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Different non-human animals unwillingly help humans with creating medicine that can treat certain human diseases. For example, the anticoagulant properties of snake venom are key to potential medical use. These toxins can be used to treat heart disease, pulmonary embolism, and many other diseases, all of which may originate from blood clots.
The human population exploits and depends on many animal and plant species for food, mainly through agriculture, but also by exploiting wild populations, notably of marine fish. [ 10 ] [ 11 ] [ 12 ] Livestock animals are raised for meat across the world; they include (2011) around 1.4 billion cattle , 1.2 billion sheep and 1 billion domestic pigs .
People have found uses for a wide variety of abilities in animals, and even industrialized societies use many animals for work. People use the strength of horses, elephants, and oxen to pull carts and move loads. Police forces use dogs for finding illegal substances and assisting in apprehending wanted persons, others use dogs to find game or ...
Animals further play a wide variety of roles in literature, film, mythology, and religion. A major way that people relate to mammals (and some other animals) is by anthropomorphising them, ascribing human emotions and goals to them. This has been deprecated when it occurs in science, though more recently zoologists have taken a more lenient ...
In the previous 11,000 years, humans have brought a wide range of species into domestication to use as livestock, working animals, household pets, and companions. [27] The influence of human behaviour on domesticated animals has led to many species having learned to co-exist - sometimes leading to the formation of an interspecies friendship.
Scientists think genetically-modified animals could one day be the solution to an organ supply shortage that causes thousands of people in the U.S. to die every year waiting for a transplant.
When the human honey-hunter has taken their honey, the honeyguide eats what is left. [19] [20] The Boran people of East Africa use a specific whistle, which doubles the encounter rate with honeyguides; they find that using a honeyguide reduces the time to find honey by two-thirds. [18] The Bushmen of the Kalahari thank the honeyguide with a ...
Selective breeding (also called artificial selection) is the process by which humans use animal breeding and plant breeding to selectively develop particular phenotypic traits (characteristics) by choosing which typically animal or plant males and females will sexually reproduce and have offspring together.