Pets come in all shapes and sizes and have different domestication stories throughout history. These animals used to be wild, but people worldwide were able to domesticate them and turn them into the household pets they are today. Read on to understand the different histories of these animals as pets.
Dogs
Modern-day dogs are descendants of wolves. Pinpointing when humans originally domesticated dogs has been a challenge, but most research points to them emerging in the Middle East and Eastern Europe around 30,000 years ago. Wolves had begun traveling and interacting with humans because of the two species’ shared search for food, and as time progressed, dogs would become dependent on humans for food. Thankfully, humans also enjoyed this companionship, and dogs as we know them today came into existence.
Fish
Pet fish were never truly domesticated. They’re simply brought from their wild habitats and placed in tanks so that humans can care for, feed, and admire them. But what about the history of these fish tanks? The earliest evidence of aquariums is from 2500 BCE, when Sumerians constructed ponds to store fish that they would later eat. This fishkeeping practice continued in other civilizations, and around the 18th century in Europe, zoologists kept fish and other invertebrates in tanks using sea plants to produce oxygen in the water. Although it has evolved somewhat, this practice of fishkeeping is where modern fish tanks originated.
Cats
Humans first domesticated cats around 12,000 years ago in the Middle East. As humans settled down and began storing their food, cats came into the picture. Food storage meant rats and mice, which drew cats into the equation. Some researchers have posed the idea that cats domesticated themselves, adapting to being around people more so than humans selectively breeding them. This idea explains why many cats are sometimes at odds with their human owners.
Rodents
Unlike fish, dogs, and cats, which humans have kept for many centuries, the domestication of rodents is relatively recent. The guinea pig was the first rodent that people kept as a pet, when Europeans brought it back from Peru in the 16th century. Other rodents such as gerbils, hamsters, mice, and rats didn’t become popular until the 19th century; they were seen as small, manageable pets for families.
Once you understand how animals became pets throughout history, you’ll hopefully have a greater appreciation of these wonderful animals. They have rich histories that make their relationships with humans much more interesting.
