Dedomestication

Under Dedomestikation refers to the reversal of domestication ( domestication ), the emergence of a so-called pariah form from pets. This contrasts with the wild type, which refers solely to prädomestizierte wildlife.

When Dedomestikation the naturalizing is effected by natural selection. Another process is a targeted approach of pets in their wild forms by human breeding ( breeding image ).

Process

While in nature the animals survive and reproduce, which are well adapted to the prevailing environmental conditions, the person in the course of domestication selects targeted particularly affable, particularly flashy or particularly profitable animals for breeding. Thus, the selection conditions are different in nature and in the care of the people, which is why alter animals in domestication in terms of appearance, behavior and genetics. To Dedomestikation occurs when a population of pets leaves the human care and is henceforth exposed to natural selection.

By humans are now preferred features, such as sociability, special color variations, productivity regarding meat or milk, extravagant physical traits, etc. meaningless or hindrance and by predator pressure and food sparseness, the energy economy requires sorted out. Have an advantage those individuals that exhibit escape, defense or hunting behavior, have a discreet camouflage or a fuel-efficient physique. Provided copies of such alleles are still present in the free-living pet population, make up these more or less rapidly by, and after a time depending on generation time and selection pressure time stabilizes a pariah form which is adapted to the particular conditions of life. By Dedomestikation does not come automatically to a population that corresponds to the former wild form of the pet. Not all features of the game form are left to themselves pet population exists or can be reverse engineered, and also some features that occurred after domestication, do not have necessarily a fitness - reducing effect. Feral dogs around are therefore not necessarily to " wolves ", as the example of the dingo or Carolina Dogs shows. Also, in the case of large animals a camouflage not necessarily directly vital, which is why feral ungulate populations can be very heterogeneous in color and sometimes can also have the typical pet piebald drawing (about Mustangs ).

Examples

There are a number of examples of Dedomestikation mainly in mammals. Either there are pets that escaped accidentally and feral, or they were deliberately exposed - such as for hunting or nature conservation purposes. The naturalizing of pets is sometimes ecologically problematic because, for example, wild domestic cats threatening the homozygosity and the availability of habitat of the European wildcat.

Wild rabbits

The wild rabbit, Oryctolagus cuniculus, originally came largely available only in the Iberian peninsula, but was introduced in the course of antiquity and the Middle Ages in different regions of Europe. Domestic rabbits were further exposed in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and North and South America, where they developed a wild-type phenotype very similar.

Mustangs and other feral horses

Mustangs are known since the 16th century. These are descendants of domestic horses that escaped and feral in the North American prairie. Mustangs are small, tough, compact ponies reach the 140-150 cm stick. They are extremely tough and have a stubborn and independent character. Her conformation ( appearance) are hard and small hooves, a stable foundation, Roman nose, a deep- set neck, withers and a little strong back with sloping croup. The coat colors and drawings of Mustangs are very heterogeneous and do not differ from those of most other domestic horse breeds.

In Europe, there are wildlife, domestic horses of different breeds and in different regions. Examples of these include the Exmoor ponies in Exmoor National Park, Pottoks in the Basque Country, Retuerta National Park Coto de Doñana, Konik in Oostvaardersplassen, Giara horses in some regions of Sardinia and some more.

In semi- wild horses held house, it is observed that, in contrast to other grazing animals, in their nature run wild, not easy. Unlike semi wild Przewalski horses, domestic horses are usually held as affable as horses from usual attitude.

Wild Live domestic bovines

There are a variety of wild domestic cattle populations. For example, the Monstrenca cattle in the Doñana National Park, the Betizu and Divjaka cattle in Spain and wild Camargue cattle in southern France. Furthermore, there are wild domestic cattle populations on islands near New Zealand, the Falkland Islands and the Seychelles. In Portugal there are in mountainous regions feral herds of primitive race Maronesa. From the Texas Longhorn cattle there are, inter alia, a wild population in the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge. The now very rare as Chillingham cattle graze for several centuries wild and without significant human influence in Northumberland in England. Since 1992 Heck cattle live in Oostvaardersplassen without supplementary feeding in winter or inventory control. Bullets are the animals only when they are severely weakened in order to prevent unnecessary suffering.

Except about the Chillingham cattle, Betizuaks, Maronesa or Camargue cattle most feral cattle are very heterogeneous in terms of skin color or horn shape, since usually no hunting pressure from predators. It has been found that cattle easily run wild in behavior. It needs only a few weeks outside human care that cattle again show their natural behavior.

Feral dogs

Dingos are from thousands of years ago in Australia feral original domestic dogs from the natives, and have evolved into a homogeneous, adapted to their habitat pariah form, which is currently threatened by mixing with other domestic dogs. The biology of these dedomestizierten domestic dogs has been well researched. Dingoes act for thousands of years as a "new " larger predators in Australia, they occupied a niche that was released by the disappearance of predatory marsupials like the bag lion or the thylacine.

Another pariah dog is the Carolina Dog, which only been known for a relatively short time and the Dingo is not dissimilar.

Feral pigs

In North America, there is a well-known since the 16th century population of feral pigs, known as Razorbacks. These certainly have acquired through natural selection resemblance to the Eurasian wild boar, from which they are derived as domestic pigs. In part, Razorbacks, however, have mixed with imported wild boars.

European mouflon

The western populations of wild sheep is the earliest established on 5000 years on the European continent. Features such as the reduced brain volume and the high proportion of hornless female suspect leave the European mouflon, that it is this is not a real wild animal, but the offspring of feral original domestic sheep. Accordingly, the European mouflon would be a pariah form. In addition, various original domestic sheep were introduced into the European mouflon population and over again, which is why it can sometimes differ from region to region.

Feral domestic pigeons

Domestic pigeons are domesticated rock pigeons, the city pigeon is again a form of feral domestic pigeon. They are by no means homogeneous in their appearance. While there are some specimens which have significant similarity to the wild type, there are in addition to these also rotgraue or black and white spotted color morphs. Synanthropic they occur on almost all continents and cities prefer mainly as a habitat.