7 More Domestic Animals and Their Wild Ancestors

The first people to domesticate the wild European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) weren’t in search of fluffy lapwarmers…unless you count loincloths as lapwarmers. The Romans began breeding rabbits that they had captured in Spain as a source of meat and fur sometime around 200 BCE and are in fact responsible for accidentally introducing them to the rest Europe when their easy meat sources dug their way to freedom. However, it was French monks who began the actual domestication process sometime around 500 CE, for even less appealing reasons: fetal or new-born rabbits, called laurices, could be eaten during Lent.

There are now some 50 breeds of domestic rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus domesticus). While many are bred as pets—which can, like cats, be trained to use a litterbox and thus wander the house—rabbits continue to meet grisly fates despite the fact that they are, to many people, among the most adorable animals around. Though Litte Bunny Foo Foo may have been the one doing the head bopping in the nursery rhyme, thousands of rabbits are themselves bopped, skinned, and popped into the stew pot each year. And a certain cartoon rabbit’s incessant querying of medical professionals might be attributed to the fact that thousands more are pumped full of chemicals and given cancer every year in the name of human medical advancement.

Cattle are descended from the now-extinct aurochs (Bos primigenius). Like many animals, cattle were likely domesticated more than once. The earliest domestication occurred some 10,500 years ago in present day Iran. The zebu, or Brahmin (Bos indicus) was bred from the Indian subspecies of Bos primigenius probably 6,000 years later. African cattle derive from the former line, later hybridized with the distinctively humped indicus type, which is better adapted to hot climates.

There are now more than 800 breeds of cattle (Bos taurus/indicus), though most breed organizations recognize only a small fraction of that number. They are either of the taurus type, the indicus type, or are hybrids of the two, such as the Santa Gertrudis breed from Texas. With some estimates placing the world cattle population at some 1.5 billion head, human dependence on bovine products seems unlikely to abate any time soon. All of the cud-chewing and eventual flatulence from the original owners of our Gouda and Gucci isn’t doing the planet any favors...digestive gases produced by cows, particularly methane, contribute significantly to climate change.

Once thought to be descended from the Crucian carp (Carassius carassius), recent analysis has shown that goldfish either originate from the closely-related Prussian carp (Carassius gibelio) or are hybrids thereof. The wild fish don’t boast the glowing oranges and whites of their domestic brethren, instead preferring a muted palette of metallic greens. Mutant forms were selectively bred in China starting some 2,000 years ago. During the Tang Dynasty, ponds filled with goldfish first emerged as a popular landscape feature.

The domestic goldfish (Carassius auratus) is now among the most popular pets there is. In addition to serving as nearly every child’s first lesson in death—the awful tradition of passing out fish as prizes at fairs has led to more than one backseat meltdown as a gilded corpse bobbed to the top of a plastic bag full of water—goldfish are also a popular foodsource for carnivorous fish in captivity. Though many end up the subjects of wryly nihilistic toilet-side funerals while still fingerlings, goldfish can actually live more than a decade or two if properly cared for.

It was long thought that the red jungle fowl (Gallus gallus) of India was the sole ancestor of the domestic chicken. However, recent genetic analysis has revealed that the grey junglefowl (Gallus sonneratii) contributed genes later in the domestication process; it is thought that the Ceylon junglefowl (Gallus lafayetti) was likely involved in the development of the domestic species as well. Initially believed to have been domesticated in the Indus Valley some 4,000 years ago, more recent analysis suggests a possible origin in Vietnam as many as 10,000 years ago.

Probably originally domesticated for entertainment purposes—cockfighting is still popular worldwide, if illegal in some places—chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus) are now primarily raised for their meat and eggs, most often on an industrial scale that has raised major ethical questions. Though most commercially bred birds belong to only a few breeds, there are many hundreds of them, from muscled Old English game cocks to plump Rhode Island reds. Heritage breed preservationists struggle to protect the genetic diversity that emerged as chickens spread across the world and adapted to conditions from the tropics to the near-Arctic.

The wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) was first domesticated in Mexico some 2,000 years ago. Though thoughts of turkeys are now more likely to evoke images of a crackling brown carcass about to be mutilated by a self-important alpha-male—we mean your father—in the name of holiday tradition, Native Americans were more interested in the gorgeous feathers that cover the wild bird’s body. The iridescent plumes were prized for their ceremonial significance and the birds were not commonly raised until Native Americans in the southwest domesticated them.

Dometic turkeys as we know them now—morbidly obese white birds who are genetically engineered to gain huge amounts of fat at an early age—are a far cry from the lean, glossy birds first sent to Spain in 1519, where they were appreciated for their aesthetic novelty. (Presumably, the grotesque fleshy caruncles on their faces were either part of the charm, or were compensated for by the shimmering plumage.) Though turkeys were undoubtedly a source of food as well, industrial-scale production did not begin to ramp up in the United States until the late 19th century. While there are a number of heritage breeds of turkey, the broad breasted white variety constitutes some 90% of the turkeys sold each year.

The domestic, or Pekin, duck is thought to have been bred from the wild mallard (Anas platyrhyncos) in China at least 2,000 years ago and as many as 10,000 years ago. They served as food and also helped keep rice paddies free of pesky crabs. Muscovy ducks (Cairina moschata), a South American species, were domesticated roughly a thousand years later in Colombia. They were mentioned in records of Columbus’s second voyage to the new world.

The Pekin duck (Anas platyrhynchos domestica) may have declined in popularity in Western cuisine, but its cultural significance hasn’t entirely waned. From serving as the anthropomorphic spokesman of an insurance company to appearing in blow-up glory as the mascot of the electronica duo Duck Sauce, these slightly goofy birds aren’t going anywhere. Muscovies, on the the other hand, remain largely a curiosity at zoos, though they are reliable egg producers on family farms.

The Ancient Egyptians probably first domesticated geese about 3,000 or 4,000 years ago from the greylag goose (Anser anser) as well as the native Egyptian goose (Alopochen aegyptiacus). The greylag was certainly known to the Romans; a flock of them supposedly warned the Romans of the Gauls. The swan goose (Anser cygnoides) may have been domesticated even earlier than that in China.

The greylag (Anser anser domesticus) and swan geese (Anser cygnoides domesticus) and their hybrids are now the major domestic species. Though goose is still consumed in some parts of the world, the anserines as often as not serve as barnyard watchdogs and weeders. There are more than a hundred breeds of geese now. These cumbersome-looking birds can live to be over 20 years old.