Taming The Wild Summary

Selective breeding has long been thought to have some aspect of a certain species amplified in order to benefit said species. This can be stated about the many species of animals that inhabit the world today. Cows are selectively chosen in order to grow larger allowing a larger heap of meat in return. The same concept is one which is found in Evan Ratliff’s “Taming the Wild”. Ratliff had found that foxes which are genetically breed in a certain way are able to become friendly with humans. The cause of this change was due to specific genetics of the foxes when reproduced show a friendlier interest in humans. Ratliff is correct in saying genetics are important in deterring how likely it is to domesticate an animal but he does not take
The researcher who conducted the experiment which Ratliff had reported was Dr. Belyaev. After the success of the fox experiment he turned his attention to the american minx species in order to prove that it was not only one species which can be modified but any sort of mammal. After conducting a research experiment involving more than 30000 american minx’s he was left with 200 that “were not only easier to approach, but novel coat colours and other anatomical features had started to appear, just as they had done with the foxes” (Henry). This experiment was a success and completely proved Ratliff’s theory. Genetically modified mammals have to ability to be tamed which in turn allows humans to benefit in many ways. The domestication of wild animals species can help society when dealing with safety risks and agriculture such as the African Buffalo which “ is notoriously aggressive, killing more people each year than lions” (Henry). The domestication of this animal demonstrates how important the effects of genetic modification will be and how it can be applied for not a specific species of animal but any kind of animal. While there is massive amounts of data supporting that genetics leads to taming animals there are others which expressive a more complicated view on Ratliff’s
Robinson’s “Animal Domestication.” While mentioning the prevalence of genetics when dealing with the domestication of animals, this article mentions the importance of human contact by animals. When domesticating animals, the difficulty to conquer these situations depend on the attitudes about how well the animals interact with humans themselves. Robinson expresses this as he brings up three main points in order to support his statement. In the wild animals have “social behavior and territorial behavior” which shows how friendly an animal is towards one of its own species or one of another species (Robinson). If the species of animal is not one which interacts well with others than it makes it increasingly more different to domesticate no matter what type of gene manipulation is done. That said if a new born of a species is too attached to its mother the ability to test domestication is significantly decreased. Primates such as ourselves are poor test subjects due to how most primates are “helplessness at birth” and have a “relatively long dependence on their mothers for food and nurturing” (Koh). A long reproduction cycles cause difficulty when trying to domesticate or tame a species. No matter how a gene is changed aspects which a single gene can not control an animals total behavior. The domestication of animals species can be aided by the modification of certain genes but deal with many more