Just thought I’d go back to the snake issue. I watched a TV program on cobras a while back. They are, of course, wild in Indonesia. The government there is trying to foster a greater usage of cobras in protecting grain storage from rats and mice.
I’d rather use cats, but I guess you use what’s handy.
Dominus ex equo descendit, villamque intravit.
Native Americans in the US and Canada, having no other domestic animals, raised dogs as food animals. In fact, Lewis and Clark sometimes traded for them on their expedition.
Wow, what timing. I’m right in the middle of the bood Guns, Germs, and Steel. In Chapter 9, he talks a lot about why some animals were domesticated while others weren’t. According to this book, dog domestication occured at least twice - once in the Americas, and once is SW Eurasia (Fertile Crescent area, roughly - could be Egypt).
Some of the factors it mentions are diet (dogs and cats can eat stuff found near humans - dogs are actually fairly omnivorous, just look at the ingredients on your next bag of dog food), growth rate - they grow to adulthood quickly enough to make raising them worthwhile, and social structure. Dogs’ (well, wolves’) pack structure is pretty easy to take over. We can make puppies imprint on us as their leader, etc. Cats are really the only domesticated animals that didn’t have this type of ranked social structure, and as any cat owner will tell you, they’re barely domesticated now.
Anyway, it’s an interesting read if you’re interested in this type of thing.
Wow, my thread revived after over 3 months?
WHOOPPEEEE!!!
Anyone want to tackle domesticated parakeets?