Humans Fed Salmon to Canines 12,000 Years Ago, Study Suggests, Hinting at the Origin of Our Relationship With Dogs

Humans likely fed salmon to the ancestors of modern dogs in Alaska some 12,000 years ago, according to a new paper published this month in the journal Science Advances. The findings suggest the human-canine relationship in the Americas might have begun some 2,000 years earlier than previously thought.

Today, pet dogs are beloved companions that live in our homes, sleep in our beds and happily wag their tails when they see us—earning them the well-known nickname of “man’s best friend.” But when, where and how did wolves begin their transformation into a new, domestic species?

Scientists have long puzzled over these questions, in part because they haven’t discovered very many fossilized canine remains. Research suggests dogs evolved from gray wolves (Canis lupus) during the last Ice Age, at least 15,000 years ago. Humans might have first domesticated wolves in Asia, Europe, the Middle East or independently in several locations.

But the dog domestication saga gets even murkier in the context of the peopling of the Americas, which might have occurred sometime between 27,000 and 16,000 years ago. Did the first humans who arrived in North and South America bring dogs with them? Or did they befriend wild wolves after they arrived?

The new study doesn’t fully answer these questions. But it does add more pieces to the complicated puzzle of dog domestication in the Americas.

In 2018, archaeologists discovered a 12,000-year-old lower leg bone that belonged to an adult canine at a site in Alaska called Swan Point, located roughly 70 miles southeast of Fairbanks. Then, in 2023, they found an 8,100-year-old canine jawbone at a nearby archaeological site named Hollembaek Hill.

They used these specimens, as well as previously discovered canine remains, to create a comprehensive database of large canines—wolves, coyotes, dogs and related creatures—that lived in interior Alaska throughout history. They included 76 ancient and 35 modern specimens, which allowed them to compare the animals’ DNA, size, species and lineages.

By analyzing the stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes in the remains, they were also able to gain insights into the canines’ diets. Most of the animals ate food they found or hunted on land. But the 12,000-year-old Swan Point canine and the 8,100-year-old Hollembaek Hill canine appear to have eaten large amounts of salmon. Researchers think humans shared the fish with the animals.

That doesn’t necessarily mean the creatures were domesticated. But it does suggest they had a relationship with humans.

“[The high salmon diet] is the smoking gun, because [canines are] not really going after salmon in the wild,” says study co-author Ben Potter, an archaeologist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, in a statement.

Genetic testing revealed that the Swan Point and Hollembaek Hill canines do not resemble modern dogs. But their fishy diet suggests they may have behaved—and eaten—like the four-legged furry friends of today.

If researchers had only studied the specimens’ genetics, they might have missed this important dietary clue that adds to the growing body of evidence that dog domestication was a messy, non-linear process.

“The general assumption has been that domestication happened once and clearly separated canids that interact with people (dogs) from those who don’t (wolves),” says study co-author François Lanoë, an archaeologist at the University of Arizona, to Gizmodo’s Isaac Schultz. “Our study instead shows that canid-people relationships were complex, continue to be today, and involve more than domestication, but also things like taming of wild wolves and commensality (wolves hanging around human settlements).”

Still, not everyone is convinced that a diet high in salmon means these canines had relationships with humans. For instance, the animals could have opportunistically eaten lots of fish, all on their own.

“There are several possible explanations,” says Mikkel Sinding, a biologist at the University of Copenhagen who was not involved with the research, to the Washington Post’s Carolyn Y. Johnson. “Yes, humans could have fed it, but it could also just naturally have had this diet.”

The study’s authors regularly collaborate with Indigenous communities in Alaska’s Tanana Valley, and this paper was no exception. Researchers got permission to conduct genetic testing on the specimens from the Healy Lake Village Council, which represents the Mendas Cha’ag people.

Today, tribal members have strong relationships with dogs—and it seems their ancestors did, too.

“I really love that we can look at the record and see that thousands of years ago, we still had our companions,” says Evelynn Combs, an archaeologist and member of the Healy Lake tribe, in the statement.

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Sarah Kuta is a writer and editor based in Longmont, Colorado. She covers history, science, travel, food and beverage, sustainability, economics and other topics.