(light music)
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Nothing changed the world as we know it
more than the process of domestication.
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Once humans found they could shape the environment
and control the foods they grew,
they gave up a nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle
and became farmers.
(light music continues) (leaves rustling)
Only a few key species made this happen;
like cattle, sheep, and pigs.
And then there were creatures like dogs
that helped our ancestors hunt and defend their homes,
cats that controlled pests and horses that could
do heavy labor, provide transportation,
and even lead us into battle.
With animals by our side,
we were ready and able to conquer the world.
(light music)
Ever wondered how we got here?
Our exciting, vibrant modern world often seems
far removed from nature,
but we built our societies on the backs of animals
and there are a few key events
that were to change our lives forever.
(light music continues)
Go back a few tens of thousands of years,
(dramatic whooshing)
and our lives were quite different.
(birds chirping)
(animal grumbles)
We were hunter-gatherers.
(light dramatic music) (birds chirping)
Our nomadic ancestors were governed
by the patterns of nature, the changing seasons
and movements of animals.
(light dramatic music continues)
(spear thuds)
(animal thuds) (leaves rustling)
(bird caws)
Humans were just another species in the ecosystem.
20,000 years ago, the world was going
through dramatic change.
It was the end of the ice age.
The great polar ice shelf was gradually retreating north
from the lands of Europe and Asia,
allowing animals to expand their range.
(ominous music) (wind whistling)
Mega fauna were abundant.
Huge creatures like bison,
reindeer,
muskox,
and even mammoths roamed the landscape.
(wind whistling)
And they lived in fear of two key predators:
(dramatic music)
the wolf, a powerful predator that was leagues ahead
of the competition because it hunted in packs.
(dramatic music continues)
By working together, the wild dogs could bring
down prey much bigger than themselves.
(bison grumbles) (dramatic music continues)
(wolf snarling)
Their only competition was another species
with similar behaviors that live
in close-knit family groups, working together to protect
and fend for the home and hunting in a pack.
(ominous music)
Humans.
But rather than compete, these two top predators
started to realize there were benefits to hunting together.
The wolves had numbers and speed.
(light dramatic music)
Humans had tools, weapons that could improve
the success of kills.
By working together, they could bring down big game.
(light dramatic music continues)
(animal groans)
And there was plenty of meat to share.
(crow caws)
The societies of both wolves and people
are very much governed by body language
and facial expressions.
(bright music)
And it's possible that it gave the two species
a good shot at understanding each other.
The start of a lifelong partnership.
Humans may have raised wolf pups,
further helping them adapt to the rules of human society.
(bright music continues)
Having the animals around not only helped in the hunt,
but they would've been good guard dogs,
driving off bears and other threats.
(water splashing) (crow caws)
(birds chirping)
The more useful a wolf was, the less aggressive,
more obedient, more trainable,
the more likely people would've kept it around
and allowed it to breed.
Perhaps unknowingly, they were selectively
breeding desirable traits,
and this is the definition of domestication.
(light music) (birds chirping)
By selecting individuals, and therefore their genes,
key features can quickly be enhanced or lost.
Humans shaped their new best friend.
(light music)
And from those first wolves were bred
every species of dog we know today.
The earliest known specimen of true domestic dog,
once changed from its ancestral form,
is from Iraq and is at least 15,000 years old.
By the time of the first civilizations,
things had changed.
(light dramatic music)
In the great ancient cities of Egypt, China, Rome,
there were many different varieties of domestic dog.
(dog barks)
Whether the dog taught our ancestors a thing or two
about domestication is unknown,
but it was not long before the lives of other wild species
became intertwined with our own.
There were other ways we were starting to experiment
with wild resources.
And not just animals, but plants too.
(light music) (birds chirping)
Plants' domestication likely developed first
in the Middle East and occurred
because people would gather seeds
and water them, nurturing them as they grew.
Peas, lentils and cereals like wheat and barley,
were gradually shaped for our needs.
(leaves rustling)
These first domestic crops were recognizable
around 10,000 years ago.
It wasn't a one-off, though.
South Americans were domesticating potatoes.
North Americans were tinkering with maize.
And one of the world's most important crops, rice,
was domesticated in China around 9,000 years ago.
(light music) (water splashing)
Individual plants were chosen and planted,
which gradually favored stockier stems and larger
more of abundant heads of rice.
There is even evidence of deliberate hybridization
between two wild species of rice
to get a better quality crop.
