Where did your pet come from?

Todd Hollett traces the evolution of wild animals to domesticated pets

Pets are an integral part of human life: as companions, hunting partners or pest control. In ancient times, many cultures even viewed them as demigods.

My son, Charlie, asked me a while ago, while admiring his pet bearded dragon, Dudley, when did people start keeping lizards as pets? That got me wondering when we decided to bring any animals into our homes and make them part of the family. Here are the results of my recent dive into the history and evolution of pets.

Dogs

It is thought that dogs were the first animals to be domesticated; however, not as the companions we consider them today. These first canines were wolf pups domesticated for hunting, not cuddling. First attracted to human camps to scavenge, over time some packs started following nomadic people and a sort of natural selection for domestication occurred. Archeological evidence supports that some grey wolves experienced domestication in western Eurasia. There is also evidence suggesting that dogs were domesticated twice: once in Europe about 16,000 years ago, and again in Asia some 14,000 years ago.

While dogs were indeed the first domestic animal, nobody really knows if they were the first animals kept as pets for companionship. The idea of dogs being a man’s best friend is a very old concept, with archaeological evidence from at least 15,000 years ago showing dogs buried alongside their owners.

Romans valued dogs particularly highly, as evidenced by the Nereid Monument – built in 390 BC, it features a dog resting at the feet of a wealthy aristocrat. They also kept small “toy dog” breeds some 2,000 years ago. In Greece, dogs were kept as co-therapists in healing temples; it was believed they warded off death and cured illness, a precursor of our modern therapy dogs. Britain was the centre of dog breeding since early Roman times, holding what is believed to be the first competitive dog show in Newcastle in 1859, for Pointers and Setters. In 13th to 15th century medieval Europe, the keeping of dogs became popular with clergy and aristocrats, lap dogs were fashionable with noble ladies, and male nobility sought “useful animals” such as hunting hounds and falcons.

Little was known about the inheritance of various desirable characteristics until Charles Darwin published The Origin of Species in 1859. Though people have used selective breeding on dogs since very early times. The Romans bred their sheep dogs to be white so they were not confused with wolves at night, and their desired guard dogs were black to scare away thieves. Their shapes have also been changed throughout history, and small dogs are not a newer thing: a dog similar to the Pekingese was found in China from the 1st century AD. Dogs have also been bred for desired behaviours and aesthetics. Genetic studies indicate that most modern domestic breeds originated in China, the Middle East and Eastern Europe.

Cats

It’s often said that nobody “owns” a cat, but cat domestication is thought to have started around 12,000 years ago with the first agricultural societies. When humans settled in place and began to store grain, that attracted mice. The mice provided an endless food supply for cats, who in turn provided pest control for the farmers. Thus began a beautiful, mutually beneficial relationship.

This partnership soon developed into reverence in some cultures, particularly the Egyptians, whose feline fondness is famous and where killing a cat was a crime punishable by death! A cat cemetery at Ben Hassan contains the mummified bodies of 300,000 cats. Few societies today are more obsessed with cats than Japan, though, as evidenced by the Hello Kitty franchise. It is believed that cats arrived in Japan from China with Buddhism in the 6th century, to guard ancient manuscripts from rodents. This connection to holiness made them status symbols.

Cats have had some rocky relationships with humans, such as during the witch trials of the 16th and 17th centuries. Possession of an “animal familiar” was considered a symbol of Satan and evidence of guilt. The accused witches were often elderly women who kept cats as companions.

While it has taken quite some time to piece together, the first evidence of domesticated cats was found in Cyprus in 1983, when an 8,000-year-old cat jawbone was discovered.

Then in 2004, more evidence was unearthed pushing the date back another 1,500 years. In this era, Egyptians often mummified cats and placed them in luxurious chambers within pyramids. They even worshipped three feline goddesses.

