Answer to Question #292466 in Evolution for Ena

Question

How can domestic breeding contradict with darwins theory on Natural Selection?

Answer 1

Humans breeding domestic animals does not contradict Darwin's theory of natural selection. In natural selection, genetically heritable traits become more or less prevalent in the population based on if they increase or decrease an animal's ability to survive and reproduce.

The process of domestication takes natural selection and removes it from the equation. Humans become the "selection" in natural selection by picking and choosing which animals can pass their traits down to the next generation. They also remove the "natural" from natural selection by ensuring the animals do not need to compete for food or evade predators (for the most part).

The reason this does not contradict Darwin's theory on natural selection is because if you removed humans from the equation again, natural selection would once again commence. For example, many researchers believe that dingoes originally arrived in Australia when sailors from the Asian-Pacific islands first arrived. From those original domestic dogs, only those with traits that aided them in hunting and breeding survived. Over many generations of natural selection, the "wild" dingoes we see today evolved.