker 1: Mesoamericans domesticated them. Who knew. I didn't know that either, 681 00:41:27,280 --> 00:41:30,480 Speaker 1: Although if that Fletcher boat you should read because stuff 682 00:41:30,480 --> 00:41:32,759 Speaker 1: like that comes up. I just need to read both 683 00:41:32,800 --> 00:41:35,120 Speaker 1: those at some point. I can't believe you haven't. I know. 684 00:41:35,400 --> 00:41:39,799 Speaker 1: Here's another one. Bees. We domesticated bees. I'm sure through 685 00:41:39,840 --> 00:41:42,960 Speaker 1: a very long and painful process. This is discussing four 686 00:41:43,680 --> 00:41:47,279 Speaker 1: as well. Um. But so we domesticated bees, and we 687 00:41:47,440 --> 00:41:51,279 Speaker 1: use bees to help us with another domesticated organism, the 688 00:41:51,280 --> 00:41:54,800 Speaker 1: almond tree. Oh yeah, so that's another one. That's like sheep, 689 00:41:54,840 --> 00:41:57,880 Speaker 1: dogs hurting sheep. Oh yeah yeah, but this is bees 690 00:41:57,960 --> 00:42:02,600 Speaker 1: pollinating almonds. Yeah. Well, bees, we did a great episode 691 00:42:02,600 --> 00:42:04,799 Speaker 1: on that. That's how we um sweetened everything for many 692 00:42:04,840 --> 00:42:08,520 Speaker 1: many years and still do using honey. But last night 693 00:42:08,560 --> 00:42:12,960 Speaker 1: it's still delicious in a cocktail. No on a biscuit, Oh, 694 00:42:13,160 --> 00:42:16,239 Speaker 1: nice little honey on a biscuit. Uh, did you make 695 00:42:16,280 --> 00:42:22,600 Speaker 1: the biscuit yourself? You did nice from scratch from the can? Yeah, okay, 696 00:42:22,640 --> 00:42:24,839 Speaker 1: those are good though, Oh yeah, you know it's real good. 697 00:42:24,840 --> 00:42:28,280 Speaker 1: I've noticed is the frozen ones in the bag instead 698 00:42:28,320 --> 00:42:32,120 Speaker 1: of the can. They they rise a lot more like 699 00:42:32,160 --> 00:42:35,239 Speaker 1: a traditional Southern biscuit to me, we wanted just like 700 00:42:35,560 --> 00:42:41,040 Speaker 1: a nasty, buttery like layer biscuit. Yeah, the flaky layers. Man, 701 00:42:41,080 --> 00:42:42,960 Speaker 1: those are good and it's always fun to open the 702 00:42:42,960 --> 00:42:46,319 Speaker 1: package too, and it's delicious with honey. But thanks to 703 00:42:46,360 --> 00:42:49,960 Speaker 1: a man named L. L. Lank Strath, he is the 704 00:42:50,040 --> 00:42:53,400 Speaker 1: guy who really made bee keeping. Uh. There are a 705 00:42:53,400 --> 00:42:55,560 Speaker 1: lot of people working with frames already, but he's the one. 706 00:42:55,880 --> 00:42:58,920 Speaker 1: He's the first guy that made removable and movable frames, 707 00:42:59,440 --> 00:43:02,920 Speaker 1: which apparent only bees will have a tendency to uh 708 00:43:03,120 --> 00:43:05,920 Speaker 1: tie their honey combs into the wall of the box, 709 00:43:06,000 --> 00:43:10,160 Speaker 1: let's say. And um, with those removable and movable frames, 710 00:43:10,160 --> 00:43:13,440 Speaker 1: they weren't I couldn't do that anymore. And apparently that 711 00:43:13,560 --> 00:43:16,160 Speaker 1: made it really easy to manage them. So thanks to 712 00:43:16,239 --> 00:43:20,120 Speaker 1: him in eighteen fifty two, smart guy, we could uh 713 00:43:20,320 --> 00:43:24,240 Speaker 1: domesticate those bees for their delicious honey. And so here's 714 00:43:24,239 --> 00:43:27,880 Speaker 1: where it comes. Um kind of falls apart from me. 715 