Sara and Maria introduce Wild No More, their upcoming podcast about animal domestication.
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Intro and outro music: Nashville Vibes by Andy Warner https://tunetank.com/track/6477-nashville-vibes/
Introduction to Domestication
Season 1 · Episode 1
Sunday, January 5, 2025 • Duration 40:52
This episode is an introduction to the subject of domestication. Sara and Maria discuss important definitions and talk about early domestication, pathways of domestication, domestication syndrome and much more.
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Articles used in the creation of this episode:
Ferreira, Vitor Hugo Bessa, et al. "Are domesticated animals dumber than their wild relatives? A comprehensive review on the domestication effects on animal cognitive performance." Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews (2023): 105407.
Gleeson, Ben Thomas, and Laura AB Wilson. "Shared reproductive disruption, not neural crest or tameness, explains the domestication syndrome." Proceedings of the Royal Society B 290.1995 (2023): 20222464.
Wilkins, Adam S., Richard W. Wrangham, and W. Tecumseh Fitch. "The “domestication syndrome” in mammals: a unified explanation based on neural crest cell behavior and genetics." Genetics 197.3 (2014): 795-808.
Zeder, Melinda A. "Pathways to animal domestication." Biodiversity in agriculture: domestication, evolution, and sustainability 10 (2012): 227-259.
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Intro and outro music: Nashville Vibes by Andy Warner https://tunetank.com/track/6477-nashville-vibes/
Guinea pig
Season 1 · Episode 2
Sunday, January 19, 2025 • Duration 36:21
Sara and Maria discuss guinea pig history as a meat animal, a pet and much more. Sara unleashes her inner guinea pig.
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Articles used in this episode:
American Cavy Breeders' Association, accessed January 5, 2024 https://www.acbaonline.com/
Canadian Press. "Frozen guinea pig meat in Montreal court. Carcasses from Peru seized in 2009 a 'mistake': importer." March 7, 2011. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/frozen-guinea-pig-meat-in-montreal-court-1.1093335
hoakley. "Paintings of guinea pigs and goldfish." The Electric Light Company: Macs, Painting, and More. January 22, 2022. https://eclecticlight.co/2022/01/22/paintings-of-guinea-pigs-and-goldfish/
Lewejohann, Lars, et al. "Wild genius-domestic fool? Spatial learning abilities of wild and domestic guinea pigs." Frontiers in Zoology 7 (2010): 1-8.
Lord, Edana, et al. "Ancient DNA of guinea pigs (Cavia spp.) indicates a probable new center of domestication and pathways of global distribution." Scientific reports 10.1 (2020): 8901.
Valdez, Lidio M., and J. Ernesto Valdez. "Reconsidering the archaeological rarity of guinea pig bones in the Central Andes." Current Anthropology 38.5 (1997): 896-897.
Valdez, Lidio M. "Inka sacrificial guinea pigs from Tambo Viejo, Peru." International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 29.4 (2019): 595-601.
Woods, Jason. "Tiny guinea pigs give a big boost," WorldArk Magazine Spring (2017). Available from https://web.archive.org/web/20170418003620/https://www.heifer.org/join-the-conversation/magazine/2017/spring/tiny-guinea-pigs-give-big-boost.html
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Intro and outro music: Nashville Vibes by Andy Warner https://tunetank.com/track/6477-nashville-vibes/
Camel
Season 1 · Episode 3
Sunday, February 2, 2025 • Duration 54:37
Sara and Maria discuss dromedary and Bactrian camels, camel husbandry and the seedy word of camel competitions.
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Clarification: When we are talking about camels' knobby knees and pedestal, we are talking about camels lying down.
