- Self-domestication
A self-domesticating animal is one that does not have to be bred to be a domestic animal but instead is able to domesticate itself--that is, is predisposed to be treated and act like a domesticated pet rather than a wild animal.
The theory has long persisted that house cats descended from African wild cats domesticated about 10,000 years ago in Egypt. Recently however, scientists have hypothesized that they are in fact self-domesticating and did not have to be specially bred to be domestic animals. cite journal | author = Driscoll, Carlos A. et al | title = The Near Eastern Origin of Cat Domestication | date = 2007-07-27 | journal = "Science" | url = http://www.mobot.org/plantscience/resbot/repr/add/domesticcat_driscoll2007.pdf | accessdate = 2008-04-02 | doi = 10.1126/science.1139518 | volume = 1 | pages = e3 | pmid = 17600185]
Dr. Raymond Coppinger of Hampshire College, Massachusetts hypothesizes that dogs were self-domesticated from wolves based on the characteristic of "flight distance." [ cite web
url = http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/dog/garbage.html
title = Dogs that Changed the World; The Rise of the Dog
accessdate = 2007-05-08
publisher = [http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/ PBS-Nature] ]ee also
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Domestication References
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