%0 Journal Article
%T Some Remarks on Bird's Brain and Behavior under the Constraints of Domestication
%A Julia Mehlhorn
%A Gerd Rehk£¿mper
%J ISRN Evolutionary Biology
%D 2013
%R 10.5402/2013/460580
%X The relationship between domestication and evolution is still a matter of discussion. In this review, we present some arguments for the assumption that domestication could be seen as an evolutionary process including the possibility that new species might evolve. In course of domestication, many breeds have been developed which show numerous alterations in different parameters such as body size, coloring, habitat, behavior, and brain size and composition. Here, we would like to give an overview particularly about alterations and varieties in (brain) morphology and behavior in domestic poultry and argue that these alterations could be seen as adaptations to the man-made environment. 1. Introduction Domestication of animals is a recent event in human history and is defined as that condition wherein the breeding, care, and feeding of animals are more or less controlled by man [1]. The relationship between domestication and evolution is still a matter of discussion. On the one hand, domestication could be seen as an evolutionary and selective process where experiences and interactions with the environment (which includes man) play a significant role [2, 3]. Hemmer [4] even expresses domestication as a special sort of evolution. On the other hand, two arguments are put forward against declaring domestication as a model of evolution. The first argument is that breeder¡¯s selection has replaced sexual mate choice by the animal. This phenomenon has been called ¡°artificial selection¡± [5, 6]. But by showing that mate choice of the breeder interacts with mate choices made by the animals itself, this argument is weakened [7]. The second argument is that there is still sexual attractiveness between the breeds of a domestic species and its wild ancestors [8]. This is not in line with the biological species concept (for review, see [9¨C11]) according to which species are freely interbreeding groups of individuals living in reproductive isolation from other groups of this kind. This argument neglects the phenomenon of hybridization and that it is more important to determine which genetic pairing is seen more often statistically and if there are nonrandom mating patterns [12]. Domestication is associated with several alterations and greater variability in a lot of traits in domestic animals if compared to their putative wild ancestors [2]. Although (or just because of this), there are authors like Hemmer [4] which claim domestication as ¡°the decline of environmental appreciation.¡± Empirical data on brain sizes which show smaller brains in dogs than in wolves or in
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/isrn.evolutionary.biology/2013/460580/