ABC Listen.
Hello, I'm Nidge.
And today on Imagine This... It's a dog.
Oh, hey there, buddy.
Where'd you come from?
He's not mine.
He's not mine.
Oh, he's not mine either.
But we did have a question about pets.
Hi, I'm Izzy and I'm seven.
How did animals become pets?
I think that the tiny fluffy one got zapped by a shrink ray and then they grew white fur.
A shrink ray, huh?
That's a cool idea.
I have no idea about cats.
Where did pets come from?
And where did this dog come from?
Check his collar.
Ah, yes.
Good thinking.
This is...
Benson.
He's saying hello.
Hello Benson.
And you belong to Professor Pauline Bennett.
Hey, I know her.
She's an anthro-zoologist.
Anthro-zoologist.
Does she work at the zoo?
An anthro-zoologist is a scientist who knows all about animals and humans and how they live together.
Let's go return Benson and maybe she can help us with our question.
Benson!
Benson, where are you?
He's here.
Hi Pauline.
Hello.
Hello.
Oh hello Nidge.
Hello kids.
Hello Benson.
Welcome back you goose.
Where have you been?
Wow, you have a lot of dogs.
One, two, three, four, five.
There are 15.
15 dogs?
That's a pack.
Well, technically, they run as two packs.
Oh, they're beautiful.
They're Legatos, Italian water dogs.
I call them my Goldilocks dogs.
Not too big and not too small.
They're the perfect pet for me.
We have a question about pets.
Yeah, how did wild animals become pets?
It's a long story, the friendship between humans and dogs, and all pets.
And it starts tens of thousands of years ago.
Whoa, that's a really long time.
It's ages.
Let's use our imaginations to go back in time.
We can see how wild animals became our lovely friends and companions.
Wow, it's so green.
Really lush green trees with bushes and stuff.
It's beautiful.
There are no houses, no buildings.
No fences.
It's wild.
When early humans started moving around the world, there were lots of dangers.
Poisonous plants, water could not be that good.
There might have been dangerous animals that wanted to go back and eat them.
Crocodiles, alligators.
Ah, what was that?
Back then, there weren't houses or fences to keep us safe.
We slept in small huts and hunted our food with spears and stone tools.
Whoa, that sounds hard.
Imagine catching your dinner every day.
But now you can just walk down to the supermarket.
Yeah, right?
There weren't even electric lights, so when the sun went down, it got really dark and scary.
When we caught something to eat, we came back and cooked it over a fire.
Mmm, can you smell that?
Smells delicious.
Other animals would have been able to smell what we were cooking and came a little closer.
That sounded like a wolf.
Scary wolf.
They go, howl.
I'm scared.
You should be scared of wolves.
They're predators.
It means that they eat other animals.
And they're also the first pet.
Really?
Not at first.
Wolves would have been dangerous to people, just as they are now.
You should never go near a wild animal.
But wolves are smart.
They began following groups of humans and hanging around their camps.
So they could eat the food?
Exactly.
That's a clever way to get dinner.
And in among those wild packs, we think that maybe one or two wolves might have been a little bit friendlier than the rest.
They would have come a little closer than the others and they showed the humans they could be gentler too.
And they made friends?
Slowly, yes.
A friendly wolf still doesn't sound too friendly.
This would have taken a long time, but those early wolves that were a little bit more friendly and a little bit less afraid of humans would have had puppies, and those puppies would have been just a little bit friendlier than their parents.
Oh, and then they could have even friendlier puppies.
I know, I know, I know.
Because of evolution.
It's when lots of things get different after a long, long, long, long time.
Yeah, we learned before how evolution helps animals change over a long time to find the best ways to live in their environment so they can find the best food or stay safe from predators.
It's the same idea.
Friendly wolves would have had a good life with humans.
They got food and shelter and safety.
Some animals are wild and you can't tame them.
You can't just come along saying, okay animals, you're going to go.
Remember, this happened in a time when there weren't cages or leashes.
The wolves chose to stay with us because they wanted to.
It worked for them.
Yeah, it would be hard to get a wolf to do something it didn't want to do.
Maybe they took care of the wolves when they needed help and helped them?
Yeah.
Evolution takes a really long time, but over thousands of years the friendship between wolves and humans got stronger, until those wolves weren't really wolves anymore.
What do you mean?
They became smaller.
They grew smaller teeth, had floppy ears and waggy tails and lots of different colours as well.
They became dogs.
That's it.
Whoa!
Amazing how that works.
And you know, we evolved alongside them too.
What do you mean?
Just like those first wolves to live with humans would have been a little friendlier than the other wild ones, those first humans to trust wolves would have had to have been a little friendlier toward the wolves than the other humans.
It had to work both ways.
The wolves can hunt down stuff, maybe animals.
Um, the humans and the wolves could share the food.
That's right.
They kept us safe and told us when danger was coming.
