How to Domesticate an Animal?

Cattle, sheep, pigs, goats, and horses—the most important and widespread of the domestic animals—are all hoofed grass eaters and can be kept in herds. All of them were first mastered by the early peoples of southwestern Asia. It has been suggested that the grassy plains of that region began slowly eroding some 10,000 years ago. Humans were forced to share smaller and smaller…

Humans have tried to domesticate many animals, but, as has been noted, they succeeded with very few. Dozens of kinds have been tamed and kept as pets or raised in menageries and zoos, but few have actually been domesticated. Many people keep unusual or exotic animals as pets, including boa constrictors, pythons, ocelots, tarantulas, and tropical birds. In the early 1990s the…