Rhinos, leopards, extensive monkey and ape domestication, dodos, crocodiles(for prestige and meat) mold, wasps, foxes, wild dogs, lemurs, African elephants, hippos, turtles and tortoises, dolphin, nimphs, bears, raccoons, ferets, wolverines, seals
Cool Potential Domestications
- Thread starter DG Valdron
- Start date
You're not just naming random animals off the top of your head are you?
Around 65% of the animals mentioned have no way of being domesticated and the rest are a stretch.
The Wikipedia article for http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domestication#Animals does a decent job at highlighting some conditions that can lead to a domestication, with a few inaccuracies, such as temperament and disposition.
Around 65% of the animals mentioned have no way of being domesticated and the rest are a stretch.
The Wikipedia article for http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domestication#Animals does a decent job at highlighting some conditions that can lead to a domestication, with a few inaccuracies, such as temperament and disposition.
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How about the capybara, largest rodent on earth, not much for a beast of burden but herd herbivores can be a very easily accessible form of meat.
Okay. What qualities recommend the capybara as a domesticate?
mojojojo
Gone Fishin'
i know Gerald Durrell once suggested that (given the interest they inspired in Europe) the dodo might have had potential as an ornamental bird like swans and peacocks if people had only made an effort to breed them. Do you think this would at all be possible?
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We tried, but those damnyankees decided to ruin it all
I suppose being a rodent they already come with advantages like fast growth, prolific breeding and intelligence. Being social also helps.
They enjoy wetlands, so if domesticated at all might be like a tiny water buffalo, minus most of the milk and draught benefits (Capybaras are strong so if you really really wanted you could have teams pull things but come on).
Capybaras are actually farmed IRL for their meat, hide, and a pharmaceutically important grease.
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On possible domestications let's see.........................................................
Raccoons= Actually kept as a pet throughout the Americas along with coatis and ringtails. They're carnivorous in nature, tho they can be omnivorous. This makes them decent verminators. Downsides are their opposable thumbs and cunning. Still could happen through several generations, same as how the
Silver Fox was bred.
Hedgehogs= Again, kept as pets now and possibly in Antiquity/Medieval Times. Actually carnivorous/omnivorous instead of insectovorous, still they'd be useful verminators.
Jackals=Close relatives of the wolf with similar pack ways, the jackal's actually an excellent candidate.The Golden Jackal at least is promising, although the black-backed or side-striped jackals might work. Better sense of smell than the wolf and able to interbreed with dogs. Look at the Sulimov dogs for proof.
Coyotes= See jackals above. And coy-dog hybrids are common throughout the American West and South.
Just about any species of deer and antelope are domesticable.They're just more common as wildlife.
Fennecs= Kept as pets in North Africa. Wouldn't be too hard to fully domesticate them.
Culpeos= Evidently were domesticated at one point, as the Fuegian dog proves. So can be domesticated again.
Crab-eating fox= Kept as pets by locals throughout South America so the potential is there.
Caracals= Easy to tame,were used as hunting animals in India and Iran and definitely easier to breed than cheetahs. Sounds like a win-win situation.
Ocelots=Kept as pets from time to time so potential is there.
Leopard Cats= Already kept as pets and can interbreed with domestic cats. Potential definitely there.
Just about any ratite which includes Elephant Birds and Moas would qualify. Same goes for dodos and other Mascarene birds.
Think of more later.
Raccoons= Actually kept as a pet throughout the Americas along with coatis and ringtails. They're carnivorous in nature, tho they can be omnivorous. This makes them decent verminators. Downsides are their opposable thumbs and cunning. Still could happen through several generations, same as how the
Silver Fox was bred.
Hedgehogs= Again, kept as pets now and possibly in Antiquity/Medieval Times. Actually carnivorous/omnivorous instead of insectovorous, still they'd be useful verminators.
Jackals=Close relatives of the wolf with similar pack ways, the jackal's actually an excellent candidate.The Golden Jackal at least is promising, although the black-backed or side-striped jackals might work. Better sense of smell than the wolf and able to interbreed with dogs. Look at the Sulimov dogs for proof.
Coyotes= See jackals above. And coy-dog hybrids are common throughout the American West and South.
Just about any species of deer and antelope are domesticable.They're just more common as wildlife.
Fennecs= Kept as pets in North Africa. Wouldn't be too hard to fully domesticate them.
Culpeos= Evidently were domesticated at one point, as the Fuegian dog proves. So can be domesticated again.
Crab-eating fox= Kept as pets by locals throughout South America so the potential is there.
Caracals= Easy to tame,were used as hunting animals in India and Iran and definitely easier to breed than cheetahs. Sounds like a win-win situation.
Ocelots=Kept as pets from time to time so potential is there.
Leopard Cats= Already kept as pets and can interbreed with domestic cats. Potential definitely there.
Just about any ratite which includes Elephant Birds and Moas would qualify. Same goes for dodos and other Mascarene birds.
Think of more later.
@Prism
Raccoons: Highly aggressive when mature, even when raised from a kit and pets have a notorious reputation for ripping houses to shreds. Also rabies and whatnot. No go.
Silver fox: Sure, I guess. Though the DSF was really intensively selected for docility so I suppose it would be hard to get a 'natural' domestication going.
