Why Some Animals Can't be Domesticated

"zebra are bastards." -CGP Grey

That “We’re top chicken” was the most aggresive sentence ever

The misconception is that zebras are a variety of wild horse. They are definitely a variety of wild donkey.

I feel like dogs were such an incredible find for domestication. In today's world where dogs are mostly kept just for fun, it's easy for people to forget what they really have to offer- not food or transportation but a dedicated workforce capable of performing complex jobs day-in, day-out, and happily. Watching border collies herd sheep will never not be impressive to me. And even today there are dogs doing vital work in our societies- aiding police and providing medical assistance.

"Why did humans never domesticate tigers?" "Thermodynamics."

"war bears" sound awesome until your enemy attacks in the dead of winter &that tubby turd is off somewhere, sleepin' on the job

A friend of mine works in a zoo. He told me that zebras are responsible for more zookeeper injuries (of varying severity) than most if any other animals, at least in the USA.

Submissive and feedable

That’s why in Arabic zebras are called “حمار وحشي" meaning “savage donkey”

You failed to disuade me from war bears

Turns out there are lots of animals that you could domesticate if for some strange reason you wanted to spend the decades doing it. But they never were domesticated or were not until very recently. Belyayev's foxes for example. The process from Wild Fox -> Domesticated Silver Fox took about 20 or so generations. Easily doable in one persons lifetime. History picked Grey Wolves instead.

"A cat is a tiny tiger that lives in your house" ...Yes, actually. Although I will note that they do count as domesticated because of how modern cats were selectively bred for looks.

"A cat is a tiny tiger that lives in your house" I couldn't have said it better.

I like to think that we domesticated Horses because someone dared a friend to jump on a horses back and it just worked

The zebra/horse contrast is especially interesting if you also talk about the other domesticated equine. Asses generally don't fit the "family friendly" or "friendly" categories - they are usually solitary and they're notorious for being stubborn, especially when feral - yet domesticated asses, aka donkeys, still happened.

"The Russian Farm-Fox Experiment is the best known experimental study in animal domestication. By subjecting a population of foxes to selection for tameness alone, Dimitry Belyaev generated foxes that possessed a suite of characteristics that mimicked those found across domesticated species."

Horses and zebras lookalike but one of them is wearing classic prison costume for a reason.

"A cat is a tiny tiger that lives in your house"

Zebras also lack a strong enough spine to support the weight of an adult male for strenuous riding activities. As such, this may have been an additional factor for them not becoming the horse alternative.

There is a species of frog called a Microhylid that's developed a symbiotic relationship with multiple large Spider species. These frogs are small enough that they would make a very easy meal for the Spider, but they live in close quarters with each other with the Spider essentially acting like the Frog's bodyguard. Why? Because most of the Frog's natural predators won't mess with the Spider and will stay clear... and the frog eats ants which are a natural predator of spider eggs. They have a symbiotic relationship. The Spider will tolerate and even defend the frog instead of eating it, and the frog earns its keep by 'protecting' the spider's eggs. Depending on what way you look at it, either the frog has a pet spider that it's domesticated and trained to protect it...or the Spider has a pet frog that it's domesticated and trained to protect its eggs. Why am I telling you this? Because that's basically our relationship with cats. We didn't domesticate cats. We basically domesticated each other. The cats realized that life was way easier where the humans were... and we benefited from letting them stick around. They got free food and shelter and we got an animal that hunted and killed vermin.