>>10895142The 2 main hypotheses are that wolves domesticated themselves, or that humans domesticated them. In the first scenario, some wolves stayed around human camps to scavenge on bones & leftovers, much like urban foxes today. The hunters would likely have only tolerated the friendlier individuals, driving away or killing the more dangerous animals. This caused the ancestral wolf to split into a tame subspecies that associated w/ humans, & a fiercer subspecies that stayed wild.
The second scenario involves humans raising orphaned wolf cubs & later breeding them. Studies have shown that even modern wolf pups can be successfully domesticated from an early enough age.
Also, humans could hunt pretty well in groups, to a certain extent bringing down larger prey than the equivalent number of wolves could.
