26 Caribou and Reindeer: Same Species
Reindeer and caribou are the same species. In North America, the term “caribou” refers to the wild version, while “reindeer” applies to domesticated ones. People in Europe universally refer to them as reindeer.
27. Thousands of years ago, humans domesticated a mold called Aspergillus oryzae. This mold produces soy sauce, miso, sake, amazake, and other savory products.
28. When a domestic pig escapes into the wild, it reverts to a wild state within months. It grows tusks, develops a hairy coat, and becomes significantly more aggressive.
29. Domesticated and wild dogs scavenge human remains differently. Pet dogs often eat their owners’ faces, while wild dogs focus on nutrient-rich organs in the abdomen.
30. The milk of the domesticated eland, a large African antelope, lasts up to 80 times longer than cow’s milk. Additionally, elands require far less water than cattle.
31 Ants Domesticate Aphids for Honeydew
Ants herd and domesticate aphids by “milking” them for honeydew nectar, moving them to sweeter plants, and protecting them from predators like ladybugs.
32. The domesticated dog evolved from a tamer version of the gray wolf. DNA evidence suggests dogs were domesticated in Asia at least 15,000 years ago, though some researchers believe dogs and humans have partnered for as long as 100,000 years.
33. People specifically select certain breeds of domesticated pigeons for their ability to tumble or roll in the air.
34. Wild alpacas do not exist. The alpaca is a domesticated version of the vicuña, a species closely related to llamas.
35. Domestic hamsters hibernate during winter, often leading people to mistakenly assume they have died.
36 Indo Gigante: 1.2-Meter Chicken Breed
The Indo Gigante, a domestic chicken breed, can reach a height of 1.2 meters.
37. The names for domestic food animals while they are alive come from lower-class Anglo-Saxons, who tended them, while the names for their meat come from upper-class Norman French, who could afford to eat them.
38. The biomass of domesticated poultry, mainly chickens, is roughly three times greater than that of all wild birds combined. In 2016 alone, humans consumed about 65.8 billion chickens.
39. Guinea pigs were originally domesticated as a source of meat and remain an essential part of traditional Peruvian cuisine, where they are known as cuy. A cathedral in Peru features a painting of Christ and the 12 disciples eating guinea pigs during the Last Supper.
40. Street pigeons, also known as feral pigeons, descend from domesticated pigeons, not wild ones.
41 Egyptians Domesticated Hyenas for Meat
Ancient Egyptians domesticated hyenas and used them as a food source.
42. Ferrets do not exist in the wild; they are the domesticated form of the European polecat. Interestingly, America’s “black-footed ferret” is actually a species of polecat.
43. A 2022 study revealed that domesticated betta fish can change their sex due to their DMR1 genome.
44. The Selk’nam people of Tierra del Fuego domesticated the culpeo, a South American fox species, resulting in the “Fuegian dog.” Unfortunately, the Fuegian dog became extinct in the late 19th or early 20th century, coinciding with the genocide of the Selk’nam people.
45. Around 300 B.C., the Mayans viewed turkeys as vessels of the gods and honored them accordingly. The Mayans originally domesticated turkeys for their role in religious rites.
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
46 Rabbits Domesticated for Lent Consumption
The 7th century A.D. saw the domestication of rabbits. Interestingly, the Catholic Church played a role in their domestication by ruling that fetal rabbits were a type of fish, making them acceptable to eat during Lent.
47. Wild oats and rye self-domesticated by growing in wheat fields, gradually imitating wheat over generations. This process, called Vavilovian mimicry, led to their selection through agriculture.
48. Corn, a type of grass, was domesticated 8,700 years ago. Human intervention has so thoroughly domesticated corn that it can no longer survive without us.
49. Before their domestication, potatoes were poisonous. People ate them with a clay-and-water gravy to counteract the toxins.
50. The 20th century saw the successful domestication of only four major fruits and nuts. The U.S. Department of Agriculture domesticated three of them-avocados, macadamia nuts, and blueberries. New Zealand domesticated the fourth: the kiwifruit.
RE: Fact #46 (Rabbits Domesticated for Lent Consumption) – So that’s Easter eggs explained.
