WEBVTT - Selects: How Animal Domestication Works 0:00:00.920 --> 0:00:04.080 Hello, friends, It's me Josh, and for this week's select, 0:00:04.120 --> 0:00:07.480 I chose our September two thousand and fourteen episode How 0:00:07.560 --> 0:00:11.280 Animal Domestication Works. First, I want to congratulate you on 0:00:11.440 --> 0:00:15.000 being curious enough that you pressed play and what seems 0:00:15.040 --> 0:00:17.600 like it might be a very boring topic, but your 0:00:17.640 --> 0:00:21.079 adventurousness will be rewarded. Indeed, because this is one of 0:00:21.120 --> 0:00:24.119 those stuff you should know episodes that sounds dull, but 0:00:24.120 --> 0:00:26.639 it turns out to be super interesting. I hope you 0:00:26.720 --> 0:00:28.920 enjoy it and spend the rest of your day patting 0:00:28.920 --> 0:00:35.680 yourself on the back. Go ahead, you deserve it. Welcome 0:00:35.800 --> 0:00:44.920 to Stuff you Should Know, a production of I Heart Radio. Hey, 0:00:44.960 --> 0:00:47.840 and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles 0:00:47.920 --> 0:00:52.680 W Chuck Bright, and our buddy Noel who's producing us. Yeah. Uh, 0:00:52.800 --> 0:00:59.800 and that's stuff you should know it. How's it going fine? 0:01:00.040 --> 0:01:04.440 Why do you guys? That's just friendly? The ice breaker? Oh? 0:01:04.520 --> 0:01:08.040 I see, yeah, as if we didn't just record another joke, 0:01:08.400 --> 0:01:12.760 we did. It was on police and terrogage. That's right, 0:01:13.319 --> 0:01:20.640 So Chuck, Yes, you've heard of Jared Diamond before? Right? No? Yes? 0:01:21.000 --> 0:01:26.399 Rang familiar guns, germs and steel Okay, he uh he 0:01:26.640 --> 0:01:29.640 Um wrote Collapse. He's known for that those two books. 0:01:29.680 --> 0:01:31.560 Don't think I know that one. I think it came 0:01:31.600 --> 0:01:35.640 after guns Terms and steel Um. But he wrote one 0:01:35.640 --> 0:01:38.840 of my favorite journal articles of all time is called 0:01:38.959 --> 0:01:41.920 the Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race 0:01:42.360 --> 0:01:45.920 about agriculture, about transitioning to agriculture. I was going to 0:01:46.040 --> 0:01:48.640 guess on what that might be. Oh, sorry, that's right. 0:01:48.720 --> 0:01:50.240 What do you what do you guess that it's about 0:01:51.640 --> 0:01:54.920 the agriculture. Well, the thing is is it may be 0:01:55.120 --> 0:01:56.840 the worst mistake in the history of the human rights. 0:01:56.840 --> 0:02:00.320 I've talked about it a million times. Um. The article 0:02:00.360 --> 0:02:03.480 that is um. But he also wrote this really interesting 0:02:03.600 --> 0:02:08.600 article called Evolution, Consequences and Future of Plant and Animal Domestication, 0:02:09.280 --> 0:02:13.560 which sounds extremely boring, and it's in Nature, the journal Nature. 0:02:13.840 --> 0:02:17.720 That it isn't boring. It's really really interesting because in 0:02:17.840 --> 0:02:21.720 it he talks about animal domestication and he says that 0:02:21.800 --> 0:02:24.960 it came about as a result of typically and about 0:02:25.040 --> 0:02:29.000 the same time as agriculture, the Neolithic revolution, where we 0:02:29.040 --> 0:02:35.880 went from hunter gatherers to agriculturists right to farmers, and 0:02:35.960 --> 0:02:39.440 everything changed, like we grew shorter in stature, our brains 0:02:39.440 --> 0:02:44.920 grew smaller, um our jaws grew shorter. Um. We we 0:02:45.320 --> 0:02:49.520 got just weird in a bunch of different ways, right, Um. 0:02:49.800 --> 0:02:52.160 And it was as a result of agriculture. And if 0:02:52.200 --> 0:02:55.560 you look at what happens when we domesticate animals, when 0:02:55.600 --> 0:02:57.959 we take them from the wild and we plant them 0:02:58.000 --> 0:03:01.320 next to us on a farm, the same thing happens. 