(birds chirping) (light music)
It was such a pivotal moment.
Today, rice feeds more than half the world's population.
(women speaking foreign language)
Empires, dynasties, whole societies grew on the backs
of domesticated plants.
Everything about the way humans live was about to change.
(light music)
The hunter-gatherers could now grow food at home.
Why go out when you can be a stay-at-home farmer?
(birds chirping) (light music)
Of course, the plants provided some of the diet,
but they also needed meat and moves were afoot
to change our relationship with our prey.
Around the same time as crops were first planted,
10,000 years ago, the hunters of the Middle East
were taking a closer look at their prey.
(light music) (wind howling)
Mouflon were first.
These small, compact and attractive herbivores
ticked the box for a number of reasons.
Their size made them fairly easy to handle.
They were social and could be kept
and moved around in groups.
And they were capable of breeding and growing quickly.
(light music)
They were a favorite game animal commonly hunted
for meat and leather, but archeological evidence from Iran
dating back 10,000 years shows a big difference
in the animals being used.
(birds chirping)
Mouflon bones were common in old human spoil heaps,
the leftovers from a meal,
but there was a sudden change in that
the number of bones increased
and were all taken from animals of the same size.
(light music) (birds chirping)
It strongly suggests that the animals had been raised
and harvested, the first inroads into domestication.
(light music)
A few of those earliest domestic animals returned
to the wild and are now the mouflon
known across much of Europe.
(birds chirping) (leaves rustling)
The first farmers of these flocks selected which animals
to breed, picking tameness, size and good breeding success,
shaping the animals to suit their needs.
(leaves rustling) (light music)
The modern sheep was gradually developed.
(sheep baaing) (light music)
The first domestic livestock.
And today hugely successful
with over a billion on the planet.
(sheep baaing) (light music continues)
Their close cousins were brought into
the fold soon afterwards.
Goats' ancestors are descendants of ibex
living in the Middle East.
(light music) (birds chirping)
Like sheep, the first farmers found them to be manageable
and easy to breed.
Like sheep, they were useful not just for their meat,
but could be milked,
their skins could be used for leather,
hair, sinew and bones were all useful materials.
And even their dung could be used to fertilize crops.
(birds chirping) (light music)
There was another major benefit, too;
both goats and sheep like to stay together in flocks.
(sheep baaing)
This was ideal for semi-nomadic farmers.
They could just move their flocks around to fresh pasture.
(sheep baaing) (upbeat music)
Both species were hardy and could cope
with extreme conditions,
even remote and rugged islands
and the volcanic slopes of Iceland.
(upbeat music)
And goats especially could make a meal
of just about anything.
(leaves rustling) (bells clanging)
(wind whistling) (birds chirping)
At the time, there were no fridge-freezers,
food was hard to store, and carcasses would quickly rot.
(flies buzzing) (birds chirping)
(bells clanging)
But these mobile herds were living larders;
a renewable supply of fresh meat.
(upbeat music)
Having food on the hoof enabled humans to move
into areas where it might otherwise
have been difficult to make a living.
They were changing our history,
helping us to spread and colonize pastures new.
(upbeat music) (sheep baaing)
And we were changing the land around us,
bringing in big herds with gradually clear shrubs,
bushes and flowers,
and we'd cut down trees to open areas to turn them
to pasture all because of our lifestyle.
(upbeat music continues)
(tree thuds)
Another couple of thousand years on
(dramatic whooshing) (birds chirping)
and we were adding other animals
to our collection of assets.
(light music)
While sheep and goats were great livestock
for wandering nomads, many people were starting
to stay in one place where they could tend their crops
and were looking for animals they could keep at home.
(light music)
(birds chirping)
Pigs were domesticated several times independently
across different parts of Asia and the Middle East.
All using the abundant and widespread wild boar,
which had long been preferred prey.
(light music) (birds chirping)
The boars are powerful and potentially aggressive animals.
(light dramatic music) (leaves rustling)
(boars snorting)
But could be quickly tamed
and it didn't take much selective breeding
to establish more desirable traits.
(birds chirping) (light music)
Though the first may have been bred in what is now Turkey,
the region between the Mediterranean and Black Seas,
it was probably stock from China that was brought
to Europe and bred with European wild boars
that gave rise to the most popular modern breeds
of domestic pig.
