Under The Microscope

THE COVENANT OF THE WILD by Stephen Budiansky; William Morrow, 1992; 190 pp; Rereleased as Orion paperback for $24.95

Reviewed by Mike Dickison

Domestication of animals is usually seen as the subjection of wild creatures, turning them into our slaves. Budiansky's view can be read from the subtitle of this provocative book: "why animals chose domestication". He sees domestication not as a crime against nature, but as a natural evolutionary process.

His counterintuitive, but persuasively argued, thesis is that animal dependence is a survival strategy, and that animals chose us as much as we chose them. Certainly domestic animals have been incredibly successful from an evolutionary point of view, far outstripping their wild cousins, which in the case of horses survive only in zoos. Archaeological evidence shows the process is gradual, taking over 1000 years for most species, implying natural and not cultural selection is the dominant force.

Species that become domesticated have several traits in common. They are opportunists and generalists, able to survive in disturbed habitats-animal weeds, if you will. They are happy in forest edges, in land regenerating after glacial retreat (most domestication occurred at the end of the last ice age), and in areas disturbed by humans. They are also social, able to incorporate humans into the dominance hierarchies of the herd, flock or pack.

The other important feature highlighted by Budiansky is neoteny, or the retention of juvenile features in adults. Juvenile animals are more curious and willing to beg food, and probably appeal to our hard-wired aesthetic preferences. Breeding experiments with foxes show startlingly dog-like traits in just five generations by selecting for "tame" neotenic animals.

By taking an evolutionary, biological approach to domestication, this book brings a refreshing new perspective to the field.

Mike Dickison is a research associate in the Philosophy of Biology at Victoria University.