0:03:01.960 --> 0:03:04.920 So his point is, what he's arguing is that not 0:03:05.080 --> 0:03:09.680 only did humans domesticate animals, humans in turn have become 0:03:09.720 --> 0:03:15.440 domesticated themselves through agriculture. Yeah, there's probably nothing that's had 0:03:15.520 --> 0:03:19.680 a greater impact, no single transition or change or concept 0:03:19.720 --> 0:03:23.760 that's had a greater impact on Homo sapiens than the 0:03:23.840 --> 0:03:28.080 Neolithic revolution or the transition to agriculture. And a big 0:03:28.120 --> 0:03:31.320 part of that was the domestication of animals. Yeah, they 0:03:31.360 --> 0:03:34.080 kind of went hand in hand, in a hoof in hand, 0:03:34.840 --> 0:03:38.120 which to me is hilarious because consider this, I think 0:03:38.200 --> 0:03:40.760 this is the funniest thing I've ever thought of in 0:03:40.800 --> 0:03:45.160 my life. Imagine being an alien come down to Earth, 0:03:45.240 --> 0:03:49.120 all right, and uh, you're just walking along taking everything 0:03:49.200 --> 0:03:53.880 in and you see a human riding horse and us 0:03:54.240 --> 0:03:56.920 it's a human riding a horse. It makes during complete sense. 0:03:57.320 --> 0:03:59.720 But if you're an alien, you see an animal riding 0:03:59.760 --> 0:04:02.200 in their animal, and that would have to be the 0:04:02.240 --> 0:04:07.240 funniest thing you've ever seen ever. If you're a margin, Yeah, 0:04:07.280 --> 0:04:10.600 an animal riding another animal. Yeah, you know, like those 0:04:10.640 --> 0:04:13.520 little cowboy monkeys that ride dogs and stuff like that. 0:04:13.680 --> 0:04:16.719 It's hilarious. And that same thing, it's the exact same thing. 0:04:17.040 --> 0:04:19.000 Or when you watch Planet of the Apes, the an 0:04:19.040 --> 0:04:24.320 ape riding a horse. That's not funny, that's unsettling, that's terrifying. Yeah, 0:04:24.480 --> 0:04:28.120 that is the funniest thing ever you've ever said, Yes, 0:04:28.200 --> 0:04:31.560 it is. Um. So man, that was a good setup. 0:04:32.080 --> 0:04:33.680 Thanks man, It's been a while since we've gotten an 0:04:33.680 --> 0:04:38.120 old Josh story. I get really excited about anthropology. Uh, well, 0:04:38.160 --> 0:04:42.799 we are covering um domestication, and I guess we should 0:04:42.800 --> 0:04:46.080 say off the bat that not everyone is on board. Um. 0:04:46.279 --> 0:04:48.560 Peter had to look this up because I wasn't sure 0:04:48.600 --> 0:04:53.840 what their actual stance was regarding animal domestication. You had 0:04:53.839 --> 0:04:57.960 to look that up. No about pets, sure, I wondered. Um, 0:04:57.960 --> 0:05:02.560 officially they are against pet keeping, but they they know 0:05:02.680 --> 0:05:05.640 it's too late. They hate pets, but they know it's 0:05:05.640 --> 0:05:08.040 too late. They're like, well, we know we're not. What 0:05:08.120 --> 0:05:11.359 they are not for is for setting these animals free. 0:05:12.480 --> 0:05:15.480 Here's why. The original co founder, I think UM is 0:05:15.960 --> 0:05:20.000 Ingrid new Kirk is an animal abolitionist. But Pete is like, 0:05:20.040 --> 0:05:21.640 it's way too far gone. We don't want you to 0:05:21.680 --> 0:05:23.600 set these animals free, So we're going to fight our 0:05:23.640 --> 0:05:26.600 fight on spaying and neutering and reducing that population is 0:05:26.680 --> 0:05:30.400 much as possible. But they are still officially against pets. 0:05:31.680 --> 0:05:34.800 But their position actually does make sense. It's extremely realistic 0:05:34.920 --> 0:05:40.520 because there is a strict definition of a domesticated animal, 0:05:41.120 --> 0:05:45.560 and domesticated animal is a is a species that was 0:05:45.640 --> 0:05:50.400 formerly wild that has been taken in by humans and 0:05:50.640 --> 0:05:54.880 whose characteristics have been so all ser radically altered by 0:05:54.960 --> 0:06:00.000 humans that they can no longer feed themselves. Typically, Yeah, 0:06:00.000 --> 0:06:03.960 it's it's when we actually change their genetic makeup. Yes, 0:06:04.080 --> 0:06:06.960 And part of that change, part of the characteristic changes 0:06:07.040 --> 0:06:10.960 that the food supply is controlled by humans. So if 0:06:11.040 --> 0:06:16.400 you put say an average dog out, my dog luckily 0:06:16.400 --> 0:06:19.200 would be dead in three days. Yeah, And somebody say, 0:06:19.200 --> 0:06:22.440 well they would forage through garbage humanity. If you took 0:06:22.480 --> 0:06:26.760 a dog out of any kind of