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A discussion is here presented of the origins and histories of the main domestic and commensal mammals of the Austronesian world. Some, such as the water buffalo, the dog and a number of rodent species, were introduced from Mainland Asian sources. Others, such as Bali cattle and the Celebes pig, were domesticated locally in Indonesia.
A variety of animal species have travelled with Austronesians on their migrations through Southeast Asia, and some have gone further into the Pacific. In this paper I will discuss the ecology of some of these species, trying to understand their geographical distributions and the natures of their associations with Austronesian-speaking people. I will try also to identify the regions of their aboriginal wild distributions. In this way we can possibly make some statements about prehistoric Austronesian culture, subsistence and migration history.