Archeologists and biologists alike think that, unlike dogs, cats descended from five different types of wildcats and sort of domesticated themselves, in typical cat fashion, at their own pace. Despite adapting to these new environments and establishing the many cat breeds we see today, they have changed very little from their roots as wildcats. They are just a little less solitary and a little more tolerant of us humans in exchange for room and board.

Fish

Fish have been raised in pools and ponds by many cultures for thousands of years, for both functional and decorative purposes. Ancient Sumerians (2500 BC) and Babylonians (500 BC) first kept wild fish in ponds until they landed on the menu. Ancient Egyptian art depicts a sacred African freshwater fish, Oxyrhynchus, being kept in temple pools. The Egyptians considered fish sacred, worshipping the Nile perch. Asian societies have been known to stock rice paddies with freshwater fish suitable for eating.

The Chinese brought goldfish indoors during the Song Dynasty from 960-1279, began breeding goldfish in the 10th century and introduced them to Europe in 1691. This led to Robert Warrington studying the cycling of water in tanks to keep fish alive longer, and in 1853, the London Zoological Society opened the first public aquarium.

Siamese fighting fish, or Bettas, were first successfully bred in France in 1893.

Up until the 1920s, most fish kept in tanks were wild caught and only the wealthy could afford to take up the hobby of fishkeeping. The first commercial breeding was started in Florida and in the 1950s, breeders used former WWII pilots to transport their much cheaper fish by air. That, and the invention of the goldfish bowl, opened up the hobby to the masses. In the 1960s, the hobby was further improved by sealed glass tanks, then acrylic tanks and better filtration systems. Now many breeders are controversially modifying fish to make them more attractive, and campaigns have sprung up against it. Genetically modified fish, such as Glofish, are popular and are illegal in some places.

The 1960s-80s saw many developments in saltwater aquariums. However, with their specialized needs these have not become so popular. The fish are generally harder to obtain, less diverse and more expensive.

Exotics

Exotic pets such as reptiles, amphibians and invertebrates are becoming much more popular in today’s world. Arachnids are among the most unique exotics currently on the market, with 1,264 species currently in the pet trade. More than one million emperor scorpions, as well as flat rock, desert hairy and Asian forest scorpions, and more than 600,000 Grammostola tarantula (including the most popular, Chilean Rose and Mexican red-legged tarantula) are imported annually to North America. And then there are the hissing cockroaches, millipedes, centipedes, mantises, and rhinoceros and goliath beetles.

It is thought that the first tarantula to make its way into the pet trade was possibly sometime in the late 1960s. As interest rose in the 1970s, poaching became a problem, so people began legally breeding and trading the spiders. Interest in scorpions later developed because they are easy to care for, live well in recreated habitats and tolerate handling.

Starting in the 1940s, the primary reptiles being sold in pet stores were wild caught red-eared slider turtles and green anole lizards. Then in the 1950-60s, turtle farming became popular.

During the latter half of the 20th century, imported reptiles from Australia, Africa, South and Central America, and Asia began to appear. An explosion in reptile ownership came in the 1980s and 1990s, much of it over green iguanas, boas and pythons. In 1997 alone, about 566,000 iguanas, 94,000 ball pythons and 29,000 boa constrictors were imported for sale.

These days, the trend is towards the more “designer” reptiles such as corn snakes, leopard geckos, bearded dragons and ball pythons, which have been captive bred and derived from specialized genetic linages.

Birds, especially parrots, may represent the class of exotic pets that have been kept in captivity the longest. Records indicate that the Egyptians – they really like pets, have you noticed? – have been keeping birds since 4000 BC. During the 15th to 18th centuries, sailing made the movement of birds more commonplace and their popularity as pets grew. Many of the pet birds today are canaries, parakeets, parrots and zebra finches that have been captive bred since the 18th and 19th centuries.

Many other exotic and native species are also being kept as pets today, including ferrets, rabbits, hedgehogs, chinchillas, guinea pigs, hamsters, tegu lizards, caiman, tigers – even the common house pest we call carpenters, sow bugs or boat builders. Perhaps I’ll tell their story another time.

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