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Articles used in this show:
BBC Earth (with Sir David Attenborough), A camel’s love sac. April 25, 2024. Accessed January 15, 2025. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_z7kpemfqlg
Brain, C. Report released as feral camel cull ends. ABC. November 20, 2013, accessed January 15, 2025. https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2013-11-21/feral-camel-culling-report/5105884
Burger, P. A., Ciani, E. and Faye, B. 2019. “Old World camels in a modern world – a balancing act between conservation and genetic improvement.” Animal Geneticsˆ.50(6): 598-612 https://doi.org/10.1111/age.12858
Desert Farms https://desertfarms.com/
Dioli, M. 2018. How much, how often and in which form should salt (NaCl) be given to a camel?. The 5th Conference of the International Society of Camelid Research and Development (ISOCARD 2018), Laâyoune, Morocco 12th-15th November 2018
Firsker, R. Adventures in cooking with camel hump fat: a journey into the heart of humpness. May 22, 2018. Accessed via the Wayback Machine, January 14, 2025. https://web.archive.org/web/20201130181108/https://www.myrecipes.com/extracrispy/adventures-in-cooking-with-camel-hump-fat
Herodotus. The Histories. Translated and with an Introduction by Aubrey de Selincourt. Penguin, Middlesex UK. 1955. Accessed on January 15, 2025, from https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.90895/2015.90895.Herodotus-The-Histories_djvu.txt
Camel milk -- Bonus episode
Season 1 · Episode 3.5
Sunday, February 2, 2025 • Duration 04:08
Sara and Maria take one for the team and try camel milk.
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Music used in this episode: Nashville Vibes by Andy Warner https://tunetank.com/track/6477-nashville-vibes/
Goldfish
Season 1 · Episode 4
Sunday, February 16, 2025 • Duration 45:51
Sara and Maria discuss goldfish as pets and as invasive species, goldfish abuse and goldfish intelligence.
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Articles used in this episode:
General goldfish domestication history: https://www.pnas.org/doi/suppl/10.1073/pnas.2005545117/suppl_file/pnas.2005545117.sapp.pdf
More general info, including US government distribution of goldfish: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/history-of-goldfish
Genetic basis of morphological diversity in domesticated goldfish: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982220305480
Carrot the goldfish-koi hybrid: https://www.iflscience.com/giant-goldfish-hybrid-as-heavy-as-a-10-year-old-is-a-reminder-not-to-dump-your-pets-66317
Australian goldfish migration: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/ginormous-goldfish-are-invading-australian-rivers-180960177/
Distance goldfish migrate in Australia: https://phys.org/news/2016-08-gold-evidence-spawning-migration-football-size.html
Goldfish spawning and parthenogenesis: https://www.agassizharrisonobserver.com/news/up-to-the-gills-in-goldfish-large-invasive-fish-a-problem-in-b-c-waters-expert-2014494
Samuel Pepy’s goldfish observations: https://the-history-girls.blogspot.com/2016/04/samuel-pepys-and-goldfish-by-karen.html
Weight of pigeon poop per bird per year: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4494298/
Silkworm
Season 1 · Episode 6
Sunday, March 16, 2025 • Duration 47:15
Sara and Maria discuss the silk industry (sericulture) from its origin in Ancient China to modern times and some unexpected uses for silkworms.
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References used in this episode include:
China Silk Museum 2019. “China focus: world’s earliest silk fabrics discovered in central China’s ruins.” http://chinasilkmuseum.com/info_180.aspx?itemid=27699
Gong et al., 2016. “Biomolecular evidence of silk from 8,500 years ago.” https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0168042
Sun et al., 2012. “Phylogeny and evolutionary history of the silkworm.” https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22744178/
American Museum of Natural History 2009. “The secret of silk.” https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/traveling-the-silk-road/take-a-journey/xian/silk
Hunt 2011. “Late Roman silk: smuggling and espionage in the 6th century CE.” http://traumwerk.stanford.edu/philolog/2011/08/byzantine_silk_smuggling_and_e.html via the Wayback Machine
van Mallery, 1595. “‘Emperor Justinian receiving the first imported silkworm eggs from Nestorian Monks,’ Plate 2 from ‘The introduction of the Silkworm’ (Vermis sericus).” https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/659738
Laumonier 2020. “Medieval silkworm farming: a global perspective”. https://www.medievalists.net/2020/07/medieval-silkworm-farming/
The Royal Palaces [of Sweden]. “Silk cultivation at Drottningholm.” https://www.kungligaslotten.se/english/articles-movies-360/drottningholm-palace/2020-10-14-silk-cultivation-at-drottningholm.html
Heumann and Nadim, eds. “Silk culture: the history of silk farming in Prussia.” https://animalsasobjects.org/story.silk-culture/
Burner Creek 1986. “Bombyx mori and Americans: or, here we go round the mulberry bush.” https://rbscp.lib.rochester.edu/2407
Dogs! Sara and Maria delve into canine prehistory, discuss dogs as pets, dogs as food, dogs as working animals and more. Maria's deepest fear is revealed.
