The species I chose is the cat. It is a domesticated species.
2. Social History/Domestication
It is hard to accurately pinpoint exactly when cats were first domesticated, but scientists believe that cats were domesticated about 10,000-12,000 years ago in the Near East. The domesticated cat came from Middle Eastern wildcats that were attracted to the mice that inhabited grain stores. As humans began to transition from a hunting lifestyle to more permanent agricultural societies, they began to store food as surplus. Cat domestication was a result of the symbiotic relationship between humans and cats: the humans benefited from having rodent-killers, and the cats benefited from the meals they caught. Then, over time, the cats sort of "domesticated themselves" (Carlos Driscoll) and humans began to select for cats that were more docile.
Resources
1. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/brief_cats.html
2. http://archaeology.about.com/od/domestications/qt/cat.htm
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