00:43:28,280 --> 00:43:32,440 Speaker 1: I could see saying bees are domesticated. They don't sting you, 716 00:43:32,920 --> 00:43:37,719 Speaker 1: they're used to being around people. Yeah. Um, silkworms yeah no, 717 00:43:37,719 --> 00:43:42,000 Speaker 1: no no. Uh, rabbits no. I would say that you 718 00:43:42,040 --> 00:43:44,200 Speaker 1: can tame a rabbit, but for the most part, they're 719 00:43:44,200 --> 00:43:48,520 Speaker 1: not domesticated. And then the same with hamsters, which I 720 00:43:48,560 --> 00:43:51,960 Speaker 1: didn't realize that they were this recent, Yeah, from nineteen thirty. 721 00:43:52,080 --> 00:43:56,480 Speaker 1: And another fun fact is supposedly the entire population of 722 00:43:56,640 --> 00:44:01,600 Speaker 1: domesticated or I'm sorry, tamed hamsters derives from that one 723 00:44:01,840 --> 00:44:05,480 Speaker 1: hamster family because they make so many little hamsters so quickly. 724 00:44:06,719 --> 00:44:09,400 Speaker 1: So you take issue with silkworms, rabbits, and hamsters, I 725 00:44:09,520 --> 00:44:13,920 Speaker 1: do as tamed but not domesticated. Yes, like the elephant, 726 00:44:14,040 --> 00:44:17,680 Speaker 1: Just because Hannibal rides an elephant doesn't mean it's domesticated. 727 00:44:17,719 --> 00:44:21,120 Speaker 1: It meant he had a tamed elephant to ride and chuck. 728 00:44:21,200 --> 00:44:24,480 Speaker 1: Just before we wrap up that, I mentioned that, uh, 729 00:44:24,719 --> 00:44:28,400 Speaker 1: humans in turn have been domesticated by agriculture. And we 730 00:44:28,520 --> 00:44:31,040 Speaker 1: have like we've gone undergone a lot of the same 731 00:44:31,120 --> 00:44:34,759 Speaker 1: changes that domesticated animals undergo when we domesticate them, Like 732 00:44:35,080 --> 00:44:39,640 Speaker 1: our reproductive period has increased because we don't have to 733 00:44:39,680 --> 00:44:42,120 Speaker 1: carry a kid like ten kilometers every day because we're 734 00:44:42,120 --> 00:44:44,560 Speaker 1: not hunter gatherers, so we can have more kids. Just 735 00:44:44,560 --> 00:44:48,200 Speaker 1: get on the horse and ride all over town exactly. UM. 736 00:44:48,280 --> 00:44:50,799 Speaker 1: And one of the other ways that we've changed, in 737 00:44:50,840 --> 00:44:54,319 Speaker 1: addition to some of us becoming lactose tolerant into adulthood, 738 00:44:55,080 --> 00:45:00,600 Speaker 1: is we've become um ravaged by and also immune to 739 00:45:01,040 --> 00:45:04,560 Speaker 1: a lot of diseases, a lot of epidemic diseases which 740 00:45:05,000 --> 00:45:09,279 Speaker 1: couldn't have ever existed prior to the advent of agriculture 741 00:45:09,320 --> 00:45:13,040 Speaker 1: for two reasons. One, it needs a dense human population 742 00:45:13,239 --> 00:45:16,279 Speaker 1: that agriculture supports for it to be spread around and 743 00:45:16,320 --> 00:45:20,799 Speaker 1: contracted and to really gain steam. And then secondly, it 744 00:45:20,840 --> 00:45:24,440 Speaker 1: also requires a lot of repeated close proximity to animals. 745 00:45:24,800 --> 00:45:28,040 Speaker 1: And it turns out that all of our epidemic diseases 746 00:45:28,520 --> 00:45:31,840 Speaker 1: come from the agricultural revolution and are hanging out with 747 00:45:31,920 --> 00:45:37,080 Speaker 1: livestock a lot like UM. For example, um influenza came 748 00:45:37,120 --> 00:45:42,320 Speaker 1: from pigs and ducks um measles and tuberculosis came from cattle. 