What Animal Will Humans Domesticate Next? — Transcript

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1. 0:00Thousands of years ago, humans pulled
2. 0:02off one of the strangest feats in
3. 0:03history. We took wolves and turned them
4. 0:06into dogs. Wild cattle became cows. Wild
5. 0:09boars became pigs. Wild horses became
6. 0:11companions, workers, and transportation.
7. 0:14Entire species were transformed to fit
8. 0:16human civilization. But here's something
9. 0:18most people never think about. Almost
10. 0:20all of that happened thousands of years
11. 0:22ago, which raises a weird question. Have
12. 0:24we already domesticated everything worth
13. 0:26domesticating, or is there an animal
14. 0:28alive today that could be come the next
15. 0:30dog? And surprisingly, there actually is
16. 0:32a frontrunner. If scientists had to
17. 0:34place a bet on the next animal humans
18. 0:36could successfully domesticate, the
19. 0:38answer would probably be foxes. But to
20. 0:40understand why, we first need to
21. 0:42understand something important. Most
22. 0:44animals are terrible candidates for
23. 0:46domestication. People often confuse
24. 0:48taming with domestication. They are not
25. 0:50the same thing. A tiger raised by humans
26. 0:52can become tame. It might tolerate
27. 0:54people. It might even seem affectionate.
28. 0:56But that doesn't make tigers
29. 0:57domesticated. Domestication happens when
30. 1:00an entire species changes genetically
31. 1:02over many generations, and that's
32. 1:04incredibly difficult. Take zebras. For
33. 1:06centuries, people have tried to
34. 1:08domesticate them. On paper, zebras seem
35. 1:10perfect. They're similar in size to
36. 1:12horses. They're strong enough to ride.
37. 1:14They live in groups. Yet, domesticated
38. 1:16zebras basically don't exist. Why?
39. 1:19Because zebras are aggressive,
40. 1:21unpredictable, and extremely difficult
41. 1:23to breed selectively. The traits that
42. 1:25made horses useful simply aren't present
43. 1:27in zebras. And that illustrates the
44. 1:29problem. Most species failed the
45. 1:31domestication test. Some are too
46. 1:33aggressive. Some panic too easily. Some
47. 1:35refuse to breed in captivity. Others
48. 1:37don't have the social structures that
49. 1:39allow humans to work with them.
50. 1:41Historian and biologist Jared Diamond
51. 1:43argued that only a tiny fraction of
52. 1:45large animal species possess the right
53. 1:47combination of traits for domestication
54. 1:49at all. In other words, humanity
55. 1:51probably picked most of the obvious
56. 1:53winners a very long time ago. But maybe
57. 1:56not all of them. Which brings us back to
58. 1:58foxes. In 1959, a Soviet geneticist
59. 2:01named Dmitri Belyaev launched one of the
60. 2:03most fascinating experiments ever
61. 2:05conducted. His goal was simple: take
62. 2:07wild silver foxes and breed only the
63. 2:10friendliest individuals. Nothing else
64. 2:12mattered. Not size, not appearance, not
65. 2:14intelligence, just friendliness towards
66. 2:16humans. Generation after generation, the
67. 2:19tamest foxes were selected to reproduce.
68. 2:21And what happened next shocked
69. 2:23scientists. The foxes didn't just become
70. 2:25friendlier, they started looking
71. 2:27different. Their ears became floppy,
72. 2:29their tails curled, their coats
73. 2:31developed new colors and patterns. Some
74. 2:33even began acting like dogs. They sought
75. 2:35out human attention. They wagged their
76. 2:37tails. They followed people around. And
77. 2:39all of this happened in just a few
78. 2:41decades. That's an eye blink in
79. 2:43evolutionary terms. The experiment
80. 2:45revealed something remarkable. Once a
81. 2:46species starts adapting to human
82. 2:48companionship, other changes often
83. 2:50follow. Behavior changes, appearance
84. 2:52changes, even biology changes. Which is
85. 2:55exactly what happened to wolves
86. 2:56thousands of years ago. That's why foxes
87. 2:58are probably the strongest candidate for
88. 3:00future domestication. We've already
89. 3:02demonstrated that the process works. But
90. 3:04here's the catch. Just because we can
91. 3:07domesticate foxes doesn't mean we will.
