Domesticated Wolf Research Paper

Dogs and wolves show little resemblance but oddly satisfying, they belong to the same family tree. Although the initial response for one is adorable the other is scary, one is to thank domesticated wolves for bringing us the companionship today of a dog. It is hard to determine the real source where dogs came from but there are two top leading theories as to how the domestication of wolves began. The top leading theory is wolves domesticated themselves to take advantage of human settlements; wolves no longer had to hunt for food when humans gave it directly. The next leading theory is human isolated wolves as pups to raise them in domestication. These domesticated clans then reproduced and became the era of domesticated dogs. There are different viewings on how dogs have achieved such unique status and how

domestication occurred based on current evidence. It is through these studies though, that one is able to better understand and draw conclusions about the ancestry and domestication.
Wolves are predators meaning they hunt for their food.

They’ve developed high techniques to be on top of the food chain. When the nomadic lifestyle changed to human settlements, wolves domesticated themselves in the settlements to take advantage of the commerce leftovers. Raymond Coopinger discusses the different approaches wolves had, “Wolves that had a higher “flight distance” tolerance would avoid these dumps, or spend more time and energy running away from the dumps when people approached than they would scavenging. Wolves with a lower “flight distance” would not startle and run from humans as easily, and this would allow them to eat more and succeed in this new niche” (pg. 152). Those who had the lower “flight distance” took the advantage to continue getting their food from humans. They became domesticated within them and began the era of domesticated dogs. Over time, the wolves would develop a shape more suited to scavenging, with a smaller body and smaller brain, which would then require less energy. The higher “flight distance” wolves did of course keep their distance and continued to hunt for their food and remain the predators they’ve always

been.
Archeological evidence does support the leading theory of wolves domesticating themselves. Many wolf fossil remains have been found to close proximity with the human settlement remains. This indicates the close relation the animal must have with the human. Clutton-Brock examined these fossils closely and came to the conclusion that “These tamed wolves were many generations away from the true domesticated dog, but they were its precursors” (pg. 30) but there are “slight morphological differences from those of wild wolves”. These slight differences include a “shortened facial region…compacted teeth…metapodial and toe bones…more slender than those of wolves” (pg. 112). This evidence provides a clarification that there was a decline in the predator characteristics wild wolves have. According to one study based on mitochondrial DNA from 162 wolves and 140 domestic dogs, wolves were determined “to be the ancestors of dogs, and the evidence suggested that dogs originated more than 100,000 years ago” (Vila, C., 1997). However, the “anatomical similarity” between the species does not provide the answer to the question of origin. According to Serpell, “…the real difference between them is behavioral: dogs are tamable and trainable, wild canids are not” (Serpell, 1995).
While grown wild wolves cannot be tamed, young pups give a different result. According to Clutton-Brock, in order for species to be domesticated, “it is a result of reproductive isolation from their wild progenitors combined with natural and artificial selection in association with human societies” (pg. 53). This results in the next leading theory of humans isolating young wolf pups and domesticating them. Wolves would have been brought into human settlements and tamed, and over time, those wolves would breed with other tamed wolves until after many generations, the tamed wolves would develop into domestic dogs. The biggest argument against this theory is that this would require reproductive isolation, which would be very difficult if not impossible for the hunter-gatherer humans of that time. They were often on the move, and would most likely not be devoting much time to domesticating their wolf pups. Even if two tamed wolves were to breed, the resulting offspring would not automatically be tame – they would still need extensive socialization as pups to become tame.