And just like those friendly wolves had friendlier puppies, those friendlier humans had kids that were friendlier to the wolves too.
That's amazing.
So the friendship with wolves helped us evolve too.
It was a great friendship and it's lasted for thousands of years for both the humans and the wolves.
We were more successful together and we both passed on those traits of tolerance and friendliness.
Oh, that's a lovely thought.
Hey, what about cats?
Cats have been around a long time too, but not as long as dogs.
Come on, let's jump ahead.
Hmm, there are more houses now.
And animals.
I can see pigs and goats.
Are we on a farm?
After many, many thousands of years, some groups of people stopped moving around the world as much.
They went from making shelters and hunting for their food to more permanent villages.
Some groups even started farming their food.
Yeah.
I see crops of corn and wheat.
The great thing about farming is you can grow lots of food to feed everyone, but the tricky part is storing the food.
You might not have as much crops for winter.
So in summer, you have to get all of them and save them up.
That's right.
When people started storing grains and rice and all the things they'd harvested, they also got some new visitors to their villages.
Rats?
Mice and rats.
Oh no, they'll eat all the food.
But just like all those years ago when cooking meat on our campfires attracted wolves, this time all the rats and mice attracted wild cats.
Oh, they got cats and then they ate the mice.
Yep, cats are really good at pest control.
And just like the wolves, they learnt that being around people worked well for them.
The friendlier cats were invited to stay and eat and live with us.
Oh, so cool.
You get to cuddle them.
Oh, and then they had friendly kittens.
Exactly.
More cows.
Goats.
And sheep.
Are they pets too?
Kind of.
Farming animals began in places where fresh food was hard to find.
Did they used to be wild too?
Like cats and dogs?
Definitely.
All farm animals, goats, cows, chickens, pigs, they all have wild ancestors.
But they're not really pets, are they?
They probably used to be.
It's only recently that we started buying milk from the supermarket.
Not that long ago, families would have had their own cow they lived with and milked every day.
They probably would have treated them more like a pet than a farm animal.
Cows, goats, pigs, they're all social animals.
They like living in groups together.
And people were able to look after groups of them and keep them close to our homes.
Not all animals like to do this.
Tigers, leopards, kangaroos and koalas.
That's right.
Some animals don't want to be near us.
They want to stay wild.
Hi, that's a sheep dog.
She's herding the sheep.
Wow, look at her go.
She's really moving them along. barking at their heels.
And the dog chases the sheep around until they get to the gate.
Sheepdogs are so clever.
It feels like there are lots of different kinds of dogs.
Well, early humans probably found that some of their dogs were especially good at hunting.
They might have had longer legs for running or better noses than some of the other dogs to sniff things out.
So we kept those special hunting dogs just for that job.
And we taught their puppies how to do that job and on and on.
Until after a while, hunting dogs start to look different to all the other dogs.
Then we call them breeds.
There are so many breeds.
Tiny chihuahuas, big labs, speedy collies.
My dog's a Weimaraner.
We gave them lots of things to do and their bodies gradually began to change to match their jobs.
Guard dogs might have good ears and bark loudly.
Lap dogs are tiny and can sit quietly with you and keep you company.
Sheepdogs like this one are good at...
It's a special responsibility having a pet.
A cat or a dog that you get as a kid might be with you until you're an adult.
And some birds live as long as people do.
So it's really important to choose the right animal for your family and then to care for them as much as they care for you.
Like Benson.
That's right.
Just like my Goldilocks dogs.
The perfect pet for me.
Let's head back.
Come on, Benson.
Thanks, Pauline.
Thanks, Pauline.
Bye.
See you later.
And you too, Benson.
See you later, mate.
So Izzy.
The story of how wild animals became pets started tens of thousands of years ago when one friendlier wolf, came just a little bit closer to some humans.
Humans liked the wolves for keeping them safe and helping them hunt.
And the wolves liked the humans for feeding them and taking care of them in return.
They became friends.
Over generations, the wolves changed from being big and scary predators to the smaller and gentler dogs of today.
Us humans changed too.
The friendship with wolves helped us to be stronger in our environment.
We evolved with them.
Years later, just the same as the wolves, some wild cats came close to humans and stayed to have generations of friendlier kittens.
Lots of animals can be pets, but most want to stay wild.
Whether you have pets or not, the animals in our lives are really important and should be looked after just as much as they look after us.
Imagine This is an ABC Kids Listen podcast, hosted by me, Dr Neeraj Lal.
A big thanks to our guest, Professor Pauline Bennett, and to all the kids who helped make the podcast.
Today's episode was written and produced by Sumiya Bella, with sound design by Wei Nguyen, and was made on Gadigal Wurundjeri Woiwurrung Dja Dja, Wurrung and Tungurung lands.
Our senior producer is Emma Gibbs.
For more podcasts to play, music to move and stories and soundtracks for sleep.
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