Cuāuhtemōc
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What if straight-tusked elephants have survived in Europe and Europeans have learned to tame some of them early on?
Europeans tame straight-tusked elephants
- Thread starter Cuāuhtemōc
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unprincipled peter
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Forget that. what if eskimos had tamed penguins? That would be so cute watching the iditorod with sled pulled by tuxedo's on their bellies.
They were part of interglacial megafauna, which during glacials retreated to warmer refugias in Iberia etc. If they'd have somehow survived, they wouldnt have problems to live in temperate forests across eurasia (their fossils are known from Britain to Japan, if Paleoloxodon antiquus, P. namadicus and P. naumani were same species).
Also http://phenomena.nationalgeographic...e-extinction-of-the-straight-tusked-elephant/
Also, elephants werent domesticated and Pinguinus impennis, altrough important part of many native american cultures, would make poor draft animal.
Eskimos might have problems taming Penguins since they are only found from Galapagos south. The do cross the equator by a few miles on Fernandina Island. Of course, the original Penguin was the Great Auk whose epitaph is that of many an extinct creature "they sure tasted good!". The Eskimos did eat them
The horsepower of elephants means that few animals are needed for work, but that large tracts of wild are necessary to maintain a wild population of elephants from which babies can be taken and tamed. To maintain this workforce, European civilization ends up highly fragmented, with large forests cultivated through controlled burns. Fewer domestic animals are kept, since the elephants provide labor and their winter coats are used as wool. With fewer domestic animals (and the elephants not kept in close quarters with people) and small, fragmented populations, Europe does not end up becoming an area with many endemic diseases and falls behind on technologies such as the wheel and metallurgy. Eventually, Europeans are enslaved or ethnically cleansed en masse by African, Asian, and American invaders. These invaders have the advantage of inadvertent bioweapons in the form of pandemic diseases, metal weapons and armor, and societies which are unitary and therefore more capable of/more experienced with the long term military strategy necessary for successful invasion and occupation.
I have to agree with twovultures's post for the most part except Europeans becoming enslaved en mass, or being ethnically cleansed, as that would be a horrible and devastating idea for any invading forces, assuming this is before the modern era, in addition, ethnic cleansing could not take place to an effective extent even if it was attempted. Biological Dangers would not have taken the same extent as people from the Old World had on the Native Americans, since Europe would have probably had some connection with Africa and Asia through trade, assuming they aren't already immune due to the former.
I would also say that realistically, these elephants would've probably became extinct as seen of OTL's North African and Syrian elephants, usually being used for war and eventually killed.
I would also say that realistically, these elephants would've probably became extinct as seen of OTL's North African and Syrian elephants, usually being used for war and eventually killed.
Now this is an interesting WI.
@twovultures Are we sure that, if straight-tusked elephants had hair, they'd be of wool-producing quality? Very few mammals have fur that can be spun into wool. Elephant hair could likely be far too coarse (and mostly stiff, rough guard hairs) to be of any use.
I'm not sure how the fragmentation scenario is likely. India had tamed elephants, and they were home to one of the earliest civilizations, large empires and good technological progress.
@twovultures Are we sure that, if straight-tusked elephants had hair, they'd be of wool-producing quality? Very few mammals have fur that can be spun into wool. Elephant hair could likely be far too coarse (and mostly stiff, rough guard hairs) to be of any use.
I'm not sure how the fragmentation scenario is likely. India had tamed elephants, and they were home to one of the earliest civilizations, large empires and good technological progress.
I didn't really write that bit meaning to be taken seriously-I was just poking fun at the assumptions of the "domesticate the mammoth/elephant" threads/wondering what it would take for Europe to actually keep elephants around to use.
Frankly, those straight-tusked elephants are probably quite doomed even if they survive the initial pleistocene extinctions. Outside of malarial areas and dense jungles, humans are going to be too thick on the ground for elephants to survive.