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Wolves are sometimes kept as exotic pets, and in some rarer occasions, as working animals. Although closely related to domesticated dogs, wolves do not show the same tractability as dogs in living alongside humans, and generally, a greater amount of effort is required in order to obtain the same amount of reliability. Wolves also need much more ...
One review considered why the domestication of the wolf occurred so late and at such high latitudes, when humans were living alongside wolves in the Middle East for the past 75,000 years. The proposal is that domestication was a cultural innovation caused through a long and stressful event, which was climate change.
The New World wolves did not show any gene flow with the boxer, dingo or Chinese indigenous dogs but there was indication of gene flow between the Mexican wolf and the African basenji. [13] All species within the genus Canis, the wolf-like canids, are phylogenetically closely related with 78 chromosomes and can potentially interbreed. [100]
Domestication has been defined as "a sustained multi-generational, mutualistic relationship in which one organism assumes a significant degree of influence over the reproduction and care of another organism in order to secure a more predictable supply of a resource of interest, and through which the partner organism gains advantage over individuals that remain outside this relationship ...
In modern times, wolves and wolf-dog hybrids are sometimes kept as exotic pets, wolves do not show the same tractability as dogs in living alongside humans, being generally less responsive to human commands and more likely to act aggressively. Humans are more likely to be fatally mauled by a pet wolf or wolf-dog hybrid than by a dog.
Domestication (not to be confused with the taming of an individual animal [3] [4] [5]), is from the Latin domesticus, 'belonging to the house'. [6] The term remained loosely defined until the 21st century, when the American archaeologist Melinda A. Zeder defined it as a long-term relationship in which humans take over control and care of another organism to gain a predictable supply of a ...
The fact that wolves are pack animals with cooperative social structures may have been the reason that the relationship developed. Humans benefited from the canid's loyalty, cooperation, teamwork, alertness and tracking abilities, while the wolf may have benefited from the use of weapons to tackle larger prey and the sharing of food.
As of 2018, the global gray wolf population is estimated to be 200,000–250,000. [1] Once abundant over much of North America and Eurasia, the gray wolf inhabits a smaller portion of its former range because of widespread human encroachment and destruction of its habitat, and the resulting human-wolf encounters that sparked broad extirpation.