人狗情缘——谁驯化了谁-.docVIP

人狗情缘——谁驯化了谁?In the story of how the dog came in from the cold and onto our sofas， we 1）tend to give ourselves a little too much 2）credit. The most common theory is that some 3）hunter-gatherer with a 4）soft spot for cuteness found some wolf puppies and 5）adopted them. Over time， these 6）tamed wolves would have shown their skill at hunting， so humans kept them around until they evolved into dogs. But when we look back at our relationship with wolves throughout history， this doesnt really make sense. For one thing， the wolf was 7）domesticated at a time when modern humans were not very 8）tolerant of 9）carnivorous competitors. In fact， after modern humans arrived in Europe around 43，000 years ago， they almost 10）wiped out every large 11）carnivore that existed. 狗狗从冰天雪地走来，跳上我们的沙发——我们在这个故事中未免有点太看得起自己了。最常见的说法是某个采猎者对可爱的东西特别心软，偶尔发现了几只狼崽子，便收养了它们。随着时间的推移，这些被驯服的狼展现出它们的猎食技能，人类因此将它们养在身边，直至它们演变为犬类。 不过，当我们回顾历史上的人狼关系时，（就会发现）这个说法其实不太讲得通。首先，在狼群被驯养的时期，现代人类对肉食竞争者并不怎么宽容。事实上，在大约四万三千年前抵达欧洲之后，现代人类几乎将当时存在的所有大型食肉动物赶尽杀绝。 The hunting theory， that humans used wolves to hunt， doesnt 12）hold up either. Humans were already successful hunters without wolves， more successful than every other large carnivore. Wolves eat a lot of meat， as much as one deer per ten wolves every day—a lot for humans to feed or compete against. Humans have a long history of killing wolves， rather than trying to adopt them. Over the last few centuries， almost every culture has hunted wolves to 13）extinction. If this is a 14）snapshot of our behavior toward wolves over the centuries， it presents one of the most troubling problems： How was this misunderstood creature 15）tolerated by humans long enough to evolve into the 16）domestic dog？ We often think of evolution as being the survival of the fittest， where the strong survive and the weak die off. But the success of dogs comes down to survival of the friendliest. Most likely， it was wolves that came to us， not the other way around， probably while they were s