Wild mammals and their potential for new domestication

摘要

It is a remarkable fact, to which allusion is made by many authors, that so few species of the world's rich mammalian fauna have been domesticated by man. Most of these species, moreover, were domesticated anciently and when, in the Neolithic, the four major meat producers, sheep, goats, cattle and pigs, were under control, domestication for this purpose was practically at an end. Innumerable alternative species of large herbivore were available for domestication but an insignificant number were taken in hand: in Asia several species of bovini were domesticated and many of them fulfil a role similar to that of cattle; reindeer are outstanding in having been domesticated to meet the exigencies of a particular environment; and horses, camels and llamas have come to serve functions other than food supply. In many areas the inferiority of the domestic stock in fitness and in productivity must have been obvious, yet in his migrations man has always attempted to take his exotic beasts with him. He has preferred to endure their low productivity rather than attempt the revolution of mastering new species.