human area and 0:06:26.800 --> 0:06:30.479 put it in the area, it may return to a 0:06:30.520 --> 0:06:33.560 primal state, in which case that dog is reverted to 0:06:33.760 --> 0:06:36.839 a feral state. Now, a feral animal is one that 0:06:36.920 --> 0:06:39.719 was formally domesticated and then went back to the wild. 0:06:40.880 --> 0:06:44.440 If you take a single wolf and you teach it 0:06:44.760 --> 0:06:47.400 to jump up and grab beef jerky out of your hands, 0:06:48.000 --> 0:06:51.320 what you have there, because that's a tame wolf. Now, 0:06:51.440 --> 0:06:54.240 tame wolf could still go fend for itself. It's a 0:06:54.560 --> 0:06:58.640 it's a tame individual. A domesticated animal is one that's 0:06:58.839 --> 0:07:05.000 born comfortable associating with humans. Yeah, And there's exceptions of course. Cats, 0:07:05.680 --> 0:07:07.800 the domestic house cat being one. You could drop a 0:07:08.320 --> 0:07:10.440 cat out in the middle of the woods and they 0:07:10.440 --> 0:07:16.040 would survive. They would hunt mice and eat mice or whatever, squirrels, um. 0:07:16.200 --> 0:07:18.960 So the and the domestic cat is its own species. 0:07:19.440 --> 0:07:22.880 But that raises some questions under Jared Diamonds definition, the 0:07:22.960 --> 0:07:26.840 stricter definition of a domestic animal. If if a cat 0:07:26.920 --> 0:07:29.680 can just go like take care of itself, is it 0:07:29.720 --> 0:07:33.760 technically feral or is it ever really domesticated? Yeah? Or 0:07:33.840 --> 0:07:37.120 is it just an agreement, Hey, I'll catch the mice 0:07:37.160 --> 0:07:40.960 in your house and I like that wet food every 0:07:41.040 --> 0:07:43.720 day at five pm. So I'll just hang out here 0:07:44.520 --> 0:07:46.600 and I like to sleep under your chin. Like the cat, 0:07:46.760 --> 0:07:50.080 the cat is found an agreeable arrangement that it could 0:07:50.120 --> 0:07:53.000 take or leave at any time. Yeah, mutually beneficial. As 0:07:53.040 --> 0:07:56.880 we'll see that. That's a consistent thing in the domestication 0:07:56.920 --> 0:08:00.640 of animals, is that, uh, some people believe that it's 0:08:00.640 --> 0:08:03.080 good for the animal, it's good for the human. And 0:08:03.120 --> 0:08:05.560 we have learned to uh scratch each other's backs in 0:08:05.600 --> 0:08:09.640 many different ways literally even in some cases. So a 0:08:09.640 --> 0:08:12.560 little bit of a good background for this one might 0:08:12.600 --> 0:08:17.640 be to listen to our show on natural selection, because, um, 0:08:17.840 --> 0:08:20.600 well it covers natural selection, but there's another kind of 0:08:20.600 --> 0:08:24.520 selection called artificial selection when it comes to domesticating animals, 0:08:24.800 --> 0:08:26.640 and that is not the same thing. That is when 0:08:27.120 --> 0:08:32.000 humans are choosing these desirable traits and making it so 0:08:32.160 --> 0:08:36.680 through breeding. Um, like the the original horses, the first 0:08:36.679 --> 0:08:40.760 domesticated horses were they smoked cigars. They did. We broke 0:08:40.800 --> 0:08:43.040 them of that have now there were small like ponies. 0:08:43.040 --> 0:08:45.640 There were little ones, a little wild horses in Mongolia. 0:08:45.640 --> 0:08:53.160 I think they call him the Zewalski's a family in Pittsburgh. No, 0:08:53.320 --> 0:08:55.680 it was a Russian Army officer that they're named after. 0:08:55.800 --> 0:08:58.200 But when you start your name with three consonants, I 0:08:58.280 --> 0:09:00.920 never know which one is silent. Okay, so how do 0:09:00.920 --> 0:09:03.120 you spell it? P r z oh. I was not 0:09:03.240 --> 0:09:06.480 gonna guess that's w all Ski so I'm just gonna 0:09:06.520 --> 0:09:10.920 say z Wolski's horse. But um, people were at one 0:09:10.920 --> 0:09:12.760 point were like, man, I'd love to ride that thing, 0:09:12.760 --> 0:09:15.520 but he's too small. So find the biggest one that's 0:09:15.520 --> 0:09:17.360 a male, and find the biggest one that's a female. 