92. 3:09Because today we face a problem our
93. 3:11ancestors didn't. We don't really need
94. 3:14new domesticated animals. For most of
95. 3:16history, domestication solved practical
96. 3:18problems. Animals provided food,
97. 3:20transportation, protection, labor.
98. 3:22Modern technology handles many of those
99. 3:25jobs better than animals do. So if foxes
100. 3:27became domesticated tomorrow, what role
101. 3:29would they actually fill? That's harder
102. 3:31to answer. And that leads to a much
103. 3:33bigger idea. Maybe the next domesticated
104. 3:35animal won't be chosen because it's
105. 3:37useful. Maybe it'll happen because a
106. 3:40species naturally becomes compatible
107. 3:42with human life. We've actually seen
108. 3:44this before with cats. Contrary to
109. 3:46popular belief, humans didn't really
110. 3:48create cats the same way we created
111. 3:50dogs. Cats mostly domesticated
112. 3:52themselves. When early farming societies
113. 3:55began storing grain, mice showed up. The
114. 3:57mice attracted wild cats. The cats got
115. 3:59easy food. Humans got free pest control.
116. 4:02The friendliest cats benefited the most.
117. 4:04Over time, both species adapted to each
118. 4:06other. No one sat down and decided to
119. 4:08invent the house cats. The relationship
120. 4:10emerged naturally. And maybe that's
121. 4:12exactly how future domestication will
122. 4:14happen, because evolution never stopped.
123. 4:16Animals are still adapting to us right
124. 4:18now. Urban foxes have learned to thrive
125. 4:20in cities. Crows can recognize
126. 4:22individual human faces. Some birds have
127. 4:25learned to use traffic patterns to crack
128. 4:26open nuts. Entire species are adjusting
129. 4:29to human environments in ways our
130. 4:31ancestors never could have imagined. And
131. 4:33that raises an interesting possibility.
132. 4:35Maybe somewhere on Earth another species
133. 4:37is already taking the first steps down
134. 4:39the same path that wolves and cats once
135. 4:42took. Not because humans planned it, but
136. 4:44because living alongside humans happens
137. 4:46to be advantageous. If that species
138. 4:48exists, foxes are probably the best
139. 4:51current candidate. They're intelligent,
140. 4:53social, adaptable, and we've already
141. 4:55seen how quickly they respond to
142. 4:56selective breeding. But the real answer
143. 4:58may be even more interesting than foxes,
144. 5:00because the history of domestication
145. 5:02suggests something unexpected. It isn't
146. 5:04really about humans controlling animals.
147. 5:06It's about cooperation. The animals that
148. 5:08succeeded weren't necessarily the
149. 5:10strongest or the smartest. They were the
150. 5:12ones capable of building a relationship
151. 5:14with us. Wolves became dogs because the
152. 5:16partnership benefited both sides. Cats
153. 5:19stayed because life around humans was
154. 5:21easier than life without them. And maybe
155. 5:23the next domesticated species will
156. 5:25emerge the same way. Not through some
157. 5:27grand scientific project, not because we
158. 5:29decide to create it, but because one
159. 5:31species slowly discovers that its future
160. 5:33is better with us than without us. So,
161. 5:35when people ask what animal will be
162. 5:37domesticated next, the most likely
163. 5:39answer is probably foxes. But the more
164. 5:41fascinating possibility is that the real
165. 5:44next domesticated animal may already be
166. 5:46out there quietly adapting to human life
167. 5:49and we simply haven't noticed it yet.