749 00:45:43,040 --> 00:45:46,920 Speaker 1: Possibly smallpox came from cattle, if not camels. And then 750 00:45:46,960 --> 00:45:51,320 Speaker 1: get this, the very fact that all of these, almost 751 00:45:51,360 --> 00:45:55,720 Speaker 1: all of these worst epidemic diseases have their origins in 752 00:45:55,840 --> 00:46:01,400 Speaker 1: Eurasia mean that that's because our domestication took place in Eurasia, 753 00:46:01,480 --> 00:46:04,359 Speaker 1: which means that the people of Eurasia were able to 754 00:46:04,400 --> 00:46:08,080 Speaker 1: develop resistance and immunity over the generations to these diseases, 755 00:46:08,280 --> 00:46:10,120 Speaker 1: so they don't get these diseases as much, you know, 756 00:46:10,440 --> 00:46:13,359 Speaker 1: and when we came over, that's what wiped out the 757 00:46:13,400 --> 00:46:17,959 Speaker 1: North American New World populations because they didn't have any 758 00:46:18,320 --> 00:46:21,600 Speaker 1: resistance to these diseases. So you can really make a 759 00:46:21,640 --> 00:46:26,800 Speaker 1: case that agriculture changed everything more than anything else ever has. Wow, 760 00:46:27,280 --> 00:46:30,279 Speaker 1: So that's that you got anything else. I've got nothing else, man, 761 00:46:30,320 --> 00:46:35,839 Speaker 1: you need to read. I'll do that tonight. Okay, if 762 00:46:35,880 --> 00:46:38,399 Speaker 1: you want to know more about animal domestication, you can 763 00:46:38,440 --> 00:46:43,040 Speaker 1: type those two seemingly boring but rather fascinating words into 764 00:46:43,040 --> 00:46:45,040 Speaker 1: the search part house to work dot com and that 765 00:46:45,120 --> 00:46:48,359 Speaker 1: will bring up this article and then sussistant search parts. 766 00:46:48,360 --> 00:46:52,720 Speaker 1: Time for listener mail. I'm gonna call this Nielsen family. 767 00:46:52,800 --> 00:46:55,600 Speaker 1: We heard from quite a few got quite a few 768 00:46:55,600 --> 00:46:57,640 Speaker 1: people that showed pictures of their little like two and 769 00:46:57,719 --> 00:47:00,439 Speaker 1: three dollar packets, which just kind of neat. I don't 770 00:47:00,440 --> 00:47:02,799 Speaker 1: think it's even five dollars anymore. I think a couple 771 00:47:02,840 --> 00:47:06,200 Speaker 1: of people just got two dollars. Apparently they give you 772 00:47:06,239 --> 00:47:08,239 Speaker 1: two to sweeten the pot, and then once you do it, 773 00:47:08,280 --> 00:47:11,719 Speaker 1: you get more. That's what I think, all right, that's 774 00:47:11,760 --> 00:47:13,640 Speaker 1: what somebody I think said, Well, this is from a 775 00:47:13,640 --> 00:47:16,280 Speaker 1: real deal Nielsen family that got paid and they're from Atlanta, 776 00:47:16,320 --> 00:47:19,719 Speaker 1: from Grant Park Um. Apparently our address was picked at 777 00:47:19,760 --> 00:47:22,279 Speaker 1: random by their computer program, and they sent out a 778 00:47:22,280 --> 00:47:26,240 Speaker 1: representative with a gift set of ugly tumblers to convince 779 00:47:26,280 --> 00:47:29,239 Speaker 1: us to participate. We agreed because they pay you about 780 00:47:29,280 --> 00:47:32,120 Speaker 1: two hundred dollars every six months if you let them 781 00:47:32,120 --> 00:47:36,359 Speaker 1: track your TV and computer usage. Rob, who was the representative, 782 00:47:36,400 --> 00:47:39,279 Speaker 1: came by, installed the TV box and computer