0:09:17.520 --> 0:09:19.680 Make them go have sex, and maybe they'll have a 0:09:19.679 --> 0:09:23.920 bigger one, bigger son, and then make that one mate 0:09:23.920 --> 0:09:26.079 with someone big. And eventually these things are going to 0:09:26.120 --> 0:09:27.800 be big enough to where we can ride them, and 0:09:27.840 --> 0:09:30.400 then by proxy throw away the ones that don't fit 0:09:30.480 --> 0:09:33.480 the criteria that we want or use them for something else. 0:09:33.800 --> 0:09:36.719 Sure food. But that's what we did with dogs too. 0:09:36.880 --> 0:09:43.720 Like you got a bunch of different ones, right, say, big, small, soft, furry, um, fast, cuddly, 0:09:44.240 --> 0:09:46.640 and we we said, well, we like this one for this, 0:09:46.720 --> 0:09:49.080 and we like that one for that, and so artificial 0:09:49.120 --> 0:09:51.680 selection was still going on. We were just spreading it 0:09:51.720 --> 0:09:53.960 out all over the place. With like say a horse 0:09:54.080 --> 0:09:57.319 or something. We wanted bigger and stronger because we wanted 0:09:57.360 --> 0:10:01.679 to ride them. Uh, and we also wanted to apparently 0:10:01.960 --> 0:10:04.880 drink their milk, which I did not know. But it 0:10:04.960 --> 0:10:07.560 makes sense that horses produced milk because their mammals. But 0:10:07.880 --> 0:10:10.559 apparently our ancestors used to drink horse milk. You never 0:10:10.600 --> 0:10:13.400 had horse milk, no, I and I want to know 0:10:13.440 --> 0:10:17.120 if there's anyone out there listening who's tasted horse milk, 0:10:17.480 --> 0:10:20.360 please describe it. Did someone out there is drinking horse 0:10:20.400 --> 0:10:23.640 milk right now while they're listening to the show. One 0:10:23.640 --> 0:10:26.920 of our Mongolian listening straight from the teat. I think 0:10:26.960 --> 0:10:29.240 they're like, they used the horse for all sorts of stuff. 0:10:29.280 --> 0:10:32.280 The Mongolians. They're also like excellent riders. Yeah. I think 0:10:32.280 --> 0:10:37.440 that that Zawolski's horses is in Mongolia again, Yeah, after 0:10:37.720 --> 0:10:40.559 being nearly extinct. I might be wrong about that. So um. 0:10:40.640 --> 0:10:43.400 In addition to selecting the big horse, we also did 0:10:43.440 --> 0:10:47.360 some cool stuff with sheep. We um we selected out 0:10:47.520 --> 0:10:52.800 there they had um, longer, coarser hair that we didn't want. 0:10:52.840 --> 0:10:55.839 That's the camp. We wanted the softer stuff that was 0:10:55.880 --> 0:10:58.959 inside a k a the wool, So we bred sheep 0:10:59.360 --> 0:11:02.680 that had more wool than kemp until basically you can't 0:11:02.720 --> 0:11:04.680 find kemp in sheep any longer. And they were one 0:11:04.720 --> 0:11:07.840 of the first domesticated animals, right the sheep. Yet they 0:11:07.880 --> 0:11:12.480 were um chickens uh don't normally produce eggs as frequently 0:11:12.559 --> 0:11:16.920 as as they do uh once they've been domesticated, and 0:11:17.000 --> 0:11:19.760 like a Rhode Island red will produce five to seven 0:11:19.800 --> 0:11:23.480 a week. That's a lot of eggs. Yeah, apparently the 0:11:23.520 --> 0:11:25.640 original chicken too. I didn't look this up, but I 0:11:25.720 --> 0:11:29.079 remember a friend of mine that was a vegetarian. I 0:11:29.200 --> 0:11:31.719 witnessed an argument between the vegetarian and mediate, which is 0:11:31.720 --> 0:11:35.319 always fun because I don't get involved in that stuff. Um, 0:11:35.360 --> 0:11:36.680 and I think when I was like, well, look at 0:11:36.679 --> 0:11:38.040 the chickens. You know what else are they gonna do? 0:11:38.640 --> 0:11:40.640 You know what are they good for? And he was like, dude, 0:11:40.640 --> 0:11:43.520 the original chicken wasn't anything like this chicken. The original 0:11:43.520 --> 0:11:46.280 wild chicken was like taller and leaner and ran super 0:11:46.320 --> 0:11:50.720 fast and road runner. I guess, yeah, I guess, solve 0:11:50.800 --> 0:11:56.000 crimes and and did all sorts of chicken e things 0:11:56.160 --> 0:11:59.200 that weren't just being slaughtered for food. And apparently the 0:11:59.240 --> 0:12:04.320 first chickens were domesticated. They think for um cock fighting, Yeah, 0:12:04.320 --> 0:12:07.680 for entertainment. Yeah, crazy. We have a shameful, shapeful history, 0:12:07.679 --> 