The Nature of Horses [Paperback]

Stephen Budiansky,formerly U.S. Editor ofNature,is currently Senior Writer atU.S. News & World Report.He is the author ofCovenant of the WildandNature's Keepers: The New Science of Nature Management.He lives in Leesburg, Virginia.Chapter 1

THE IMPROBABILITY OF THE HORSE

Of the more than 4,000 species of mammals that have occupied the earth during the last 10,000 years, the horse is one of fewer than a dozen that have achieved widespread success as domesticated animals.

That low success rate was certainly not for want of trying on our part. The ancient Egyptians attempted to domesticate hyenas, antelope, ibex, and gazelles (figure 1.1). The American Indians kept pet raccoons, bears, and even moose. The Australian aborigines even kept wallabies and kangaroos. Yet none survive as domesticated animals today.

If it were simply a matter of human will, it would be hard to explain why we should have domestic dogs, sheep, goats, cows, pigs, horses, asses, camels, rabbits, and cats -- but not deer, squirrels, foxes, antelope, or even hippos and zebras.

The answer is that it was not a matter of human will. The successful domesticated species were largely preadapted to their role through quirks of adaptation and evolution that had nothing whatever to do with human intentions or needs, but that turned out to be vital to their future success in our homes and fields. The horse was no exception. Among the myriad ways of making a living that evolution has cast up, a few -- a very few -- turned out to be compatible with human ways.

The horse, like the other animals that were to enter into domestication, was a generalist, able to survive on a variety of widely available foods. (An animal such as the giant panda, which eats nothing but bamboo leaves, would surely have been a nonstarter.) These generalists were able to exploit their new domesticated niche with a high potential reproductil#6