A little fighter who was threatened

The curious relationship between men and hares in China

     When we think of domestic lagomorphs we usually think of rabbits, those tender and fluffy animals that attract looks and smiles that make their appearance as well as in all their varieties, colors and sizes, but there is a case that was discovered not long ago in china, where a possible domestication of hares was discovered, let's learn, thanks for reading, let's get started.

Hares and humans living together 

    Darwin himself once said that the hare was an animal impossible to domesticate, due to its wild and fighting character, but however, recent findings in China could say the opposite, placed in remains from 4,900 and 3,800 years ago, The first and only known event of possible domestication of hares so far occurred during the Bronze Age.

It is believed that North China hares were attracted by human settlement and the expansion of millet cultivation, that they learned “to live with people, just as foxes or raccoons do in modern cities,” point out Chinese archaeologists from Fudan University with colleagues from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing and Aarhus University in Denmark.

But this reaches a more interesting level than what could be considered a plague, given the analysis of the hare bones of the Yangjiesha site shows a diachronic increase of a millet-based diet, revealing for the first time the expansion of ancient interactions between humans and desert hares in northern china beyond the predator-prey relationship that was previously contemplated, according to researchers.

It seems that these relationships reached such a point, that people in northern china began to raise hares as their pets, in addition to this site, Both archaeological and textual evidence from other sites support this fact, as they emphasize mentions of hares living alongside men,(it should be noted that these mentions were previously assigned to rabbits), They also began to become a crucial part of Chinese myths, as well as metal art and bone engravings.

It is unknown why these domestic varieties became extinct and how the inhabitants of Northern China managed to overcome the obstacle is still being studied, which represents the territorial and aggressive temperament of the hare, we are waiting for a response in the future.

[Reading links]

https://www.iflscience.com/ancient-chinese-farmers-may-have-kept-hares-for-pets-5000-years-ago-55989

https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/2020-05-12/ty-article/.premium/what-happened-to-neolithic-chinas-farmers-bad-hare-days/0000017f-e561-df2c-a1ff-ff7194cd0000,