Potential domesticates

fraa Jad

Foxes have been domesticated, and bears also. I've encounetered domesticated bears myself (and wild ones also, but only passingly). As DValdron mentioned, bears are not carnivores, only circumstantially -- they are less carnivorous than humans -- they are usually, with the exception of polar bears, typically omnivorous. EDIT: Horses are not exclusively herbivores either.
 
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Skraea

Hedgehogs would be interesting. They are kept as pets and are quite predatory.
I'm beginning to wonder about takins, tahrs, serows and gorals. All are from the same family as goats and sheep and might would have potential. Remember, not just taurine cattle were domesticated historically, but also the yak, water buffalo, gaur into gayal, banteng and possibly nilgai and eland. In other words, most bovids have the potential.
Even the ornery Cape buffalo might have potential through (many) generations of selective breeding and culling.
Bison would be difficult, but on the same level as the aurochs. And there's some interesting extinct varieties in both Europe and North America,
Ptarmigan would be a good arctic fowl to domesticate.
Sugar gliders are kept as pets, so maybe more of the possums have potential.
Ball pythons are fairly docile for snakes and have interesting color morphs.
I'm unsure if they were around by the time of humans, but domesticated machairodonts would be sweet.
 

Mario

Elephant birds from Madagascar would have been a good option as they would have been easy to tame and produced really big eggs.
 

Jabroni of the Earth

Crazy idea.

Dolphins.


Hear me out. So we know that dolphins and humans are capable of cooperative fishing as several villages and communities do cooperative fishing with there local pods.

What if seafaring people like say the Polynesians did that consistently with a large number of pods for a long time. Maybe the dolphins could also help with navigation and stuff. Dolphins are really smart. They have social hierarchies we could take advantage of.
 
Comte de Dordogne

Comte de Dordogne

Jabroni of the Earth said:
Crazy idea.

Dolphins.


Hear me out. So we know that dolphins and humans are capable of cooperative fishing as several villages and communities do cooperative fishing with there local pods.

What if seafaring people like say the Polynesians did that consistently with a large number of pods for a long time. Maybe the dolphins could also help with navigation and stuff. Dolphins are really smart. They have social hierarchies we could take advantage of.
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I'd love to see Pacific islands confronting each other while riding dolphins on the ocean.
 

Skraea

Let's take a look at marsupials and monotremes, shall we? These are my thoughts, if anyone feels different than feel free to contradict me with reasons otherwise.
Koala= A big no-go. Not only due to the fact that their diet is highly specialized (akin to the giant pandas dependency on bamboo, but
even more so), they're also colossal assholes with very little to bring to the table.

Wombat= Hard to say. They're fairly social and seem to do well in captivity.

Diprotodon= I don't know how they interacted with humans, but a bison sized marsupial seems interesting,

Quokka= Fairly diversified in the vegetation they eat, but nocturnal. Hard to say. Well, they little fear of humans and are approachable, but have a tendency to bite which could be bred out. Possibility,

Quoll= Yes. They're fairly friendly and would fill the verminator niche.


Marsupial tapirs= If they were around at the time of humans, it would be interesting. And I like their shape.

Marsupial lions= Possible. Especially since the thylacine seemed to be tamed easily.

Macropods= Unsure as to how most of them do in captivity, though the wallaby shows greatest promise. Pademelons and rock wallabies as well. Tree kangaroos might do well, but they're tree dwellers,

Gilders= Yes, The sugar-glider does very well in domestication.

Bilby= They would probably do well.

Platypus=Venomous and notoriously difficult to breed in captivity. No-go.

Echidna= More viable than the platypus, but timid.
 
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Skraea

Mario said:
Elephant birds from Madagascar would have been a good option as they would have been easy to tame and produced really big eggs.
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Elephant birds and moas would take a long time to mature with few eggs to compensate for. However, they could be tamed and used as status symbols by royalty much like the Thai white elephant. If elephant birds and moas could be ridden like you can the ostrich, they might serve a purpose in that regard as well. But most of the biggest birds would probably be tamed, not completely domesticated.
 

Skraea

Otto Kretschmer said:
Degus?
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I could see degus. Most hystriacomorphs have great potential for domestication. The guinea pig was domesticated as was the chinchilla, hutias were kept by the Arawak, cane rats are farmed in West Africa and bamboo rats in China. Plus, some like the capybara, paca, agouti and pacarana get to the size of pigs with some extinct caviemorphs the size of bison.
 

AnonymousSauce

Skraea said:
I could see degus. Most hystriacomorphs have great potential for domestication. The guinea pig was domesticated as was the chinchilla, hutias were kept by the Arawak, cane rats are farmed in West Africa and bamboo rats in China. Plus, some like the capybara, paca, agouti and pacarana get to the size of pigs with some extinct caviemorphs the size of bison.
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Wow, real life ROUSes
 
Light Jammings

Light Jammings

Skraea said:
Platypus=Venomous and notoriously difficult to breed in captivity. No-go.
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Perry the platypus.... 😭
Also since we are talking about birds, what about guineafowl?
Their meat was apparently dry and gamey, but their eggs are a lot more richer than that of chickens
 

Skraea

Light Jammings said:
Perry the platypus.... 😭
Also since we are talking about birds, what about guineafowl?
Their meat was apparently dry and gamey, but their eggs are a lot more richer than that of chickens
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Already done. Guinea fowl are domesticated and serve several purposes as meat, bug control and they're loud enough to warn of intruders. I'd like to see more species of waterfowl domesticated, and yes swans are domesticated just that their meat was historically reserved for royalty in medieval Europe. I'd like to see the moa-nalo domesticated in Polynesia, there were giant black swans in Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand that would serve as an excellent source of meat, eggs and feathers. And in North America, both the tundra swan and trumpeter swan would make for good domesticates. They were already eaten and it'd be no problem to clip their wings.
 