0:12:13.480 don't we as people humans? Yeah? So Diamond, Um, you 0:12:13.480 --> 0:12:15.600 you would think, if we can domesticate animals, why don't 0:12:15.600 --> 0:12:18.640 we just domesticate them all and use them for purposes? Uh? 0:12:18.679 --> 0:12:21.920 And Diamond rites that only about fourteen animal species out 0:12:21.920 --> 0:12:25.559 of a hundred and forty eight cannets have been domesticated, 0:12:25.600 --> 0:12:30.240 and that's because we can't domesticate every animal. There's certain things, 0:12:30.240 --> 0:12:34.240 certain criteria that even opens up the possibility. Yeah, there's 0:12:34.280 --> 0:12:37.720 like a six point checklist basically, and it's not progressive. 0:12:38.120 --> 0:12:41.439 If any one of these with these characteristics or traits 0:12:41.840 --> 0:12:45.160 isn't matt, Yeah, it pretty much just throws off the 0:12:45.160 --> 0:12:47.560 whole deal. So you gotta have all six, all right? 0:12:47.640 --> 0:12:50.560 Those six are the first. One is the right diet 0:12:50.559 --> 0:12:55.600 if you're a picky animal like, um, what's what's the 0:12:55.600 --> 0:12:59.240 one that only eats bamboo? The bamboo toad? Those dumb 0:12:59.840 --> 0:13:05.040 the um koalas koalas now they eucalyptus. And yeah, man, 0:13:05.080 --> 0:13:07.280 I'm glad you remember that. Yeah, you're not gonna be 0:13:07.320 --> 0:13:09.880 able to domesticate a koala because what you want is 0:13:09.920 --> 0:13:13.240 something that you can feed in mass quantities on cheap 0:13:13.400 --> 0:13:18.080 accessible food. Oh well, actually bamboo would be the way 0:13:18.080 --> 0:13:21.160 to go. It's eucalyptus. Yeah, I don't know how eucalyptus 0:13:21.160 --> 0:13:24.880 because if they bamboo, they'd probably be domesticated in that. Well. No, 0:13:25.040 --> 0:13:28.200 by cheap accessible food, I think they mean like millions 0:13:28.200 --> 0:13:30.120 of pounds of feed that you can put in a 0:13:30.160 --> 0:13:32.439 trough to Bamboo is like one of the fastest growing 0:13:32.480 --> 0:13:34.720 plants on Earth. Not I realize that I've got it 0:13:35.080 --> 0:13:39.040 still talking about eucalyptus, but it's eucalyptic. But this bamboo thing. 0:13:39.440 --> 0:13:41.960 Have you heard about bamboo? You know, I have a 0:13:42.000 --> 0:13:47.280 company that grows oh, Josh's Bamboo floors. The number two 0:13:47.320 --> 0:13:50.120 thing is a fast growth rate. So um yeah, they 0:13:50.240 --> 0:13:53.360 gotta you know, be able to grow quick and so 0:13:53.400 --> 0:13:55.920 you can use them. Yeah. So, like if we'd figured 0:13:55.960 --> 0:13:59.640 out how to use gorillas to build skyscrapers, that'd be 0:13:59.679 --> 0:14:01.920 all him. But it would take forever to build a 0:14:01.960 --> 0:14:07.040 skyscraper because gorilla is only reproduced fairly and frequently. Okay, 0:14:07.040 --> 0:14:09.840 so we need something that can build a skyscraper fast. 0:14:09.960 --> 0:14:13.239 And that's why that didn't work when they tried it. Yeah, 0:14:13.360 --> 0:14:15.760 but that one gorilla wearing that hard hat a lot 0:14:15.840 --> 0:14:21.200 of laughs. Uh, friendly disposition. Um, that's pretty clear. If 0:14:21.320 --> 0:14:25.520 you're a Kodiak bear, you're not going to be domesticated. 0:14:25.680 --> 0:14:29.720 They tried that. They tried grizzlies at one point. That's 0:14:29.720 --> 0:14:36.520 a failed domestication. Yeah. Um. Zebras very famously can't be domesticated. Yeah, 0:14:36.520 --> 0:14:38.240 because I imagine people would be like, man, I want 0:14:38.240 --> 0:14:40.280 to ride that thing. It's cool looking. Yeah, and it'll 0:14:40.320 --> 0:14:44.000 bite you to death. Really. Yeah. Apparently in that Jared 0:14:44.000 --> 0:14:48.280 Diamond article, he says that zookeepers zebras account for more 0:14:48.360 --> 0:14:52.600 injuries to zookeepers than any other animal at the zoo. Man, Yeah, 0:14:52.880 --> 0:14:58.600 that is one piste off stripy horse. They're not horses 0:14:58.600 --> 0:15:02.280 at all, though, are they? They're related for sure, But 0:15:02.440 --> 0:15:05.320 the um so the zebras one and then koal is 0:15:05.360 --> 0:15:09.800 too apparently are