Evolution of Dogs

Restoring Wolves to Yellowstone In his book, Never Cry Wolf, Farley Mowat tells an Inuit tale, saying that in the beginning, caribou were created for humans to hunt. However, humans “hunted only the big, fat caribou, for they had no wish to kill the weak and the small and the sick,” creating a weak population of caribou. The creator then made wolves to eat the sick, weak, and small caribou, creating a natural health and balance to the earth (124). Humans have traditionally seen wolves as a competitor and a danger, but these misconceptions can now be put to rest. Because wolves regulate the carrying capacity, preserve the health of herds, and complete the ecological cycle in a balanced system, they must be restored to Yellowstone.

Love is the expansion of the self to include the other. In addition, a wolf’s wisdom can help people dissolve the barrier humans have built over time that obscures the truth about humans’ interconnection with nature. In fact, when this barrier is removed, humans can begin to perceive all of nature as part of their soul family and not as something else which they can destroy at will. In the end, wolves and humans have been close to each other for tens of thousands of years in many ways. Wolves have taught early people how to survive and wolves have also taught early people what spirituality is all about.

It took a long time to domesticate the dog, and it didn’t just happen overnight. Dogs are a man’s best friend, have evolved from wolves, and then were domesticated. We know dogs as loving and caring animals, but many hears ago they weren’t. The dog is a carnivorous, domesticated wolf (Canis lupus familiaris) of the family Canidae, to which the jackal and fox also belong. The dog is descended from the wolf.

Wolves are scavengers as well as hunters and may have been some of the first animals to discover this squander treasure (Horowitz, 2009). The least fearful of these wolves became increasingly undaunted by the presence of the unfamiliar humans. Together the two species began to tolerate one another through prolonged encounters until finally, humans began taking in a few pups as “pets” or, in times of hardship, “food.” Eventually, our ancestors began intentionally breeding these “domesticated” wolves to serve as assistant hunters and protectors (Horowitz, 2009). We can only surmise that the functionality of these domestic wolves served a great purpose; for what other reason would justify letting a meat-eater into one’s home? It would be difficult to provide provisions for such an animal and if one were unsuccessful, they befall a risk of becoming their pet wolf’s next meal.

White Fang begins with two men traveling through the artic with a dog team and sled, followed by a pack of famished wolves who pick off the dogs, one by one at night and eventually gets one of the men. The point of view then shifts to wolves and stays with them for nearly the entire story. “Over Jack London life he has wrote many books with Darwin's popular ideas in mind, particularly White Fang1 ”. The process of "natural selection" means that only the strongest, brightest, and most adaptable elements of a species will survive. This idea is embodied by the character, White Fang.

The narrator of the video proposed two hypotheses to explain this evolutionary diversification. The “adoption hypothesis” suggests that our human ancestors thousands of years ago came across an irresistible wolf pup, fell in love with it, and brought it home to raise as a pet. Through constant battles with the predatory instincts of wolves, our ancestors were able to artificially select for the tamest animal and eventually domesticate the wolves, which became the dogs. On the other hand, the “leftover hypothesis” proposes that the domestication of wolves came about as a by-product of city development. When human settled down in villages, waste dumps would have inevitably appeared.

To prevent having too much of a certain animal the Grey Wolf is needed or required to live in the environment to act like a limiter to certain types of species, this can help our lives as well. For instance animals will have enough space to live and will not have to wander out of their territory into ours to find food or a place to reside in. If we take the wolf away from the environ... ... middle of paper ... ...ederation. Ed. Gail Romero.

With the domestication of wolves came the floppy ears, playfulness, colored coats, and barking of the dog we know and love today. Interestingly enough, when an experiment was performed on silver foxes these same traits appeared after domestication. Belyaev, a Russian geneticist, conducted this experiment by breeding the tamer foxes. Belyaev bred twenty generations of the tamest foxes until the foxes resembled dogs more than they resembled foxes. In the wild there is no artificial selection so dog domestication definitely took a lot longer.

Wolves, as with most wild animals, need to be hunted and regulated. For generations people have been hunting wolves for their pelts, and to keep families, pets and livestock safe. By hunting wolves we can also keep the wolf packs healthier while making sure they don’t get over run with disease. It also assures that hunters will have wild game for sport and food. Wolves cause a major threat to families, their livestock, wild game animals and to bear hunters’ dogs living in rural areas.

In his group he finds a monogamous pair who are raising their litter with assistance from another male wolf who Mowat terms to be an "uncle". His previous assumptions which portrayed the wolves as cold heated killers who lived only for the hunt, is challenged as he observes these animals play and interact within their environment his previous assumptions about the role that these animals play in nature. His attitude metamorphosis' from one of disdain and contempt to one of genuine respect and admiration. I chose this novel for study instead of Siddhartha because I felt that this nove... ... middle of paper ... ...Cry Wolf is that of the native Americans of northern Canada. Their philosophy, as presented by Mowat is one which views humans as only being a fraction of the total importance of nature.