Domesticated animals

Species reshaped by living alongside us.

• Domestic DogCanis familiaris
• Domestic CatFelis catus
• CattleBos taurus
• SheepOvis aries
• Wild BoarSus scrofa
• HorseEquus caballus
• Red JunglefowlGallus gallus
• Western Honey BeeApis mellifera
• Silkworm MothBombyx mori
• Rock DoveColumba livia

About this list

Domestication is not the same as taming. A tamed animal is an individual that tolerates people; a domesticated one belongs to a population whose reproduction, and therefore its evolution, has been under human control for many generations.

The dog came first, before agriculture. The cat arrived by a different route — commensal, drawn to the rodents in stored grain rather than deliberately captured — and is barely altered morphologically for it. The silk moth went furthest of all: Bombyx mori cannot fly and no longer exists in the wild.