like ferocious little animals eat while that 0:15:09.880 --> 0:15:14.920 they're try to eat in bamboo. Em right, um one 0:15:15.000 --> 0:15:18.840 to three four, easy breeding, Yeah, that's pretty obvious. You 0:15:18.880 --> 0:15:21.840 gotta be able to pump out little baby puppies quickly, yes, 0:15:21.880 --> 0:15:25.480 because some animals like just shut down when you when 0:15:25.600 --> 0:15:29.800 they're captive, like they don't breed like pandas have a 0:15:29.840 --> 0:15:32.560 lot of trouble breeding and captivity cheetahs too. Is that 0:15:32.600 --> 0:15:34.240 why it's always such a big deal when they're born 0:15:35.080 --> 0:15:38.240 at the zoo or when like twins are born, like 0:15:38.320 --> 0:15:41.520 at the Atlanta Zoo. Oh yeah, Man, I don't know 0:15:41.560 --> 0:15:44.880 about zoos. Well, we did a podcast on that. I 0:15:44.920 --> 0:15:46.960 think that's the conclusion we came to. Huh. I think 0:15:47.000 --> 0:15:48.480 that was the title of it. Man, I don't know 0:15:48.480 --> 0:15:51.080 about zoosh. What does he call her? Zoo's good or 0:15:51.120 --> 0:15:53.560 bad for animals? Yeah, that was a good episode. Yeah, 0:15:53.560 --> 0:15:55.880 that's one of those long lost, overlooked ones that are 0:15:55.920 --> 0:15:58.280 so good. That's polarizing to man. I did some Facebook 0:15:58.320 --> 0:16:04.640 posting about killer whales and captivity and people really feel 0:16:04.680 --> 0:16:09.000 passionately about like Blackfish, about supporting Sea World or not 0:16:09.040 --> 0:16:12.280 supporting Sea World. Um, and that black Fish is a 0:16:12.280 --> 0:16:18.080 bunch of bunk. And apparently Blackfishes was highly manipulated. The 0:16:18.360 --> 0:16:20.680 documentary was. But at the end of all of that, 0:16:20.720 --> 0:16:22.000 I was like, I don't care. I just don't think 0:16:22.000 --> 0:16:26.320 they should be kept in captivity this one particular thing. Um. 0:16:26.360 --> 0:16:30.000 But that was just me respect of a social hierarchy. 0:16:30.080 --> 0:16:32.600 That's a big one because if you don't, if you 0:16:32.640 --> 0:16:35.120 can't be the alpha dog and the leader of the pack, 0:16:35.480 --> 0:16:38.560 then you're gonna have a very hard time domesticating that animal. Yeah, 0:16:38.600 --> 0:16:41.560 but with a cat being an exception, an animal um 0:16:41.560 --> 0:16:45.960 that does follow a social hierarchy is basically pre arranged 0:16:46.040 --> 0:16:48.880 to be domesticated because you just take that alpha male, 0:16:49.080 --> 0:16:50.760 you punch him in the face a couple of times 0:16:50.760 --> 0:16:53.360 in front of everybody, make them cry, and then now 0:16:53.440 --> 0:16:56.880 you're the alpha male and you say start laying eggs, 0:16:57.640 --> 0:17:01.200 and they listened to you, and then they're domesticated at 0:17:01.240 --> 0:17:04.200 least in that respect, after you've punched the chicken. Yeah, 0:17:04.280 --> 0:17:07.040 but that's a that's a big one. Is with that 0:17:07.119 --> 0:17:10.360 social hierarchy, it sets them up there predisposed to our 0:17:10.440 --> 0:17:13.639 method of domestication, which is listening to humans. And like sheep, 0:17:14.080 --> 0:17:19.280 it's mind blowing because sheep there herd animal that follows 0:17:19.320 --> 0:17:23.280 an alpha leader. Right. Yeah, and so we have gotten 0:17:23.440 --> 0:17:26.280 so we're just show offs when it comes to animal domestication. 0:17:26.359 --> 0:17:29.920 We're so good that we've taken one of our domesticated animals, 0:17:29.960 --> 0:17:33.840 the dog, and put the dog in as the alpha 0:17:33.920 --> 0:17:36.720 male of the sheep. Yeah, that's how sheep are hurted. 