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Correction — the man who ran poodles in the Iditarod in the 1980s was named John Suter, not Sutton.
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Wikipedia 2025. “Domestication of the dog.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domestication_of_the_dog and its references
Range et al., 2019. “Wolves lead and dogs follow, but they both cooperate with humans.” https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-40468-y
Marshall-Pescini et al., 2017. “Importance of a species’ socioecology: wolves outperform dogs in a conspecific cooperation task.” https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1709027114
Lahtinen et al., 2021. “Excess protein enabled dog domestication during severe Ice Age winters.” https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-78214-4
Janssens et al., 2018. “A new look at an old dog: Bonn-Oberkassel reconsidered.” https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0305440318300049
Grimm 2017. “These may be the world's first images of dogs—and they're wearing leashes.” https://www.science.org/content/article/these-may-be-world-s-first-images-dogs-and-they-re-wearing-leashes
Fedje et al., 2021. “Karst caves in Haida Gwaii: archaeology and palaeontology at the Pleistocene-Holocene transition.” https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0277379121004285
Range and Marshall-Pescini 2022. "Comparing wolves and dogs: current status and implications for human ‘self-domestication’.” https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364661322000183
Cook et al., 2016. "Awake canine fMRI predicts dogs' preference for praise vs food.” https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27521302/
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Keller, J. 2023, January 26. “India rolls out mortar-toting camo camels for military parade.” Task and Purpose. Accessed January 14 2025. https://taskandpurpose.com/news/india-military-camels-camo-mortars/
Lazarus, S. Sunday, November 25, 2018. “Saudi entrepreneur and Amish farmers bring camel milk to US.” CNN.com. Accessed January 14, 2025 https://edition.cnn.com/2018/11/25/health/camel-milk-in-the-us-intl/index.html
Lewis, J. “Robots of Arabia,” Wired. November 1, 2005, accessed January 14, 2025. https://www.wired.com/2005/11/camel/
Gongora, J and Alamri, M. October 25, 2018. “Inside the world of million-dollar beauty pageants — for camels.” The Conversation. Accessed January 25, 2025. https://theconversation.com/inside-the-world-of-million-dollar-beauty-pageants-for-camels-98759
“Queens of the desert: Saudi camel beauty pageant hit by cheating.” RFI. October 12, 2021, accessed January 15, 2025. https://www.rfi.fr/en/queens-of-the-desert-saudi-camel-beauty-pageant-hit-by-cheating
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Music used in this episode: Nashville Vibes by Andy Warner https://tunetank.com/track/6477-nashville-vibes/
Goldfish fishery in Lake Erie: https://www.mlive.com/news/2016/04/great_lakes_goldfish.html
Judas fish technique in Hamilton Harbour (Ontario): https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0380133023002460
Whole genome duplication in carp and goldfish: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-021-00933-9
Chordin gene and its role in fantail goldfish: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-24444-7
Goldfish scooping in Japan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldfish_scooping
Swiss legislate keeping at least two goldfish: https://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/fishkeeping-news/swiss-legislation-to-affect-aquarium-hobby/
Parkinson’s disease modelled in goldfish: https://faseb.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1096/fasebj.6.12.1521741
Goldfish driving a terrestrial vehicle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOb--M5pi6Y
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Music used in this episode: Nashville Vibes by Andy Warner https://tunetank.com/track/6477-nashville-vibes/
Pigeons as research model animals: https://academic.oup.com/socpro/article-abstract/55/1/72/1640224
Jiguet et al., 2019, Urban pigeons losing toes due to human activities: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0006320719306901
Pigeon crop milk, signalling pathways (oxytocin etc.) and also stats on pigeon meat consumption in China: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0032579123002043
Pigeon racing in Belgium, from 1818 to now (with doping!): https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8880243/
