Characterised by their elegant, slim bodies, long legs and hairy ears, salukis are among the most iconic animals of the Middle East.
These sighthounds – hunting by sight rather then scent – have been companions to people for thousands of years, their origins stretching far back into history.
Understanding the events that led to the creation of salukis and other domestic dogs from their wild cousins, wolves, millennia ago has, however, proved to be one of the more difficult issues scientists have faced.
The domestication of one of our other great companion animal, the cat, can be traced with confidence back to the Middle East: a study in 2007 found that domestic cats have close genetic links to the Arabian wildcat.
Similarly, researchers suggested that the Middle East was where dogs were first domesticated, said Dr Adam Boyko, an assistant professor at the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine.
“They saw that Middle Eastern wolves seemed to be genetically most similar to dogs,” he said.
However, a complicating factor when it comes to using genetics to tease out the origins of domestic dogs is that, after domestication, dogs moved around the world – they were probably domesticated in pre-agricultural times by mobile hunter-gatherers – and continued to interbreed with wolves.
This means that genetic similarities between dogs and particular wolf populations are not necessarily proof that that group of wolves gave rise to domestic dogs.
In Genetic Structure in Village Dogs Reveals a Central Asian Domestication Origin, a paper published late last year in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Dr Boyko and his co-authors identified Central Asia as the most likely place where dogs were domesticated.
They pinpointed this region by looking at variations in the genetic make-up of hundreds of village dogs – those that live around people but roam freely and are not members of recognised breeds – and thousands of pure-bred animals.
In particular, the focus was on linkage disequilibrium, which is associated with the tendency for certain genes to be inherited together because they are close to one another on chromosomes. In dogs that came from further away from Central Asia, these genes were more likely to have been separated.
Although there has been much disagreement over the geographic origin of dogs, Dr Boyko said he thought that an ultimate solution was getting closer.
“I would say we’re pretty close to what other researchers that look at diversity in dogs today [say]. There’s another group that says South-East Asia. The difference was just a matter of the samples that we’re working with,” he said.
“As we get better sampling diversity, we’re going to more clearly demonstrate where the precise centre of diversity in Asia is, but we’re converging on a solution there.”
However, not everyone takes the view that agreement is emerging. “The consensus is that there’s no consensus,” said Prof Greger Larson of the school of archaeology at the University of Oxford.
“There are still quite a few people who are making claims for various [areas] from Europe to Central Asia to East Asia. Some people are still thinking even North America.
“But nine other people will come up with 10 other options. It’s still very much an open question.”
Prof Larson is a key figure in a multi-million-dollar project involving scientists from around the world who have been looking at genetic and archaeological indicators. They are due to begin publishing their findings this year. Early indications are that there are “possibly two early origins of dogs in separate parts of the Eurasian continent”.
Although the Middle East does not appear likely to be highlighted as an original centre for dog domestication, it indisputably was important in the early history of dogs.
Sighthound-type dogs “clearly played a role” from North Africa to Afghanistan and possibly further east, said Prof Larson. They are featured in pictures and sculptures from Ancient Egypt and are shown in Arabian peninsula cave art depicting hunting scenes from between 7,000 and 8,000 years ago.
It was probably from around this time that saluki-like sighthounds developed and were used locally. In later times, the dogs were used alongside camels and falcons in hunting.
“Riding with the camel, you release the birds. They start circling when they come across some type of ungulate [hoofed mammal]. As soon as they see them circling, they release the dogs. They would take one or two of them down. They’re doing all your hunting for you,” said Prof Larson.
“That practice is probably going on for quite some time: you rely on three species to [locate] the prey, catch the prey and take it home. You can imagine that going back 4,000 to 5,000 years to the domestication of the camel.”
As reported in The National at the time, a study in 2010 suggested that the Fertile Crescent – the early agricultural area that curves up from the northern end of the Arabian Gulf across into Egypt – was where the first small dogs were bred. And there is archaeological evidence of such animals from 12,000 years ago. Small size in dogs is thought to have become more valuable as people began living in more densely populated societies.
“The main variant for body size was in the Middle East. The first dog that had the mutation was a Middle East dog and spread out to other populations,” said Dr Boyko.
“The Middle East, in general, was important for the evolution of dogs even if it’s not where the earliest population of wolves that was domesticated came from.”
In the UAE, there is archaeological evidence for dogs as far back as 4,000 years ago. Happily, salukis remain popular, as their keen hunting instinct and placid nature make them suitable as pets.
With the latest research looking at dog populations and history from across the planet, further interesting details of the way in which these canines from the Middle East developed over the millennia are likely to be uncovered in the months to come.
Daniel Bardsley is a UK-based freelance journalist.
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