0:17:37.320 --> 0:17:40.720 That's that's just showing off the aliens. That's another good 0:17:40.760 --> 0:17:45.280 alien laugh. Well, the double domestications and the dog leading 0:17:45.280 --> 0:17:48.280 the sheep. Um. And it's funny too if you've ever 0:17:48.320 --> 0:17:51.520 had a dog that's a hurting has the hurting instinct 0:17:51.800 --> 0:17:54.800 when you see that play out in your own home. Uh, 0:17:54.880 --> 0:17:56.240 we used to see it all the time with Lucy. 0:17:56.280 --> 0:17:58.359 She would totally hurt us, and when we let her 0:17:58.440 --> 0:18:01.280 out in the backyard, she would walk the perimeter of 0:18:01.320 --> 0:18:03.320 the fence, you know, instead of running through the middle 0:18:03.320 --> 0:18:08.720 of it. Very interesting stuff to that original those original tendencies. Uh. 0:18:08.760 --> 0:18:10.720 And then the last one is they want panic. Um. 0:18:10.760 --> 0:18:13.760 If you have an animal that freaks out behind defence, 0:18:14.160 --> 0:18:17.720 de yeah, it's it's uh that you're gonna have a 0:18:17.760 --> 0:18:19.399 real hard time there. But like we said, there are 0:18:19.400 --> 0:18:24.320 exceptions because wolves were fierce and cats uh don't follow 0:18:24.320 --> 0:18:27.080 a pack leader. Um. And we're gonna get to dogs 0:18:27.200 --> 0:18:51.040 and cats a little later. So if you listen to 0:18:51.119 --> 0:18:56.679 our show on Cave Art, you know that. And on Egyptology, 0:18:57.240 --> 0:19:02.399 you know the animals Mama vacation, Yeah probably, so you 0:19:02.400 --> 0:19:05.080 know the animals have been tied to humans for a 0:19:05.080 --> 0:19:07.200 long time and revered by humans for a long time, 0:19:07.520 --> 0:19:09.840 as evidenced by the fact that they buried them and 0:19:09.840 --> 0:19:12.040 they mummified them, and they painted them on their walls, 0:19:12.119 --> 0:19:16.600 painted pictures of us riding them. Yeah yeah, um yeah. 0:19:16.640 --> 0:19:19.800 They they think that the um the first animal to 0:19:19.840 --> 0:19:24.000 be domesticated by far was the dog. How awesome is 0:19:24.000 --> 0:19:28.280 that hunter gatherer society was and the dog were pals 0:19:28.320 --> 0:19:32.680 long before agriculture ever came along. But about the time 0:19:32.720 --> 0:19:35.840 of the agricultural revolution, which is and get this, check 0:19:35.920 --> 0:19:40.680 this out, uh, ten thousand, five hundred years BP to 0:19:40.840 --> 0:19:45.600 about forty five hundred years BP. Now what's before present? 0:19:46.400 --> 0:19:48.719 Is that the new one? Yeah, that's like the scientific 0:19:48.760 --> 0:19:52.160 way of saying, there's no like zero year or anything 0:19:52.200 --> 0:19:55.800 like that. It's just ten thou five hundred years before present, 0:19:55.960 --> 0:20:01.080 the full present, before present. Not British, that was New Zealand. 0:20:01.480 --> 0:20:07.600 Uh So basically, at some point about ten thousand five 0:20:08.080 --> 0:20:13.440 years ago, what they think happened is the Earth's climate changed. Um, 0:20:13.440 --> 0:20:16.080 maybe we killed off enough of the mega fauna through 0:20:16.119 --> 0:20:19.560 over hunting or through climate change they just went extinct. 0:20:20.040 --> 0:20:24.200 And um, about that time, some plants came around that 0:20:24.240 --> 0:20:28.640 we noticed we really liked and maybe accidentally, we started 0:20:28.760 --> 0:20:30.760 growing them and then we figured out that we could 0:20:30.760 --> 0:20:34.200 just select these ones, and through a process of artificial 0:20:34.240 --> 0:20:38.040 and natural selection merged together, we got agriculture. And about 0:20:38.040 --> 0:20:44.440 that same time we started to domesticate pigs, sheep, and cattle. 0:20:45.080 --> 0:20:47.200 I think we're the big first three and they still 0:20:47.240 --> 0:20:51.480 are the big three, Like those are the money domesticated animals, 0:20:51.480 --> 0:20:53.359 you know. Well, yeah, and like you said, it's tied 0:20:53.400 --> 0:20:56.240 to human natural selection as well, because if you are 0:20:56.280 --> 0:20:59.679 the tribe that has figured out how to keep cattle, 0:21:00.280 --> 0:21:03.320 then you're going to do better than your neighboring tribe 0:21:03.359 --> 0:21:06.040 that hasn't yet. And so you are going to be 0:21:06.080 --> 0:21:09.000 more successful as a civilization. Yeah, you are, and you're 0:21:09.040 --> 0:21:11.440 going to conquer like we talked about and I think 0:21:11.480 --> 0:21:14.800 the Royalty one when we talked a lot about UM 0:21:15.040 --> 0:21:19.880 tribes conquering other tribes through agriculture, through exporting agriculture and 0:21:20.000 --> 