Pigeon racing at the 1900 Olympics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pigeon_racing_at_the_1900_Summer_Olympics
Chinese government cracks down on gambling on pigeon racing: https://www.pigeonsfci.net/news-detail-661f3a242f2a3.html
Pigeon racers in the Mishnah: https://www.sefaria.org/English_Explanation_of_Mishnah_Rosh_Hashanah.1.8.2?lang=bi
The most expensive pigeons ever sold: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-54953594
Fastest pigeon racing stats: https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/63785-fastest-pigeon-race
Pigeons in warfare: https://bjmh.gold.ac.uk/article/download/808/930
Pigeons in the Franco-Prussian war: https://scholarworks.harding.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1115&context=tenor
Pigeons smuggling contraband into Brazilian prisons: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/apr/01/pigeons-mobile-phones-brazil-prison
Pigeons prefer Bach to Stravinsky: https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1985-00463-001
Pope’s dove of peace: https://newsfeed.time.com/2013/01/29/popes-dove-of-peace-attacked-by-seagull-of-irony/
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Music used in this episode: Nashville Vibes by Andy Warner https://tunetank.com/track/6477-nashville-vibes/
Dong et al., 2018. "Differences in gut microbiota between silkworms (Bombyx mori) reared on fresh mulberry (Morus alba var. multicaulis) leaves or an artificial diet" https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2018/ra/c8ra04627a
Daimon et al., 2008. “ß-fructofuranosidase genes of the silkworm, Bombyx mori”https://www.jbc.org/article/S0021-9258(20)71550-4/fulltext
Nyamu et al., 201x. “Sericulture as a business.” https://infonet-biovision.org/products/sericulture-business
Zhao et al., 2024. "From phyllosphere to insect cuticles: silkworms gather antifungal bacteria from mulberry leaves to battle fungal parasite attacks" https://microbiomejournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40168-024-01764-6
Tanaka et al., 2009. “Highly selective tuning of a silkworm olfactory receptor to a key mulberry leaf volatile.” https://www.cell.com/AJHG/fulltext/S0960-9822(09)01034-3
Zhang et al., 2019. "A determining factor for insect feeding preference in the silkworm, Bombyx mori.” https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3000162
Khosropanah et a., 2021. "Biomedical applications of silkworm (Bombyx Mori) proteins in regenerative medicine (a narrative review).” https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/term.3267
Tansil et al., 2011. “Intrinsically coloured and luminescent silk.” https://advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/adma.201003860
Nisal et al., 2013.”Uptake of azo dyes into silk glands for production of coloured silk cocoons using a green feeding approach.” https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/sc400355k
Wu et al., 2021. "Nanocellulose reinforced silkworm silk fibers for application to biodegradable polymers.” https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264127521000903
Mi et al., 2023. “High strength and ultra-tough whole spider silk fibres spun from transgenic silkworms” https://www.cell.com/matter/fulltext/S2590-2385(23)00421-6
Andersson et al., 2016. “Silk spinning in silkworms and spiders” https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5000687/
Panthee et al., 2017. Advantages of the silkworm as an animal model for developing novel antimicrobial agents” https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2017.00373/full
Wang et al., 2023. “Effects of different diets on the growth and development of young silkworms.” https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1226861523000985
Song et al., 2023. “Phytol from Faeces Bombycis alleviated migraine pain by inhibiting Nav1.7 sodium channels.” https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378874123000296
Patil et al., 2013. "Utilization of silkworm litter and pupal waste-an eco-friendly approach for mass production of Bacillus thuringiensis.” https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0960852412020111
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Music used in this episode: Nashville Vibes by Andy Warner https://tunetank.com/track/6477-nashville-vibes/
Axelsson et al., 2013. "The genomic signature of dog domestication reveals adaptation to a starch-rich diet.” https://www.nature.com/articles/nature11837
Vonholdt et al., 2017. "Structural variants in genes associated with human Williams-Beuren syndrome underlie stereotypical hypersociability in domestic dogs.” https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.1700398