(birds chirping) (pig snorting)
The reason domestication might have happened faster
in Asia is that elsewhere pigs were roaming,
like the sheep and goats.
(light music) (pigs snorting)
But in China they were penned and fed on scraps.
It was much easier to control who bred with who.
(bugs trilling) (light music)
It became the norm to have a pig at home;
it would recycle the household waste into meat.
(birds chirping)
The Mandarin symbol for home depicts pig in the house.
(light music) (pigs snorting)
There was a huge herbivore roaming Europe and Asia
known as the aurochs.
(light dramatic music)
A wild buffalo with a black coat,
long curved horns, and a fiery temper.
It was a difficult and dangerous quarry for hunters
to bring down, but well worth the effort when they did.
Its huge body giving a generous yield of meat.
It was revered and often depicted in ancient rock art.
But taming this beast would've great benefit to
a growing society, and so gradually the aurochs was tamed.
(light music)
(birds chirping)
Though cattle are perhaps the most altered of livestock
from their wild ancestors, with high meat and milk yield,
it's thought the first traits farmers bred
out were behavioral.
Looking for less aggressive animals that would be easier
to control and keep together without injury.
(bells clanging) (light music)
With large herds of powerful herbivores
to round up and move,
dogs started to serve another function.
They could be trained to help farmers to manage their herds.
Cattle and sheep dogs were a useful tool.
(light music)
(birds squawking)
Cattle have many diverse uses, but though mostly associated
with beef and dairy today, one of their most
important roles to begin with was power.
(cows mooing) (light music)
Before horses, they were draft animals
with immense strength.
They were used to pull carts
and were important in religious ceremonies,
sometimes as sacrifices, the ultimate offering to gods.
(light music) (bugs chittering)
Some historians suggest the reason for
this early association was because the ancestral animal's
large curved horns calls to mind
the different stages of the moon.
(light dramatic music) (crickets chirping)
(cow moos)
(birds squawking)
A culture was built around cattle,
and almost all of the great ancient civilizations
were built where cattle culture had developed.
(light music)
Most association has now been lost,
though in India where another strain of cattle,
the zebu or humpbacked cattle were bred from auroch,
the animals are still revered and protected.
Having such enormous and powerful animals available
revolutionized farming.
(light music) (leaves rustling)
They could be used to plow fields and transport heavy loads.
This was a game changer,
a real turning point in history as owning livestock,
especially cattle, was associated with wealth and status
and may have caused the first uneven divisions
of labor in society.
(muffled talking) (light music)
(birds chirping) (bugs chittering)
Cows are still a status symbol in many parts of the world
as they give such high yields.
Mostly kept for meat and milk,
but also fertilizer and leather.
(light music)
(water splashing)
They are the heart of many events;
from markets to festivals and controversial bull fights.
Today, the modern bovine is perhaps the most efficient
biological machine, converting plants to protein.
(light music)
(crickets chirping)
Though humans have attempted to domesticate a vast range
of animals, from gazelles to moose,
bison, and even hyenas,
there were only a handful that were able to adapt
to suit our needs.
(birds chirping) (light music)
Between four and 6,000 years ago,
another animal was added to the collection
which would play a huge role
in the development and spread of human society.
(light music) (birds chirping)
They are commonly depicted in cave art
and were often hunted by humans from the end
of the last ice age.
Across Eurasia, a wild equid roamed.
The tarpan, one of the last surviving species
from a large and diverse family of horses.
The vast grass plains of Kazakhstan
and the surrounding regions of central Asia
may be the hotly contested birthplace of the domestic horse.
Archeological remains suggest tooth wear
where a bit was put through the horse's mouth to control it
and ancient ceramics of traces of horse milk still in them
showing that the animals were being nurtured and exploited.
But the evidence remains controversial.
(birds chirping) (light music)
However, around 4,000 years ago,
there was a lot more movement and mixing
of human populations across Eurasia.
(light music)
And this perhaps suggests it might have been
because people had managed to ride horses
for the first time, developing technology to control them.
(light music)
Once the relationship was underway,
horses were gradually shaped for purpose.
(light rock music) (chains rattling)
Some big and strong to plow fields and pull cars.
Others were lightweight and fast,
perfect for carrying people
and messages across vast landscapes.
(light music)
Horses were like a key that unlocked the globe.
They helped people and the goods they transported
to spread around the world.
(light music)
Beyond that, they spread social systems,
superpowers and armies, and enabled a communication network
and was an intimidating force in war.