Light Jammings

Light Jammings

Skraea said:
Already done. Guinea fowl are domesticated and serve several purposes as meat, bug control and they're loud enough to warn of intruders. I'd like to see more species of waterfowl domesticated, and yes swans are domesticated just that their meat was historically reserved for royalty in medieval Europe. I'd like to see the moa-nalo domesticated in Polynesia, there were giant black swans in Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand that would serve as an excellent source of meat, eggs and feathers. And in North America, both the tundra swan and trumpeter swan would make for good domesticates. They were already eaten and it'd be no problem to clip their wings.
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Oh.
Anyway, has anyone in the thread heard of this? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cacomistle
This animal could be what cats are to ancient farmers... That being getting rid of vermin but otherwise staying the exact same XD
 

DG Valdron

Pesterfield said:
Could they be bred to produce more eggs?
I think chickens didn't start as an egg a day.
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Actually they did. Red Junglefowl in Bamboo forests of south asia. The thing with bamboo forests is that they experience periodic universal growth and shedding based on unpredictable climate and environmental factors. So unpredictably, there are periods where there's lots and lots and lots of food, and long periods where there's not much. So when there's lots of food, the Junglefowl lays eggs and keeps on laying eggs, until food dries up. What this means is that with the domestic chicken, as long as you make sure it's eating steadily, it'll keep laying eggs.

Most other birds will lay only a few eggs once a year, in the appropriate season, and then invest a lot of time and energy into nests and making sure the hatchlings survive so that by the end of season, the chicks will have a chance.

Only a few birds are relatively steady egg layers, and it comes down to survival strategies.

Maybe you could breed Aeropyrnis (sic) into a steady egg layer. But I think it would be uphill.
 

Skraea

Alright, let's look at lagomorphs. The European rabbit is the source for domestic rabbits and there's a ton of domestic rabbit breeds. However, it's stated that the Cliff Dwellers or Ancestral Puebloans might've practiced cuniculture and European rabbits would not be the source for that. So let's look at some alternates...................................
Pygmy rabbit=Smallest leporid, but able to breed at a year. Doubtful due to their size, unless they could be bred up.
Volcano rabbit=Second smallest leporid, specialized diet, but can breed in captivity.
Riverine rabbit= only has one offspring, yet are beneficial to farmers.
Hispid hare=Not much known.
Striped rabbit=same
Bunyoro rabbit= nocturnal, stable, hunted by locals. Unsure.
Red rock hare=small litters, can breed at a year old and year round.
Cottontails= Varied, since there are at least 20 species. Although some, like the marsh rabbit, swamp rabbit and desert cottontail show greater potential than others. Bonus for the disease fanboys here in that they're carriers of myxomatosis, Or at least show greater resistance than their European kin. Also have sizable litters and mature fast.
European hares= Among the largest of the leporids, is hunted and eaten throughout Europe and breeds very easily. Also a little violent and among the fastest mammals around.
Antelope jackrabbit=Large, tough, can breed easily, was hunted for food and pelt. Possibility?
Snowshoe hare=Nocturnal, cannibalistic?. Well, it might be a decent micro-livestock in northern climes.
Arctic hares= Don't fare well in captivity. Unknown about the mountain hare or tundra hare.
Basically, hares are larger than rabbits though faster and has less meat on them. All of them were at one time or another hunted for meat and pelts. Another use for domestication might be wool. There are breeds of domestic rabbits used for that purpose, so more leporids domesticated for fibers would be interesting.
 

Skraea

Continuing from last thread
Black-tailed jackrabbit= Sizable, will approach human habitat. Meat is usually not eaten, but if domesticated then selective breeding might take care of parasites.
White-sided jackrabbits=Less disease ridden?
Cape hare=main predator is cheetah
Tehuantepec jackrabbit= unsure
Black jackrabbit=needs more data
Scrub hare=unsure
Desert hare=stable population
Tolai hare=used for medical purposes. Maybe
Broom hare=unsure
Yunnan hare= small litters, so probably not worth the effort
Korean hare=unknown
Corsican hare=possibility
Granada hare=unsure
Manchurian hare=possibility
Woolly hare=potential
Ethiopian hare=data deficient
Ethiopian highland hare=small litter
White-tail jackrabbit=possible
Savanna hare=unsure
Japanese hare=Unsure, tho stable.
Chinese hare=unsure
Abyssinian hare=unsure
Burmese hare=possible. More data than on the Hainan or Indian hare at least.

As for extinct species well, you have the Minorcan giant rabbit that was evidently goat sized, If it survived to the time of humans and was domesticated, that'd be a huge carcass.
 
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