Results 61 to 71 of 71
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2017-06-29, 08:44 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Nov 2009
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2017-06-29, 10:09 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2007
Re: Why haven't humans domesticated hyenas, lions, or banded mongeese?
I do. Admittedly, I don't expect much of them, but they come when I call, they use the sandbox, and both attack and cease to attack whatever pests/toys/furniture I indicate. As rewards, they get cuddles when they request them, good food and warm spots in the sun. It's a partnership.
Grey WolfLast edited by Grey_Wolf_c; 2017-06-29 at 10:11 AM.
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2017-06-29, 11:02 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2011
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2017-06-29, 09:09 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2008
Re: Why haven't humans domesticated hyenas, lions, or banded mongeese?
OTOH, unusual for such a large carnivore, cheetahs are apparently very easy to tame, and are good around children from what I've read. There seem to have been several attempts to domesticate them, going back to the ancient Egyptians, but the attempts have always failed because they are simply hard to breed in captivity.
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2017-06-30, 02:45 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2012
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- Tharggy, on Tellene
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Re: Why haven't humans domesticated hyenas, lions, or banded mongeese?
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2017-06-30, 09:38 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2010
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2017-06-30, 09:54 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2011
Re: Why haven't humans domesticated hyenas, lions, or banded mongeese?
My Avatar is Glimtwizzle, a Gnomish Fighter/Illusionist by Cuthalion.
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2017-07-01, 12:50 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2010
Re: Why haven't humans domesticated hyenas, lions, or banded mongeese?
I mean, it depends on whether the mice were molded to the needs of humans or the needs of cats.
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2017-07-01, 02:42 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Sep 2010
- Location
- Birmingham, UK
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Re: Why haven't humans domesticated hyenas, lions, or banded mongeese?
I guess the problem is that once you've domesticated, you've got yourself a subspecies that's sufficiently far from the original that you haven't actually conserved the original, and maybe it doesn't fill that ecological niche anymore. Like if the red junglefowl (gallus gallus) ever went extinct*, the world's broiler and battery chickens (g. g. domesticus) wouldn't be a substitute. Like, the basic species would go on, yes. But it would look different, and behave differently, and live somewhere else, at which point you're not actually conserving much. Maybe the game breeds, bred for more wild-type characteristics and reintroduced to the wild, would do better. (But then you're stuck with the problem that a lot of extinction is due to habitat loss so... where are you reintroducing them to?) Ditto interbreeding with the domestic cat (felis silvestris catus) is considered a threat to European wildcat (f. s. silvestris) conservation, not a means to it.
*Unlikely, it's down as 'least concern', but just picking an example
Well, even the most stroppy cat is sufficiently domesticated to live with humans. I mean, we see them, ever; if they weren't socialising with us to some degree, they'd be nocturnal and successfully hiding from us. They communicate with us via noises, since we lack most of the bits for cat body language and spraying/rubbing pheromones on stuff. Some of them, depending on tameness, will even cling to us when they're hurt or vulnerable, even though we're (usually) the local top predators and going near one of them in a weakened state is a really stupid thing for a wild animal to do.Last edited by Juggling Goth; 2017-07-01 at 02:49 AM.
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2017-07-01, 09:49 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2008
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2017-07-01, 08:18 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Sep 2016
- Location
- near athens, ga
Re: Why haven't humans domesticated hyenas, lions, or banded mongeese?
some notes:
you are wrong about minks - this guy has found a way to utterly tame them at the Minkenry. minks are VERY tamable and even affectionate. they can be used to hunt, even kill and retrieve fish. it is commonly thought that aggression is link to coat color black minks are meaner. oh, and unlike ferrets, minks have NO SMELL.
skunks are long time domesticates. they were kept as pets by native americans then by farmers. today pet skunks come in colors like champagne and lavender.
ringtails are 'wannabe domesticates'. The ringtail is said to be easily tamed, and can make an affectionate pet and effective mouser. Miners and settlers once kept pet ringtails to keep their cabins free of vermin; hence, the common name of "miner's cat" (though in fact the ringtail is no more a cat than it is civet).[13] The ringtails would move into the miners' and settlers' encampments and become accepted by humans in much the same way that some early domestic cats were theorized to have done. At least one biologist in Oregon[who?] has joked that the ringtail is one of two species – the domestic cat and the ringtail – that thus "domesticated humans" due to that pattern of behavior.
flying squirrels are also wannabes. they naturally form intense bonds with their owners, as easy to feed and house.
ungulates: the common eland has long been domesticated.
Their milk is comparatively richer in proteins and milkfat than dairy cows, which may be an explanation for the quick growth of eland calves.[25][31] Eland's milk has about triple the fat content and twice the protein of a dairy cow's milk.[41] Its docility and profitable characteristics have made it a target of domestication in Africa and Russia and has also resulted in hunting.[21][32]
Many people prefer to tame and raise eland rather than cattle due to their numerous benefits. Elands can survive on scarce water, which is a great advantage over domestic cattle. They can also eat coarse grasses, and can even manage to ingest some poisonous plants that can prove fatal for cattle. They are also immune to some diseases to which cattle may succumb.[31]
otters have been domesticated. once world wide, now only in bangladesh. there otter fishing is a tradition, passed down threw family who breed the otters and train them.
mongoose are peridomesticates - for the most part, they share space with humans while killing rats, snakes and croc eggs, which endured them much to the eqpyians. they are not uncommon pets in india. they have not, however been changed genetically by captive breeding.
binturongs have long been kept by the oran asli peoples in indonesia. they are also instant pets-
"Binturongs are affectionate and follow their owners around like dogs," says Stephens. "They love to have their owners feed them bananas and other favorite foods by hand. They will sniff people, and especially their hair, for as long as you'll let them. They'll crawl all over you if you sit still. The female is the boss. You can't keep males and females together or the males will kill the babies."
Baby females sell for $2,500; males for $1,800 to $2,000. Both males and females are worth more if they're hand raised.
african pygmy hedgehogs are de facto domesticates as they don't exist in the wild (they are a hybrid of two wild species). they also come in happy colors.
short tailed opossums have cohabited with humans for ages, but are now true domesticates, pets and lab animals. sugar gliders, Australia's flying squirrel are also domesticated.
cheetahs, despite making excellent pets (they are no danger whatsoever to humans) were never domesticated because they don't breed in captivity. now techniques have been developed for artificial insemination. there are only 15,000 wild cheetahs and 1,400 captives. cheetahs need to be domesticated to survive as a species.
a program to breed domestic indian elephants is also needed. it has been tried because they live so long and take so long to mature. tame elephants are captured from the wild and become astonishingly useful larborers.
keep in mind that there are hundreds of species of FW tropical fish that are true domesticated and now some SW fish are being bred. there are also huge coral farms far from the ocean, growing all kinds of inverts.
and the hundreds of species of parrot that have been captive bred for generations - and finches, i ****ing hate finches.Last edited by tantric; 2017-07-01 at 09:30 PM.