A raccoon in a trash can. With dexterous childlike hands and cheeky “masks,” raccoons are North America’s ubiquitous backyard bandits. The critters are so comfortable in human environments, in fact, ...

A recent study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences suggests that wolves may have ...

Bones from the turn of the Holocene indicate that humans were feeding canines—including wolves and coyotes—fish over 10,000 years ago, Reading time 3 minutes Who let the dogs out? It remains unclear, ...

Cats, dogs and farm animals are what come to mind when we think of domesticated animals. For ages, domestication has been portrayed as a uniquely human accomplishment, where species become domestic ...

Wild boars and red junglefowl gave rise to common pigs and chickens. These animals' genes evolved to express themselves differently, leading to signatures of domestication -- such as weaker bones and ...

"The first modern scholarly synthesis of animal domestication Across the globe and at different times in the past millennia, the evolutionary history of domesticated animals has been greatly affected ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about biodiversity and the hidden quirks of the natural world. A domesticated animal is one that has been bred and adapted ...