For the movement of the Mongols, the opening of trade routes
like the Silk Road, the drivers were horses.
(hooves thudding)
Before engines, horsepower fueled the world,
and they remain at the center of cultures around the globe.
(upbeat music)
Arabs, Kazakhs, to veterans, Native Americans,
horses are at the heart of many societies.
Carrying humans was not a burden for horses
to shoulder alone,
(crickets chirping)
donkeys were domesticated at around
the same time as horses, but in Africa.
Their ancestors were wild ass, hardy species
that would become invaluable modes of transportation
in the arid parts of the world.
Donkeys were primarily used as pack animals
to carry heavy loads,
something they are still employed for today.
(crickets chirping) (hay rustling)
North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula
also provided the largest domestic animal: the camel.
At least the dromedary, the one humped variety,
while the two humped was tamed in the wilds of Mongolia.
In most domestic animals selective breeding
reduces their gene pool,
but in camels the opposite was true
because of the way they were used.
(light dramatic music) (hooves thudding)
Camel trains transporting people and goods covered
such huge distances that different camel populations
would mix and breed.
(light dramatic music continues)
Camels are desert specialists, masters of the hostile realm.
They can go a week without water,
carry resources in their hump and cope with 30% water loss.
(light dramatic music)
(man sings in foreign language)
They allowed culture to penetrate the world's desert.
Even as recently as the mid 19th century,
camels were shipped in to open Australia's interior
to European settlers.
Camels are often mentioned in the Bible,
though interestingly, the Bible was compiled
several generations before the first domestic camels
reached the area.
An argument that the Bible is not a good source
for historic fact.
(light music)
Though most of the world's dramatically varied species
have not had the credentials for successful domestication,
the ones that have are equally diverse.
From giant camels,
to the smallest; the bees.
Maintained in artificial hives to produce honey
and fertilize crops.
(bees buzzing) (light music)
Beehives were depicted in ancient rock art.
Showing our relationship with the hardworking insects
goes back a long way.
And fragmentary traces in archeology
show that bee products, wax and honey,
were being used throughout the region from North Africa,
the Middle East and Southern Europe
at least 9,000 years ago.
(birds chirping) (light music)
More evidence shows that thousands of years later
the Egyptians and other ancient farmers
were establishing bees in artificial hives
made of pottery or logs.
(birds chirping) (light music)
Cats have been tamed in order to protect
the newly domesticated crops from rodent raiders.
(light music) (grass rustling)
At first, it may have been consensual.
The cats living out near people by choice
because human farms attracted so many rodents.
(birds chirping) (light music)
This association began at least seven
and half thousand years ago between humans
and the ancestor of domestic cats, the African wild cat.
(light music) (birds chirping)
And the ancient Egyptians revered cats,
and may have been the first to selectively keep
and breed them, beginning the true process of domestication.
(birds chirping)
Though the relationship was based on pest control,
cats are now one of the most popular pets.
Animals we keep for cuddles.
(gentle music) (birds chirping)
There are hundreds of millions of pet cats around the world.
(light music continues) (birds chirping)
We've domesticated rabbit for meat,
and even pole cats to hunt wild rabbits for us.
Then, of course, there is poultry;
chickens, turkeys,
pigeons, ducks, and geese,
easily managed and heavily exploited domestic livestock.
(leaves rustling) (birds chirping)
Domestication, tweaking species for our needs,
is a never ending process,
and we are still adding new species to the fold
with fish being a major target area today.
(light music)
Some species, like carp, were domesticated
thousands of years ago.
But now we try and tweak the genes
of marine fish to make them easier to maintain in captivity
to feed our ever-growing population
and reduce the impact on over-exploited wild stock.
(light music)
Domestication can look like little more
than animal exploitation.
In the process, we have taken away their choices;
stopping them from roaming where they want,
choosing which companions they can mingle with,
even deciding their mates for them.
(goat baas)
But an enforced life cheek to jowl with humans
is not entirely one sided.
(light dramatic music)
Before domestication, humans saw animals
as either predators or prey.
And animals saw humans as either predators or prey.
Domestication blurred that line
and could be perhaps be seen as a partnership of sorts.
It was something of a symbiosis.
The animals were providing food,
clothing and other materials.
But the trade off was that humans provided food and water.
They could administer medicines to care for injuries
and reduce the risk of disease.
