• Judge_Juche [she/her]
      ·
      2 years ago

      We can domesticate bears in like 20 years, the Soviets were on the forefront of this kind of research. They were able to domesticate the fox in a couple generations, although it kind of turned into a smelly furry dog. We could probably turn bears into a 300lb dog that lives for like 40 years. And only under communism can this be achieved.

      • RoabeArt [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Yeah, foxes tend to stink really bad even if you regularly bathe them.

    • Nakoichi [they/them]M
      ·
      2 years ago

      Honestly were just lucky dogs and cats chose us we don't deserve them.

      • RATMachinespirit [he/him,they/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        I know cats chose us. Could you elaborate on dogs? The only other time I’ve seen the “wolves chose us” hypothesis is malazan, and in malazan the dogs were fucking massive and domesticated us.

        • Nakoichi [they/them]M
          ·
          2 years ago

          Okay I was a bit wrong on that one and I only remembered part of the speculation, either way we definitely coevolved with them after a certain point. Probably would have had a much harder time with bears because they are not pack animals.

          ...how and when dogs evolved from wolves is a matter of debate. Naturalist Mark Derr says there are two main schools of thought: Some researchers believe that humans domesticated wolves who were scrounging around their villages for trash. Others think that humans were taking care of wolves from the time they were puppies — until enough puppies were tamed and they somehow then evolved into dogs.

          "Neither explanation seems satisfactory," writes Derr in How the Dog Became the Dog — From Wolves to Our Best Friends. "That is why there's no consensus."

          Either way there definitely had to be some period of mutual trust gaining for the latter theory to have occurred.

          • RATMachinespirit [he/him,they/them]
            ·
            2 years ago

            I totally agree on the mutual trust part. My personal opinion is some particularly empathetic human took initiative and was kind to a wolf and things rolled on from there, but I do agree that the initial hurdle could have come from either direction.

            I never considered pup-napping as an answer, but that does make a certain degree of sense.

            Thanks for the in depth response

            • flan [they/them]
              ·
              2 years ago

              i wonder why humans would have decided pup-napping was a thing worth doing

              • GreenTeaRedFlag [any]
                ·
                2 years ago

                Similar reasons to why we started doing agriculture: we are clever but not wise, and kinda stupid in the grand scheme of things. Very often proud and violent.