Which is better (don't just vote, discuss too)


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You can make this exact same argument with caribou except that dogs are smaller and more used to being around people.

And horses and oxen. The only way to multiply horsepower was to put bigger teams together, up to four horses to a carriage. Still, the more animals you have to wrangle, the more difficult it is to wrangle. Do the math, it's no an irrelevant factor.

Or look up Goe's Animal traction guidelines, and start doing comparative calculations. I'm travelling, but if this thread continues I can probably find a link.

Aha, here we goe (pun)

http://eprints.icrisat.ac.in/8569/1/RP_00915_Animal_Traction....pdf

You want to focus on pages 13 to 37. Lots of interesting stuff there in terms of different animals.

One thing which Goe point out at page 13 is that efficiency declines the more animals you use in a team. They don't really go into the reasons for this, and it's confined to assessments within a species, not between species. The efficiency decline can be partially addressed, I think, with effective harnesses and management. But the reality is that the more animals you use, the more there is an efficiency cost.

Don't underestimate how expensive dogs are too feed, particularly in numbers. In small numbers, or in special environments like the arctic, you can make it with dog labour. But if you were to seek the numbers of dogs you'd need to match the horsepower of a grass eater, on a wide scale.... well, that would go far, far beyond the available surpluses.
 
Um, wouldn't either of those be horrible for most climates? I thought reindeer would be the best considering they're capable of living in such conditions they'd be used in.

Horses and Cattle are indeed horrible for a great many climates, but they were early key domesticates, and many societies worked hard to extend their range and maintain their species beyond their normal habitat. An example were Norse, who invested huge social capital into building barns and cultivating and harvesting hay.

There are three Asian Domesticates (apart from Reindeer/Caribou) that emerged in extreme climates where Horses and Cattle just had too much trouble coping - the Water Buffalo in Southeast Asia (also semi-sort of - the Indian Elephant), the Yak in Tibetan Highlands, and the Camel in Desert.
 
Looking across the European Tundra where both dogs and reindeer have been domesticated the choice has been the reindeer. In North America the caribou has not been domesticated in the same manner whilst dogs were so they went with dogs.

The implication is that Caribou/reindeer are the superior choice where you can feed caribou/reindeer. North of that the dog is the only choice. So the answer is reindeer/caribou is best until you get north of the sources of vegetable food.

People choose reindeer/caribou when they can and dogs when they cannot. So there is no one answer to give to the poll but the reindeer/caribou have the edge.

How long before a pedant mentions that the reindeer are herded but not domesticated?
 
I like sled dogs,but reindeer seem better. You can ride reindeer which the Saami does and there are reindeer riding races throughout Lapland and Siberia. I don't know any sled dog breed that could be ridden,not even the Malamute. Ideally tho,there should be both. Sled dogs for the faster lighter sleds, and reindeer for both the heavier sleighs and to ride.
 
Looking across the European Tundra where both dogs and reindeer have been domesticated the choice has been the reindeer. In North America the caribou has not been domesticated in the same manner whilst dogs were so they went with dogs.

The proto-Inuit likely carried over the technology of dog domestication and dog sledding from Siberia, when they crossed three thousand years ago.

How long before a pedant mentions that the reindeer are herded but not domesticated?

I'd regard that as unreasonably pedantic. The Reindeer are as domesticated as the local social-economic matrix will allow.
 
The proto-Inuit likely carried over the technology of dog domestication and dog sledding from Siberia, when they crossed three thousand years ago.
Does suggest that the proto-Inuit came from the high north beyond Reindeer tundra. The culture of Reindeer herding does not seem to have crossed over. Perhaps too far south and having to cross water. You can put a dog in a Yumiak but not a live reindeer. Caribou, like the North American horse, seems to have been labeled as dinner not as transport.
 
Does suggest that the proto-Inuit came from the high north beyond Reindeer tundra. The culture of Reindeer herding does not seem to have crossed over. Perhaps too far south and having to cross water. You can put a dog in a Yumiak but not a live reindeer. Caribou, like the North American horse, seems to have been labeled as dinner not as transport.

I believe that the proto-Inuit came over the Bering straight when it was frozen or easily traversable. I'm not sure if they had Umiaks or Kayaks then. Reindeer herding may not have existed that early - about 3000 years ago. Alternately, the culture may have been too far north for reindeer herding, which seems most common among subarcticans.
 
I like sled dogs,but reindeer seem better. You can ride reindeer which the Saami does and there are reindeer riding races throughout Lapland and Siberia. I don't know any sled dog breed that could be ridden,not even the Malamute. Ideally tho,there should be both. Sled dogs for the faster lighter sleds, and reindeer for both the heavier sleighs and to ride.

The northern caribou are too small to ride. A child perhaps could, but a grown man would kill the poor creature.
 
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