And they kept their livestock safe from predator attack.
This last step has enormous impact on wilderness.
Once people had livestock and crops to protect,
it was the start of all out war on nature.
(water trickling)
(light dramatic music)
Pesticides were deployed to control insects.
Birds shot, (gun bangs)
rodents and rabbits trapped or shot,
(gun bangs)
and predators that might threaten livestock
were relentlessly hunted.
(birds chirping)
(gun bangs) (birds chirping)
Birds of prey were poisoned for fear
that they would attack lambs or chickens.
(lambs bleating)
Traps were set for small carnivores
like wild cats and foxes.
And though dogs had become man's best friend,
their wild relatives were driven close to extinction.
Today, across much of the world,
big predators are missing.
And in the few spots where they remain, even today,
conflict between hunters and farmers is rife.
(light music)
Maasai in East Africa will hunt lions
as revenge for loss of cattle.
(man whistles)
(gun bangs)
(man whistles)
A window on the past, a history that has removed
most of the world's great carnivores.
(light music)
Getting rid of predators has been devastating
to ecosystems around the world,
not to mention endangering the iconic species themselves.
Having animals and plants that people controlled changed
the way we lived, we could settle
and adapt the landscape around us to suit ourselves.
But also, ownership would change forever
the way we dealt and interacted with each other.
For the first time, people had possessions;
land they needed to protect to raise their food
and their harvest.
Products they could trade.
It's thought cows may have been the first currency,
a unit for trading goods to the value of a cow.
It was the start of economy,
and those with more cows had more wealth.
Class systems had begun.
(light dramatic music) (muffled talking)
Trade markets grew out of swapping products,
specific to a region, for exotic goods from other lands.
And because livestock was alive, it could be traveled
and only harvested when needed.
An animal lunchbox that allowed humans
to become explorers and travel the world.
Pigs, especially, were very adaptable.
They were shipped around the globe.
For sailors they were living larders on boats,
a welcome source of rich, fresh fatty meat.
(light dramatic music)
But they were also the most versatile animals,
and wherever the sailors landed,
the pigs would quickly adapt to the new surroundings.
(pigs snorting)
Omnivores, they can eat just about anything,
which unfortunately meant chomping their way
through native species.
(pigs snorting)
Hundreds of thousands of animals and plants
around the world are rare or extinct
as a result of imported livestock.
Most famously, the dodo, lost to the history books
because of introduced species.
(birds squawking) (light dramatic music)
They also chomped their way through penguin colonies,
all ground-nesting birds were vulnerable.
(light dramatic music)
And they were devastating to fragile plants
and ecosystems all across the globe.
(light dramatic music) (water splashing)
(birds chirping)
And though domestic species traveled with us
and framed our societies,
being one of these honorary animals was no blessing.
It's been devastating to their wild ancestors.
(ominous music)
The ancestors of donkeys are critically endangered.
And the ancestors of camels,
(bell clanging) (muffled talking)
horses, (light music)
and cows are completely extinct in the wild.
Species lost forever, replaced only with our tamed down,
modified and dependent versions.
We can only see artificial versions of tarpan and aurochs
that have been recreated from their domestic cousins.
(birds chirping) (light music)
Animals changed human fate; they got us to places.
In some ways you could say gave us the chance
to conquer the world.
(light music)
We owe them thanks, though it's perhaps something
of a poisoned chalice.
For thousands of years we've tweaked their genes,
trying to perfect their forms, but at what cost?
(light music)
Overly bred plants and animals might grow faster
or yield more, but can be more susceptible to disease
and less able to cope with climate change.
(light music)
We need to look at the rules of nature
to make sure we help our chosen companion species
into the future.
(light music) (birds chirping)
The domestication of animals was the beginning
of the end of the world as we knew it.
(dramatic music)
It was the start of greed,
a gap in wealth,
a fight for land, (men yelling)
a disruption of ecosystems,
and a mass extinction of wild species.
(dramatic music continues)
(birds squawking)
(monkeys hollering)
But it was also the beginning of a long
and incredible partnership between animals and us.
(light music) (sheep baaing)
The few species that worked with us
becoming domesticated changed our history,
shaped our success, and now holds the key to our failure.
Much of our future now lies in how we handle
that relationship going forwards.
Domestic animals changed our history,
and will change it again if we don't give their ancestors
a little space to thrive.
(light music) (birds chirping)
(cows mooing)