Information on working terriers, dogs, natural history, hunting, and the environment, with occasional political commentary as I see fit. This web log is associated with the Terrierman.com web site.
Wednesday, March 02, 2016
How Come We Don't Farm Hippos?
Why don't we milk and eat elephants? Where are the War Bears? And why don't we have zebra-riding cowboys bringing in the buffalo?
We don't have any early horses to compare to zebras. And we do have many animals that turn out to be fairly domesticatable with very little selective breeding (several lab animal species, foxes).
Also, and I think you know this, we've always had trained zebras. They aren't usually nice, but they're social. And plenty of track thoroughbreds will make one question the wisdom of doing anything with horses! (Breeding for speed, ignoring things like sanity, that takes a toll.)
Pigs have been bred to be livestock for ages, literally. And most pigs are very very dangerous.
I watched this video and disagree with it. I can't imagine the Auroch was any easier than a bison to deal with, so should have been equally domesticatable. Domestic sheep came from Mouflon, and that species is just as challenging as a Bighorn Sheep or a Dall Sheep. If Dall Sheep are undomesticateble, so are Mouflon.. Deer and antelope are supposedly out because they are flighty and can jump...well domestic goats are quite the leapers and jumpers still today because their wild Capra forebearers were record jumpers (and climbers) so should have been equally undomesticatable.
According to this list, Peccary should have been domesticated. They breed happily in captivity, will be happy eating plants plus refuse, and live in a hierarchical social group. They are mean, but then again so are wild hogs.
2 comments:
I continued to be baffled by these things.
We don't have any early horses to compare to zebras. And we do have many animals that turn out to be fairly domesticatable with very little selective breeding (several lab animal species, foxes).
Also, and I think you know this, we've always had trained zebras. They aren't usually nice, but they're social. And plenty of track thoroughbreds will make one question the wisdom of doing anything with horses! (Breeding for speed, ignoring things like sanity, that takes a toll.)
Pigs have been bred to be livestock for ages, literally. And most pigs are very very dangerous.
I watched this video and disagree with it. I can't imagine the Auroch was any easier than a bison to deal with, so should have been equally domesticatable. Domestic sheep came from Mouflon, and that species is just as challenging as a Bighorn Sheep or a Dall Sheep. If Dall Sheep are undomesticateble, so are Mouflon.. Deer and antelope are supposedly out because they are flighty and can jump...well domestic goats are quite the leapers and jumpers still today because their wild Capra forebearers were record jumpers (and climbers) so should have been equally undomesticatable.
According to this list, Peccary should have been domesticated. They breed happily in captivity, will be happy eating plants plus refuse, and live in a hierarchical social group. They are mean, but then again so are wild hogs.
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