program, and 783 00:47:39,280 --> 00:47:41,680 Speaker 1: we check in on us in person every six months 784 00:47:41,719 --> 00:47:44,080 Speaker 1: and ask a set of questions about our life and 785 00:47:44,120 --> 00:47:47,759 Speaker 1: purchasing habits. They always asked about table wine, which I 786 00:47:47,760 --> 00:47:51,960 Speaker 1: thought was interesting. Uh, I don't know. Every time we 787 00:47:52,000 --> 00:47:53,800 Speaker 1: turned on our t they would have loved me because 788 00:47:53,800 --> 00:47:55,919 Speaker 1: I would just be drunk on table wine the whole time. 789 00:47:56,640 --> 00:47:58,239 Speaker 1: Every time we turn on the TV or opened up 790 00:47:58,239 --> 00:48:00,440 Speaker 1: our laptop, we had to press a button about who 791 00:48:00,520 --> 00:48:03,359 Speaker 1: was watching. Uh, and using the computer wasn't that hard, 792 00:48:03,360 --> 00:48:05,560 Speaker 1: but it became annoying after a couple of years. So 793 00:48:05,600 --> 00:48:08,560 Speaker 1: we're happy when our contract ended. Apparently they were really 794 00:48:08,560 --> 00:48:10,200 Speaker 1: excited to have us as a part of their program 795 00:48:10,200 --> 00:48:13,680 Speaker 1: because we were what they call a Grand Slam family, 796 00:48:14,760 --> 00:48:18,080 Speaker 1: which means we were young under thirty with over the 797 00:48:18,080 --> 00:48:22,000 Speaker 1: air TV, no cable antenna, and we owned a Mac. 798 00:48:23,200 --> 00:48:28,160 Speaker 1: So that's a Grand Slam apparently. Uh it seems yeah, 799 00:48:28,160 --> 00:48:30,000 Speaker 1: I guess. So it seems like we were pretty rare 800 00:48:30,040 --> 00:48:32,040 Speaker 1: fined in the world, in their world, so rare that 801 00:48:32,080 --> 00:48:35,480 Speaker 1: when our two year participation ran out, they all offered 802 00:48:35,560 --> 00:48:38,160 Speaker 1: us a year long extension. We also got a bonus 803 00:48:38,160 --> 00:48:42,160 Speaker 1: payment for being a minority household, which is hilarious because 804 00:48:42,360 --> 00:48:44,279 Speaker 1: both of us are white as can be, but my 805 00:48:44,360 --> 00:48:48,520 Speaker 1: husband is half Cuban. So that is from Laura and 806 00:48:48,600 --> 00:48:53,839 Speaker 1: Chris right here in Atlanta. Nice Laura and Chris Nielsen. Yeah, 807 00:48:53,920 --> 00:48:58,920 Speaker 1: the Nielsen family, no cable under thirty Mac users, the 808 00:48:59,120 --> 00:49:03,640 Speaker 1: Grand Slam Grand Slam. If you are a Grand Slam 809 00:49:03,719 --> 00:49:06,640 Speaker 1: family of some weird sort, we want to hear from you. 810 00:49:06,640 --> 00:49:09,280 Speaker 1: You can tweet to us at s y s K podcast. 811 00:49:09,680 --> 00:49:11,880 Speaker 1: You can join us on Facebook dot com slash Stuff 812 00:49:11,880 --> 00:49:13,759 Speaker 1: you Should Know. You can send us an email to 813 00:49:13,960 --> 00:49:17,000 Speaker 1: Stuff Podcast at how Stuff Works dot com and check 814 00:49:17,000 --> 00:49:19,200 Speaker 1: out our home on the web. Stuff you Should Know 815 00:49:19,320 --> 00:49:24,200 Speaker 1: dot com. Stuff you Should Know is a production of 816 00:49:24,239 --> 00:49:27,560 Speaker 1: I Heart Radio. For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit 817 00:49:27,600 --> 00:49:30,400 Speaker 1: the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you 818 00:49:30,440 --> 00:49:31,760 Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.