動物行為學之馴化

中文字：775，建議閱讀時間：1.1分鐘；英文字：427

When we think of domesticated animals, we will normally think of a dog and a cat, since these animals have been with humans for thousands of years. There are two types of domestications that can be found, that is one is for companionship and the other food. We normally see dogs and cats as mainly pet companions and sheep, cows and chickens that are domesticated for food.

But how do animals become domesticated for companions?

A breeding project by scientist Dmitry Belyayev, was designed to find if domesticating wild animals can be done through breeding rather than individual training. Dmitry Belyayev used the Silver Fox (Vulpes Vulpes) which are a melanistic (fur is black) form of the red fox.

If you ever seen a wild fox you will know how much they will keep away from humans and other animals, they even run away from lazy cats. The experiment was done on juvenile foxes (also known as cubs, pups and kits) as these foxes would not have learned what animals to avoid from their parents. a handler went to the foxesto see how they reacted, if the fox tried to bite the hand of the handler or cowered in fear and tried to bite the handler, then these foxes were culled (killed) but if the fox was interested in the handler and let the handler touch and stroke it the fox was but into the breeding program.

The foxed that wasn』t culled where bred and the new young was put through the same tested any fox showing aggressive behaviour and fearfulness was cull, over generation of this routine the foxes became more domesticated and less fearful and angry towards handlers.

This as shown that that domestication of animals can be done through a breeding programs and this could have happened when the first wolves were domesticated. One of the side effects of this experiment showed that the foxes coat started to change, normally the silver fox is black but lighter colours started to appear and just like dog』s foxes started developing more colours such a red, black, platinum and Georgian white.

Conclusion

While the experiment was very cruel, it did show that tameness is a trait that all animal so has and it can be developed over hundreds of years, while I would like a domesticated wild animal such as a fruit bat as a pet I would rather let evolution take its time then through culling animals to find the right combination to speed up

中文翻譯：

當提起人類馴養的動物時，我們通常就會想到貓或者狗，因為這兩者與人類和諧共處的時間超過了幾千年。通常出於兩點原因人們會選擇馴養動物，其一是為了陪伴，就像貓與狗那樣成為了我們的寵物；其二如羊、牛、雞等則是為了讓它們給我們提供食物。

說到陪伴，現如今的寵物是如何馴化到能夠與我們朝夕相處的呢？

一項由科學家Dmitry Belyayev發起的繁殖項目，旨在發現能否僅通過繁殖選擇，馴化出人類理想的寵物，而不是後期人為訓練。科學家選用銀狐作為實驗對象，它是赤狐中帶黑色的一種。

如果你見過野生狐狸的話，你會發現它們會躲開一切生物，包括人類，甚至是一隻慵懶的貓。實驗首先選擇的是狐狸的幼崽，因為這些狐狸並沒有向它們父母學習到要避免與生物的接觸。實驗人員則會走進狐狸，看它們是如何反應的，如果狐狸試圖抓咬實驗者的手或者害怕地團縮在一邊且試圖撕咬對方，那麼這些狐狸都會被殺；但是如果狐狸表現出對實驗者的興趣並且讓對方親近與撫摸，那麼這隻狐狸就被保留下來。

那些沒有被殺的狐狸會再次進行繁殖，新一代會被進行同樣的實驗，凡是表現出具有攻擊性的後代都會被殺。通過幾代如此反覆，狐狸的後代就變得易於馴化，對於人類也減少了恐懼與侵略性。

這個實驗就證明了動物可以通過繁殖來達到被人類馴化的目的。這也同樣發生在了第一代試圖被馴化的狼的身上。這個實驗的副作用，體現在狐狸毛的顏色開始出現了變化，之前銀狐的顏色是黑色的，但是其後代的顏色則逐漸變淺。正如由狼變成狗的過程中，狗的顏色也變得多樣起來，有紅色、黑色、銀灰色等。

總結

實驗顯然是殘忍的，它證明了溫順其實是所有動物具有的一個性格特性，這種特性能夠在幾百年的特定繁衍中，進一步得到加強。當然更仁道的做法就是通過自然淘汰，而不是人為加速物種繁衍的速度並改變其進化方向，使之成為人類的寵物。這同樣讓我聯想到，如果外星人入侵，人類是不是也會被定向馴化成為高級文明的寵物？