(ORDO NEWS) — Studies of the genomes of African elephants have shown that wild elephants were domesticated not by people, but by themselves.
Researchers at the University of Connecticut in the US analyzed genetic data from 32 African elephants and found that domestic elephants differ from their wild counterparts by only 0.06%.
This suggests that the process of domestication occurred naturally, and was associated with a change in the conditions of their habitat.
Researchers suggest that the process of domestication of elephants began about 8-10 thousand years ago, when the weather on earth became drier.
Since then, elephants have become less mobile and have also begun to increase in size and weight, which may have helped them survive in dry terrain.
This research could be important for the conservation of wild elephants and their place in the ecosystem.
If elephants were naturally domesticated, this means that they can adapt to changing habitats and not disappear as a result of human activity.
These largest land animals differ not only in intelligence and even life expectancy (up to eighty years), commensurate with human ones.
It turns out that elephants are similar to us in many other ways.
For example, if a member of the herd falls ill, the rest will look after him, bring water, food, some plants that obviously play the role of natural medicines, and so on.
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