0:21:23.200 um as a result. Jared Diamond points out eight percent 0:21:23.240 --> 0:21:27.800 of humans alive today speak one of seven language families 0:21:28.640 --> 0:21:31.600 and they come from two places in Eurasia, which were 0:21:31.600 --> 0:21:34.920 the first places for agriculture to take group. So basically 0:21:35.520 --> 0:21:42.479 those tribes were so effective because of agriculture. Today we 0:21:42.600 --> 0:21:45.920 still basically the vast majority of speak one of seven 0:21:46.000 --> 0:21:51.280 language groups. That's crazy years, all these thousands of years later, 0:21:52.000 --> 0:21:56.119 that's how effective agriculture was, it, asserting Authorida, we should 0:21:56.119 --> 0:21:59.200 do one on agriculture, the birth of agriculture. I can't 0:21:59.200 --> 0:22:02.919 believe we haven't it. Yeah, let's do it, agreed. So 0:22:03.000 --> 0:22:07.960 back to animals. Uh, here's a little breakdown of where 0:22:08.040 --> 0:22:12.080 some of your favorite animals came from. So in Southeast 0:22:12.080 --> 0:22:16.000 Asia's where you uh first got your goats, pick pigs, 0:22:16.920 --> 0:22:21.800 sheep and dogs. Southwest Asia. Yeah, we've gone over to 0:22:21.840 --> 0:22:26.040 Central it's like Mesopotamia. Okay, these are the birth of 0:22:26.040 --> 0:22:29.439 it all. Yes, um, Central Asia, you're gonna get your 0:22:29.520 --> 0:22:34.440 chickens and you're too humped bactry in sadlets pronounced Yeah, 0:22:34.440 --> 0:22:39.360 it looks like camel Central Asia. Yeah. And those camels 0:22:39.359 --> 0:22:42.520 were actually, um, well known for long hair and they 0:22:42.520 --> 0:22:44.840 can survive in cold climates. Yes, and they're not just 0:22:45.000 --> 0:22:49.520 desert dwellers right. No. Apparently when they were domesticated, it 0:22:49.640 --> 0:22:53.679 created such a revolution that some societies stopped using the 0:22:53.680 --> 0:22:56.200 wheel because they're like, we don't need the wheel anymore. 0:22:56.440 --> 0:22:58.920 We got camels. Like the wheel left all together and 0:22:58.960 --> 0:23:02.240 then came back when someone said, uh, cars are pretty 0:23:02.240 --> 0:23:06.240 cool too. Yeah, actually as much sooner than that. Um. 0:23:06.320 --> 0:23:09.119 Arabia is where you have the Arabian camel with a 0:23:09.200 --> 0:23:15.000 single hump. Um China they domesticated pigs and the water 0:23:15.040 --> 0:23:19.320 buffalo and dogs. Move over to the Ukraine and you've 0:23:19.359 --> 0:23:23.600 got the wild Tarpaan horses and uh so what most 0:23:23.600 --> 0:23:26.960 folks think are the original um, the original the o 0:23:27.119 --> 0:23:30.760 g the original horse, even though I read about the 0:23:30.880 --> 0:23:35.200 small ones of Mongolia the Yeah it was new Ski 0:23:35.359 --> 0:23:40.600 or the Kowalskie. Um. Yeah, I'm gonna have to look 0:23:40.640 --> 0:23:44.040 that up. And then Egypt you've got your donkeys, and 0:23:44.080 --> 0:23:46.760 then South America you've got your lama and your alpaca. 0:23:47.200 --> 0:23:49.240 Lama as a beast of burden in the alpaca for 0:23:49.320 --> 0:23:52.760 their soft wool, and the guinea pig for their meat. 0:23:53.520 --> 0:23:57.360 Really yeah in South America, Yeah, the andies. I don't 0:23:57.400 --> 0:23:59.399 want to eat a guinea pig. That's what they were 0:23:59.440 --> 0:24:05.639 britt for. Ariginally wow. Um and those were some of 0:24:05.720 --> 0:24:08.439 the earliest ones in Jared Diamond. Again, I know I 0:24:08.520 --> 0:24:13.280 keep sighting them, but man, this guy's great ideas. Yeah, Okay, 0:24:13.320 --> 0:24:16.080 so he's he's a modern man. Yeah, he's got a 0:24:16.080 --> 0:24:19.119 little beat nick pointy beard and everything. Yeah, he's a 0:24:19.119 --> 0:24:22.280 good guy. Let's get in touch with him. Okay, attention 0:24:22.400 --> 0:24:27.400 Jared Diamond, please contact us for reasons we'll figure out later. Yeah, 0:24:27.520 --> 0:24:30.080 stuff podcast at how Stuff works. Put in the subject 0:24:30.119 --> 0:24:33.480 line I'm Jared Diamond, and now we're gonna get five. 0:24:34.640 --> 0:24:39.640 It'll be lou Bega posing as Jared Diamond. Um So, 0:24:41.240 --> 0:24:45.280