RE: Fact #12 (Egyptians Attempted Cheetah Domestication) – To me, “tried” sounds like things didn’t go so well for some Egyptians.
Cheetahs are pretty chill with people, so I doubt that.
That old factrepublic article got me thinking. Apparently, there’s a lot out there about people keeping cheetahs as pets, but nobody’s sure if there was ever a tame kind that went extinct or just mixed back in with the wild ones, or if it was always just wild cheetahs.
RE: Fact #39 (Guinea Pigs: Peruvian Cuisine Staple) – I’m Peruvian. Someone put it perfectly: a whole lot of effort for not much meat. But up in the mountains, it was easy to get and a good source of protein because they breed like rabbits.
RE: Fact #10 (Ants Invented Agriculture for Fungus) – They have colonies all over the place and even fight each other!
RE: Fact #4 (Ethiopian Monkeys and Wolves Cooperate) – It’s happening again!
If monkeys ever figure out how to use rocks as tools, we’re toast.
Don’t leave any weird obelisks around.
RE: Fact #9 (Drooping Ears in Domesticated Animals) – Check out some YouTube videos on those foxes—I think it was an accident. They were trying to breed out the aggression, but ended up with fluffier foxes with floppier ears and tails, and different eye colors.
They aimed for friendliness, but ended up with a bunch of baby-like features. So, basically, we made the grown-ups act like babies. Makes sense, especially with animals that aren’t naturally social, like foxes. They’re only friendly as babies or when mating – getting grumpy as they age.
RE: Fact #17 (Sheep Need Humans for Shearing) – Any wild sheep still around? What animal did we breed to get our domestic sheep? And what do those wild ones look like?
RE: Fact #35 (Domestic Hamsters Hibernate in Winters) – I really hope my parents were right about those hamsters that mysteriously “died”… phew!
RE: Fact #2 (Australia’s Two Distinct Dingo Populations) – That’s pretty interesting, right? The dogs in the east are all related back to New Guinea singing dogs and eventually China, but the western ones aren’t. Their genes are closer to European breeds, meaning they probably came from somewhere else—maybe India or so. And get this: all dogs today come from just five original groups.
RE: Fact #24 (India’s Role in Zebu Domestication) – So, how’d they play cowboys and Indians if all the cowboys were actually Indians?
RE: Fact #17 (Sheep Need Humans for Shearing) – That’s not entirely right. Lots of hair sheep are still raised for meat and milk. You see more wool sheep because wool’s a bigger deal than sheep milk or meat, in most places anyway. But tons of smaller farms raise hair sheep.
They’re perfect for smaller farms because you get meat and milk without the shearing hassle. Shearing usually needs a pro, and small farmers might not have one nearby or it might not be worth it for a small flock. Plus, there’s not much of a market for small amounts of raw wool, but you can easily sell meat and cheese at farmers’ markets.
RE: Fact #1 (Silk Moths Fully Rely on Humans) – Like most farm animals, they totally rely on us for everything, even finding a partner.
Pigs, though? Different story. They go wild super fast, and suddenly you’re dealing with a whole bunch of mean pigs that’ll eat anything and multiply like crazy.
RE: Fact #26 (Caribou and Reindeer: Same Species) – “Rudolph the red-nosed caribou” just doesn’t sound right, does it?
RE: Fact #8 (Dogs Share Traits with Williams Syndrome) – I brought my sis with me when I left home. This research really explains a lot.
She’s already psyched about my birthday, five months away! She randomly texts me “I love you.” She gets so excited over little things – like, seriously, she’s blown away when I bring her dinner. She might not get algebra, but she loves harder than anyone I know.
Bottom line: my sister has Williams syndrome, and she’s like a golden retriever who can text.
My sister has Williams syndrome – she’s like a golden retriever who texts!
RE: Fact #12 (Egyptians Attempted Cheetah Domestication) – I went out with this girl who worked with big cats—she said lions were pretty straightforward. Hungry, you’re toast, but if they’re fed, they’re basically giant lazy dogs, all about conserving energy. Cheetahs though? Total weirdos, like a tiny, unpredictable dog. You never know what they’re up to, so you treat them with caution. Panthers? She called them jerks. Sweet, cuddly jerks who’d eat you in a heartbeat.