All canids mentioned: No doubt it's plenty possible, you just have to figure out a reason people would want them around or, similar to wolf domestication, tolerate them.
I would say ANY species of pecoran. Many antelope are extremely skiddish, don't do well in captivity, can't handle large groups and have certain mating habits. Animals like eland and oryx, sure. Egyptians actually kept scimitar-horned oryx around for a while. Same goes for moose and many small deer. Whitetail deer are easy, though; extremely versatile species. They already are capable of grouping in massive herds, and populations tend to self-tame around humans very quickly if they aren't being hunted. There's a herd at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory that just decided to stay there, and there's many other stories of herds acclimating to human presence as if they were already domestic. One of the reasons they likely didn't get domesticated IOTL was that deer are a very important food source, so once a herd starts to warm up to a settlement the average reaction is "Easy food!" in which they then flee and steer clear of humans, and the vicious cycle repeats.
Fennec fox: Interesting, got a source?
Cats are pretty much all the same in a lot of ways, all the felines in your list would do nicely. Ocelots are strange though, but I'd still like to see a TL domesticate them.
Why would ratites qualify? They grow slower than smaller birds and lay far fewer eggs. Dodos taste terrible. They'd make a nice ornamental bird, but you don't need to domesticate them for that.
Raccoons: Highly aggressive when mature, even when raised from a kit and pets have a notorious reputation for ripping houses to shreds. Also rabies and whatnot. No go.
Silver fox: Sure, I guess. Though the DSF was really intensively selected for docility so I suppose it would be hard to get a 'natural' domestication going.
All canids mentioned: No doubt it's plenty possible, you just have to figure out a reason people would want them around or, similar to wolf domestication, tolerate them.
I would say ANY species of pecoran. Many antelope are extremely skiddish, don't do well in captivity, can't handle large groups and have certain mating habits. Animals like eland and oryx, sure. Egyptians actually kept scimitar-horned oryx around for a while. Same goes for moose and many small deer. Whitetail deer are easy, though; extremely versatile species. They already are capable of grouping in massive herds, and populations tend to self-tame around humans very quickly if they aren't being hunted. There's a herd at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory that just decided to stay there, and there's many other stories of herds acclimating to human presence as if they were already domestic. One of the reasons they likely didn't get domesticated IOTL was that deer are a very important food source, so once a herd starts to warm up to a settlement the average reaction is "Easy food!" in which they then flee and steer clear of humans, and the vicious cycle repeats.
Fennec fox: Interesting, got a source?
Cats are pretty much all the same in a lot of ways, all the felines in your list would do nicely. Ocelots are strange though, but I'd still like to see a TL domesticate them.
Why would ratites qualify? They grow slower than smaller birds and lay far fewer eggs. Dodos taste terrible. They'd make a nice ornamental bird, but you don't need to domesticate them for that.
mojojojo
Gone Fishin'
They also taste pretty good
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1563095/Ancient-and-modern-hedgehog-recipes.html
My Dad raised a few raccoons as pets. The trouble with raccoons is that they don't fulfill any useful economic niche.
Pets, by the way, are not a useful economic niche for most subsistence societies.
As for ratites - depends on growth rate.
It's a competition issue. If you already have a more efficient verminator/microlivestock/draft animal then you don't adopt a less effective one.
The niche needs to be competitive.
The niche needs to be competitive.
Basically. Potentially, a North American civilization could start using raccoons if they don't use mink. Or, they could potentially be trained to pick cotton like Hive Monkeys.
Raccoons don't show hoarding behaviour or strong nest building.
You'd be better off with squirrels.
The less we try to recreate the Tsalal, the better.
I've been wondering about New World rabbits. Wild European rabbits are just as skittish and heart attack levels of flighty as any other rabbit, their defining distinction being their highly social nature. Territorial, they live in social burrows called warrens and maintain a dominance hierarchy through lots of aggression, even between females to an extent.
In NA, cottontail rabbits are typically rather solitary, except for the desert cottontail. These rabbits are very social and congregate in large groups, and don't seem to fight nearly as often. They usually don't dig burrows at all but take advantage of already-formed holes and hiding places.
Their reproductive behavior is pretty much the same as a European rabbit, and their range extends from almost the entire western half of the US down to the north half of Mexico, making a good chance for some sedentary culture to try it out. In the initial generations of keeping them, though, they would have to be walled in as European rabbits were. Providing shelters should be very easy however.
I've been wondering about New World rabbits. Wild European rabbits are just as skittish and heart attack levels of flighty as any other rabbit, their defining distinction being their highly social nature. Territorial, they live in social burrows called warrens and maintain a dominance hierarchy through lots of aggression, even between females to an extent.
In NA, cottontail rabbits are typically rather solitary, except for the desert cottontail. These rabbits are very social and congregate in large groups, and don't seem to fight nearly as often. They usually don't dig burrows at all but take advantage of already-formed holes and hiding places.
Their reproductive behavior is pretty much the same as a European rabbit, and their range extends from almost the entire western half of the US down to the north half of Mexico, making a good chance for some sedentary culture to try it out. In the initial generations of keeping them, though, they would have to be walled in as European rabbits were. Providing shelters should be very easy however.
That's totally doable, but you don't need to domesticate a bird to keep it for ornamental purposes, especially a tame flightless bird like a dodo.