To my knowledge the “self-taming” or commensal hypothesis is the current view of how dogs were domesticated. See e.g.:
That’s my understanding of the matter as well, based on what I’ve read on the topic.
As to cats, to my knowledge the domestication happened after the transition to permanent settlement. Granaries -> mice -> cats 
“Traditionally, historians tended to think ancient Egypt was the site of cat domestication, owing to the clear depictions of house cats in Egyptian paintings about 3,600 years old.[3] However, in 2004, a Neolithic grave excavated in Shillourokambos, Cyprus, contained the skeletons, laid close to one another, of both a human and a cat. The grave is estimated to be 9,500 years old, pushing back the earliest known feline–human association significantly.[15][255][256] The cat specimen is large and closely resembles the African wildcat, rather than present-day domestic cats. This discovery, combined with genetic studies, suggests cats were probably domesticated in the Middle East, in the Fertile Crescent around the time of the development of agriculture, and then were brought to Cyprus and Egypt”
Wiki
Well, depending if you are in Europe or middle east with the European neolithic period, we will probably see things like wolves, Bears, Deer, Aurochs (Wild cattle), Iberian ibex is a possibility, rabbits, ect… with middle east their could be camels,
lions, the Caspian tiger is possible as well as the Syrian elephant. if we look at the paleolithic period then it depends on how far back they decide to go with it but mammoths would definitely be in Eurasian cave bear when extinct 24,000 years ago,
the Eurasian cave lion is possible as it when extinct around 10,0000 years ago, same with the wholly Rhino as it went extinct around 10,000 years ago
@joeroe From what I understand two theories are on the line (the self-taming is one and active selective breeding another).
There actually an experiment on this process in russia on fox to replicate the process :
The basic tech for wild animals is already in the game. But we still have much to improve there.
There are plans for pets in the future, there is an still hidden indiegogo stretch goal about this.
It is not clear at this point how many wild or tamed animals will be in the first release. This is still to be decided, but we prefer to have a well developed technology for them than to have a lot not at the quality we would like.
If the tech is fine but the number of animals is limited at release more may be added later as AC platform updates.
When games is released and modding tools are provided, i guess it will be possible to create new animals, right?
We are planning to release modding tools in several steps, from simple modifications to more complex ones. This is because this way things that are easy to mod doesn’t have to wait for the tools of the complex ones.
At some point adding animals should be possible but at this moment is no an ETA for this. Our focus is in the base game. Modding tools will come later.
Assuming the game is set in the Old World, Homotherium latidens (scimitar-toothed cat) would be suitable, but Smilodon sp. (sabre-toothed cat) would not.
This is officially my favorite game ever. Where in the list of stretch goals is this one?
It would be very nice to see/hear owls/wulfs at night, snakes (poisonous and non toxic) hiding in grass and attack your people - some get sick caused by the poison so you have to care about that and gather herbs to improve healing process. bears attacking your food storage would be nice to watch and the people have to work together to save the food storage or even hunt the bear and you get new ressources (food, leather, teeth for decoration, e.g. hunters whear them on a necklace or soemthing like that.
It would be nice that everyone is in way special, like yes, few sets of clothes, but as you meantioned, teeth for decoration, hunter who would kill bear would wear them as trophy
Hey guys, very much looking forwards to this.
So I was wondering: Whats the plan for Domestication, and how will it work in Gameplay terms? Are we looking at a technology that you have to “research” ala Age of Empires style, or will you have to go through, for lack of a better term, a set of quest objectives. If you have the latter idea (or even the former) will you only be able to domesticate animals you discover on the map?
Historically different animals where domesticated in different regions (Goats in the Middle East, Horses on the Ukrainian Steppe, etc) and where then spread by migration, trade and interactions between different cultures, so is this perhaps another way to gain access to domesticated animals that may or may not be present on a given map?
Regarding Russian Domesticated Red Fox Saw a program on this ; may have been nova or nature onPPS. The foxes changed apearence with floppy ears and variations their coats like domestic dogs,very interesting program
I’m all for cats, but they would probably not be too common.
If they do exist, remember they would be bigger.
Also, cats could be a nuisance for drying fish or foods left unattended.
(This fellow is a well fed European wild cat)
Developers mentioned pets so cant wait to have cat lover tribe that will grow to Egypt civ
Well, you can start up a cat religion, like Bast!
Not sure that European Wild Cat would appreciate the temperatures in Egypt, though lol
I was wondering about the animals behaviour. Will herds react like one group (like IRL) or each animals will live it own life. Moreover, will they avoid the tribe ? (it is not very realistic to have wild animals walking peacefully in your village). Finally, will day/night cycle impact animals behaviour ? (pretators and pack hunters come closer during the night).
Pets are one of the still hidden stretch goals in the indiegogo campaign, which is growing, but slowly. So pets are still far away.
Good points. They can also pull loads or a sades bag kind of thing.