That’s what chatting with a zookeeper sounds like.
So, panthers, right? She called them cuddly, sweet assholes who’d eat you in a heartbeat.
I think Ego from Guardians of the Galaxy 2 is the perfect panther. That’s what happens when you’re at the very top of the food chain.
We humans won by being smart, though. Panthers are ultimate killing machines. Nothing else on Earth compares… maybe killer whales, and possibly some seriously freaky insects, but yeah, they’re insane.
RE: Fact #4 (Ethiopian Monkeys and Wolves Cooperate) – A great pairing! I think they’re gonna be huge.
RE: Fact #28 (Pigs Quickly Revert to Wild State) – Yeah, growing up near a pig farm, we’d mess with those pigs—shooting them in the rear with BB guns. We’d have to go through the woods, and sometimes these wild pigs would chase us. Man, they were vicious! Years later, I figured out they were just escaped farm pigs gone wild. And before you get all worked up, we were just dumb kids, we’d even shoot each other for fun too. We weren’t trying to hurt the pigs.
RE: Fact #5 (Modern Diet’s Domesticated Origins) – No cheeseburger trees? Seriously?
RE: Fact #12 (Egyptians Attempted Cheetah Domestication) – Picture a cheetah tearing through the house at 3 AM, hitting 70 mph in the hallway.
RE: Fact #36 (Indo Gigante: 1.2-Meter Chicken Breed) – That’s ancient.
RE: Fact #7 (Egg Predates Chicken Domestication) – Then, bam! An egg with two yolks showed up.
RE: Fact #45 (Mayan Turkeys Honored as Divine Vessels) – My wife’s an anthropology grad student, and she’s done a bunch of work on the Maya, especially their bird beliefs. She hadn’t seen this before. Thanks for sharing!
RE: Fact #2 (Australia’s Two Distinct Dingo Populations) – Crazy, right? Australia didn’t have dogs until relatively recently – like, 8,000 to 3,000 years ago. Aboriginal Australians went without dogs for a huge chunk of their history.
RE: Fact #19 (All Pet Hamsters from One Pair) – Hamsters, because of all the inbreeding, often get heart problems from birth. It’s almost as common in them as it is in people.
RE: Fact #18 (Berserk Llama Syndrome from Human Attention) – We sold a super friendly male llama, Criasto, to a friend. She adored him, he was such a sweetie! But years later, things went south – they should’ve fixed him, but ended up shooting him instead.
RE: Fact #30 (Eland Milk Lasts Eighty Times Longer) – Milking an eland seems way riskier than milking a cow.
RE: Fact #28 (Pigs Quickly Revert to Wild State) – Is this real or fake? One guy says it’s true, but others think he’s full of it. What’s the story?
RE: Fact #15 (Soviets Tried Domesticated Moose Cavalry) – Canada’s had this tech for ages. They called it “Operation: Is That A Fu*king Moose!?”
RE: Fact #13 (New Guinea’s Ancient Cassowary Domestication) – Turns out, those early humans were way smarter than we used to think, at least according to the New York Times.
Eighteen thousand years ago, people were basically just like us.
This might sound weird, but “culturally modern” just means they were as smart and learned as we are. If you could go back in time and bring a baby from then to now, they’d grow up perfectly normal.
RE: Fact #9 (Drooping Ears in Domesticated Animals) – So that’s why cats’ ears perk up – they were never really tamed!
RE: Fact #3 (Cats: Self-Domesticated Hunters) – Dog people: “Let’s breed these super strong, loyal pups for all sorts of jobs – and make them look totally different!”
Cat people: “They’re adorable and catch mice. Leave ’em be.”
RE: Fact #1 (Silk Moths Fully Rely on Humans) – It’s wild how one species can completely dominate another, changing who they are and what they’re supposed to be.
RE: Fact #16 (Domestic Rabbits Can’t Breed Wildly) – So, how’d a man and a cow have a Minotaur kid, then? Explain that to me.