Hares were almost TAMED 5,000 years ago

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Hares were almost TAMED 5,000 years ago and learnt to live alongside people in China where they may have had spiritual significance

  • Hares are an animal which has never been fully domesticated by humans
  • Study shows hares did develop a close relationship with people 4,900 years ago 
  • Hares and humans learnt to co-exist with humans in the same way as foxes  
  • Close relationship could have flourished due to spiritual or religious significance

By Joe Pinkstone For Mailonline

Published: | Updated:

Hares may have been domesticated almost 5,000 years ago in China, a study has discovered.  

Evidence from 54 buried hares revealed they lived on a diet including crops grown by Neolithic farmers in a remote part of China on the Loess Plateau.  

It is believed the hares may have developed spiritual or religious importance in the local culture and were therefore fed by the farmers. 

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Pictured, the skull of a desert hare (Lepus capensis) from Yangjiesha studied in the research, Researchers believe humans in China 5,000  years ago may have placed spiritual importance in the animals and fed them their crops 

Pictured, a desert hare, the kind found in and around Yangjiesha. Scientists claim the long-eared animal likely developed a close relationship with people living in thisa remote part ofChina on the Loess Plateau

Pictured, a desert hare, the kind found in and around Yangjiesha. Scientists claim the long-eared animal likely developed a close relationship with people living in this remote part of China on the Loess Plateau

Pengfei Sheng from Fudan University, who led the research, said: ‘We find a pet-like human-hare relationship beyond the hunter and the hunted in the Neolithic China.’

Fifty-four hares were found around the early millet farming communities of Yangjiesha, China and anlsysis revealed they lived around 2900-2800 BC.

Four human remains, six dogs and 27 pigs were also found. 

Writing in the study, Dr Pengfei Sheng and his co-authors say: ‘As millet-based agricultural systems expanded throughout the Loess Plateau, desert hares and humans developed a commensal relationship, much like other animal species associated with the increasingly abundant crop plants in and around Neolithic settlements.’    

Analysis of the remains focused on isotope analysis which is influenced by an animal’s diet and lifestyle. 

The authors write: ‘We reason that the most likely explanation for this increase in the isotopic values of hares is due to the expansion of millet agriculture throughout Neolithic northern China.

‘While most hares on the Loess Plateau had diets consisting entirely of C3 plants (in an area that was naturally dominated by these plants), evidence for several 13C-enriched desert hares from Yangjiesha suggests a long-term pattern of millet (C4) consumption. 

‘These hares probably lived next to or inside these ancient settlements, developing a commensal relationship with humans. People may even have encouraged or managed this relationship.’   

Jade carving of a rabbit or hare from a Western Zhou Dynasty (1046–771 BC) tomb in Shaanxi Province. Hares have featured previously in early Chinese culture, with symbolic depictions emerging around 1,000BC

Jade carving of a rabbit or hare from a Western Zhou Dynasty (1046–771 BC) tomb in Shaanxi Province. Hares have featured previously in early Chinese culture, with symbolic depictions emerging around 1,000BC

History of human-hare relationships  

The earliest evidence for close human-hare interactions comes from an Early Copper Age (mid fifth millennium BC) burial in Hungary.

Here, an adult European brown hare(Lepus europaeus) was interred with an older woman.

In Sweden, archaeologists have discovered 12 hare (Lepus timidus) foot bones from a third-millennium BC grave at Ajvide. 

Meanwhile, at Teotihuacan in the Mexico Basin around the first century AD, carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis has revealed that cottontails (Lepus sylvaticus) and jackrabbits (Lepus timidus), probably tamed, consumed some plants produced by humans.     

The majority of the animal’s appeared to live on a wild diet but around 20 per cent feasted on the millet crop grown in the region. 

At least one hare found at the site had a diet deemed so human-like that the most likely explanation is that it was a pet.  

The study, published in the journal Antiquity, states that the two species developed an understanding over time, in a similar way to humans and foxes in modern metropolises. 

This symbiotic relationship may have started organically as hares became inquisitive about the millet crops being grown.

The researchers believe that from here people may have started encouraging interaction with the animals.  

This close relationship could be because the native Chinese people believed the hares had some form of religious of spiritual importance, the researchers believe.

Hares have featured previously in early Chinese culture, with symbolic depictions emerging around 1,000BC.