This two-part documentary maps the extraordinary process that has brought us domestic animals. Based on the most recent archeo-zoological discoveries, it shows how humans managed to take wild animals and turn them into tools that could be possessed, used, exploited, eaten, changed and manipulated and sometimes loved. This episode focuses on the transformation of wolf into dog for the mutual benefit of both species, marking the earliest collaboration between man and animal. It also explores the early domestication of other animals, like pigs, primarily as a source of meat.
Based on the most recent archeo-zoological discoveries, this program shows how humans managed to take wild animals and turn them into tools that could be possessed, used, exploited, eaten, manipulated and sometimes loved. This episode focuses on the domestication of the cat. Cats first appear in frescoes in Egyptian tombs. They were first used to hunt birds and later elevated to the status of divinity. Cats occupied a place of honour in Ancient Egyptian households and, when they died, were mummified and presented to the gods as messengers of the living. At the same time, as agriculture developed in other parts of the world and people began to store grain and other crops, cats became a deterrent to rodents attracted to human foodstuffs.