Guo et al., 2009. "Left gaze bias in humans, rhesus monkeys and domestic dogs.” https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10071-008-0199-3
Waller et al., 2013. “Paedomorphic facial expressions give dogs a selective advantage.” https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0082686
Kiviranta et al., 2021. “Persistent fontanelles in chihuahuas. Part I. Distribution and clinical relevance.” https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jvim.16151
Jasiński 2020. “Dog in ancient Rome.” https://imperiumromanum.pl/en/article/dog-in-ancient-rome/
MacKinnon and Belanger 2006. “In sickness and in health: care for an arthritic Maltese dog from the Roman cemetery of Yasmina, Carthage, Tunisia.” https://books.google.ca/books?hl=en&lr=&id=8u4mDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA38&ots=y_uvJo2FEZ&sig=e2Aa9ET8ycDWaJbwutWFjS7GwcQ&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
Johnston 2019. “The world of medieval dogs.” https://www.historytoday.com/miscellanies/world-medieval-dogdom
Wikipedia 2025. Guinefort. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinefort
Watson and Coombe 2019. "How the Victorians engineered the dog breeds we love today." https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-04-18/history-of-modern-dog-breeds-invented-in-victorian-era/11019320
Walsh 1878. “Dogs of the British Islands.” https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/78797#page/7/mode/1up
Gorvett et al., 2021. “The eccentric dog breeds that vanished.” https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20211105-the-bizarre-dog-breeds-time-forgot
Wikipedia 2025. Chiengora. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiengora
Coren 2002. “The pawprints of history: dogs and the course of human events.” https://books.google.ca/books?id=ndYgity6bNwC&pg=PT246&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=church&f=false pp. 246-247
Wikipedia 2025. “Hawaiian poi dog.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaiian_Poi_Dog
Wikipedia 2025. “Dog meat.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog_meat
BBC 2016. “Yulin dog meat festival begins in China amid widespread criticism.” https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-36583400
H.R.6720 — 115th Congress (2017-2018). “Dog and cat meat trade prohibition act of 2018.” https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/6720
Pitulko and Kasparov 2017. “Archaeological dogs from the Early Holocene Zhokhov site in the Easter Siberian Arctic.” https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2352409X16303157
Berington and Berington 2025. “All about the dogs. Frequently asked questions.” https://www.seeingdoublesleddogracing.com/dog-faqs.html
Reamer 2022. “Here’s what happened to John Suter, the musher who rand poodles in the Iditarod.” https://www.adn.com/outdoors-adventure/iditarod/2022/03/06/heres-what-happened-to-john-suter-the-musher-who-ran-poodles-in-the-iditarod/
Wikipedia 2025. “Pekingese.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pekingese
Stoeckel et al., 2014. “Patterns of brain activation when mothers view their own child and dog: an fMRI study.” https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0107205
Wikipedia 2025. “Dogs in warfare.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogs_in_warfare
Williamson 2019. “Dogs of the conquistadors.” https://warhistory.org/@msw/article/dogs-of-the-conquistadors
Reeve et al., 2021. “Dog owners’ survey reveals medical alert dogs can alert to multiple conditions and multiple people.” https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0249191
Nagasawa et al., 2015. "Oxytocin-gaze positive loop and the coevolution of human-dog bonds.” https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1261022
Kaminski et al., 2017. "Human attention affects facial expressions in domestic dogs." https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-12781-x
Ben-Aderet et al., 2017. "Dog-directed speech: why do we use it and do dogs pay attention to it?" https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2016.2429
Mood 2019. “Remembering Chaser, the ‘smartest dog in the world.’” https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/news/remembering-chaser-the-smartest-dog-in-the-world/
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Music used in this episode: Nashville Vibes by Andy Warner https://tunetank.com/track/6477-nashville-vibes/
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