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Domestication is a gradual process, so there is no precise moment in the history of a given species when it can be considered to have become fully domesticated. Zooarchaeology has identified three classes of animal domesticates: Pets (dogs, cats, ferrets, hamsters, etc.) Livestock (cattle, sheep, pigs, goats, etc.)
Traditionally, the scientific name for the donkey is Equus asinus asinus, on the basis of the principle of priority used for scientific names of animals. However, the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature ruled in 2003 that if the domestic and the wild species are considered subspecies of a common species, the scientific name of the wild species has priority, even when that ...
Bovids range in size from the 38 cm (15 in) long royal antelope to the 3.3 m (11 ft) long gaur, which can reach 1,500 kg (3,300 lb) in weight. [1] Over a billion each of domesticated sheep , cattle , and goats , and over 200 million domesticated water buffalo , 14 million domestic yak , and 300,000 domesticated gayal are used in farming worldwide.
Because the evolution of domestic animals is ongoing, the process of domestication has a beginning but not an end. Various criteria have been established to provide a definition of domestic animals, but all decisions about exactly when an animal can be labelled "domesticated" in the zoological sense are arbitrary, although potentially useful. [45]
In some countries, an incompletely castrated male is known also as a rig or ridgling. The word "bull" also denotes the males of other bovines, including bison and water buffalo, as well as many other species of large animals, including elephants, rhinos, seals and walruses, hippos, camels, giraffes, elk, moose, whales, dolphins, and antelopes.
Domestication (not to be confused with the taming of an individual animal [3] [4] [5]), is from the Latin domesticus, 'belonging to the house'. [6] The term remained loosely defined until the 21st century, when the American archaeologist Melinda A. Zeder defined it as a long-term relationship in which humans take over control and care of another organism to gain a predictable supply of a ...
Also called the domestic dog, it was selectively bred from an extinct population of wolves during the Late Pleistocene by hunter-gatherers. The dog was the first species to be domesticated by humans , over 14,000 years ago and before the development of agriculture .
Over 1000 breeds of cattle are recognized worldwide, some of which adapted to the local climate, others which were bred by humans for specialized uses. [1]Cattle breeds fall into two main types, which are regarded as either two closely related species, or two subspecies of one species.