Steppe wolves saw tourists begging for petting and were questioned for being dogs
Recently, a tourist went to the Liaoyang Longding Mountain Zoo in Liaoyang City, Liaoning Province, and he saw a somewhat strange picture. When he first came to the beast area, he was a little excited in his heart, and he didn't know what animals to see first, so he directly followed the layout to look at the past, and when he came to the steppe wolf area, he actually saw a scene that was not very "wolf".
Another tourist waved to the wolf in the steppe wolf viewing area, and as a result, a wolf ran over with a humble face, leaning against the fence affectionately, letting the tourists touch their heads at will, this wolf was even touched to the ear and closed eyes super enjoyed, so cute and docile, where like what kind of canine top predator, is this really not a dog?
Many have questioned zoos, suspecting that they use dogs to fool people with steppe wolves. The zoo quickly came out to respond, they said that this is indeed a steppe wolf, because it grew up with people, so it lacks wildness, is very close to people, and if there is a safety problem, it will definitely install a protective net.
This zoo is indeed pure "raising" animals, and I have written many times about the zoo controversy, so I will not repeat it here.
But what I want to say is that the wolf culture promoted by many companies will actually over-domesticate people, become like this steppe wolf, and then it can be simply managed by the company, which is simply PUA.
Don't pull these, it is rare that this hot spot comes out, let's talk about the evolution process of wolf turning into dog, which is full of puzzles.
When and where were dogs domesticated?
Although Chihuahua and Demu are dogs, they really look like they are not compatible, whether it is from body shape or personality, but if you turn up dozens of generations, they actually come from the same ancestors, and the cultivation technology of humans is really a magic art.
Although there is still a lot of controversy about the emergence of dogs, there is still some scientific consensus. About 15,000-40,000 years ago, dogs differentiated from gray wolves, they were distributed in different regions, producing various subspecies, which were domesticated, cultivated, and then hybridized, and gradually consciously cultivated by humans into so many kinds of dogs.
But how did a wild carnivore become the stupid dog in our family that nibbles on the couch? The controversy is enormous, and genetic science continues to advance, but it has expanded the history and scope of dogs and become more confusing. In 2020, a team of scientists genetically studied the possible date of human domestication of dogs, pushing back, suggesting that dogs may have even been tried to domesticate nearly 40,000 years ago. Early dogs, even though initially domesticated, were wild and untamed, so they were domesticated more than once.
The researchers analyzed mitochondrial DNA sequences from the remains of 3,000-14,000-year-old European dogs. Comparisons of these genomes with all wolf species and modern dog breeds suggest that the dog lineage was found to split into East Asian and Western European subdies about 14,000 to 6,400 years ago.
Although the evidence is growing, because our ancient ancestors performed different domestication experiments on dogs in different places, many hybridizations confused genetic research and greatly increased the difficulty of the investigation.
How did dogs become our family?
There was a previous theory that around the time of the rise of agriculture about 10,000 years ago, humans somehow captured small wolves in order to protect food and hunting, and then domesticated them as tools. But this claim is untenable, because several fossils have been found dating back 20,000 years, and they appear to be in the process from wolf to dog.
Another theory convinces scientists even more: Wolves are domesticated in cooperative hunting with humans. Most wolves only use humans as rations, but some wolves will be curious about humans and even show friendliness, which makes it possible for them to get food after hunting, so these friendly wolves get close to humans and have the opportunity to be domesticated.
In a Russian domestication experiment, scientists cultivated several generations of foxes, selected only the most human-friendly individuals, and let them reproduce, and these friendly genes were continued, and the foxes who chose to socialize with humans looked more and more cute — like dogs, or like the steppe wolf today.
postscript
Humans may never be able to solve the mystery of the domestication of dogs, but it doesn't matter to us, because we just have to go home and see the healing pictures of dogs rushing towards you; It is not a waste of time for scientists, because the study of the history of the domestication of dogs is inseparable from humans in any case, and therefore the history of human beings.