芬兰科学家发现：人类在欧亚把灰狼训成狗，开始是因为人把多余瘦肉喂给狼 zt

The origin of dogs’ domestication may lie in cavemen feeding excess meat to wolves at the end of the last Ice Age, a study has found.

The research, published in the journal Scientific Reports, is based on an analysis of how much lean meat Eurasian hunter-gatherers would have been able to consume.

Dogs are descendants of wolves and were the first animal to be domesticated by humans.

It is thought that humans living during the last Ice Age - somewhere between 14,000 to 29,000 years ago - were in direct competition with wolves when it came to hunting prey.

 

The researchers speculate that if wolves and humans had hunted the same animals during harsh winters, humans would have killed wolves to fend off competition rather than tame the creatures. This then raised the question: how did humans domesticate a competitive species?

A team of experts led by Dr Maria Lahtinen, a scientist at the Finnish Food Authority in Finland, looked at the energy content of the food - such as horses, moose and deer and weasels - that both humans and wolves would have preyed on during that time.

The energy content of the food was calculated by measuring the caloric intake of its protein and fat components.

Findings showed that all prey species would have supplied more protein than humans could consume.

According to the researchers, this is because humans are not fully adapted to a carnivorous diet and are only able to digest about 20 per cent of their energy needs from protein.

Wolves, on the other hand, can thrive on lean meat for months.

The authors believe that humans may have fed excess lean meat to wolves, "which may have enabled companionship even during harsh winter months".

Dr Lahtinen told the Telegraph: “This is the first time that we propose that there is also an ecological explanation for the dog domestication. 

“That surplus protein in this environment would have been one of the key things that triggered the domestic process.”

Dr Lahtinen added that it was more likely that hunter gatherers fed the wolves rather than them scavenging for leftover food because this would not have created “a bond between the humans and dogs” that we now see today. 

They say that at some point humans began using pet wolves as hunting companions and guards, thus facilitating the domestication process even further.

The authors wrote: "We suggest that the differences between dietary constraints of wolves and humans enabled dog domestication in harsh environments in the Late Pleistocene.

"Excess protein decreased dietary competition and enhanced the possibility of sympatric existence.

"This could have been a significant impetus for wolves to become 'our best friend'."