# Humans nursed wolf cubs? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 25, 2011, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humans-nursed-wolf-cubs/572573 "2011-02-25T11:23:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2015, 8:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humans-nursed-wolf-cubs/572573/21 "2015-02-25T08:47:31Z")
Didn’t I answer this 4 years ago? ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2015, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humans-nursed-wolf-cubs/572573/22 "2015-02-25T08:52:28Z")
> [@Blake](#): > > Didn’t I answer this 4 years ago? 😃 No. I read it again and wondered if there was some new research. ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2015, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humans-nursed-wolf-cubs/572573/23 "2015-02-25T09:02:33Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > That is a huge, quite unwarranted assumption. All that your remarks about dingos show is that suckling puppies is _one possible_ way to domesticate “wolves.” It does not show it is the only way such domestication can occur, and it does nothing to answer why it should have ever occurred to early humans either that wolves _could_ be domesticated or that it would be a worthwhile thing to try to do, let alone that suckling puppies would be a good way to do it. (Unlike the first humans to domesticate dogs, Australian Aboriginies do not have to _discover_ that dogs can domesticated, or that domestic dogs can be useful.) :dubious: Umm, you do understand that whoever Aborigines obtained dogs from must have also breast fed them, for the same reasons. Right? And whoever \*those \*people obtained dogs from must have also breast fed them, for the same reasons. And so _ad infinitum_? Someone had to have discovered that dogs can be domesticated. And whoever that was had to have breast fed them, because strains of dogs that could be raised without breast feeding them are far more recent than the domestication of the dog itself. Ergo people had to have regularly nursed pups for at least 5,000 years. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2015, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humans-nursed-wolf-cubs/572573/24 "2015-02-25T09:18:23Z")
People? Or some group of Aborigines? ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2015, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humans-nursed-wolf-cubs/572573/25 "2015-02-25T09:46:45Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > People? Or some group of Aborigines? Wibble. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2015, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humans-nursed-wolf-cubs/572573/26 "2015-02-26T03:55:25Z")
> [@Rachellelogram](#): > > What happens when the wolf/dingo starts teething? 😮 Same as happens when a human baby starts teething, or when a puppy nursing from the bitch starts teething – they learn pretty quickly not to bite the nipple that’s feeding you, or you go hungry. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2015, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humans-nursed-wolf-cubs/572573/27 "2015-02-26T04:15:20Z")
Cat nursing ducklings: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/YlqTHhdCQko/hqdefault.jpg "Cat nurses Ducklings") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlqTHhdCQko) ---
**Author:** ![Whatever4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@Whatever4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whatever4)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2015, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humans-nursed-wolf-cubs/572573/28 "2015-02-26T06:46:48Z")
A female goat is a doe. A baby female goat is a doeling. A male goat is buck. Baby male goat is a buckling. Ignoring the sex, baby goats are kids. Nanny in my experience is a doe who is nursing a kid or two or more. A castrated male is called a wether – I think that applies to sheep as well. Now aren’tcha glad I stayed up late? 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humans-nursed-wolf-cubs/572573.md?page=1)