WI : domestification/herding of Sirenians

Neirdak

Banned
Reading the thread named "Hippo farming in the USA?", I just had an idea. What if humans domesticated or herded sea cows?

Manatees are gentle and slow-moving. Most of their time is spent eating, resting, and in travel. They may rest submerged at the bottom or just below the surface, coming up to breathe on the average of every three to five minutes. When manatees are using a great deal of energy, they may surface to breathe as often as every 30 seconds. They would be easy to herd. They are also herbivorous.

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manatee
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirenia

In the past, manatees could be found worldwide and even in Mediterranean Sea.

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dugong
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazonian_manatee
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Indian_manatee
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_manatee

You even had this huge behemoth of 10 tons.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steller's_sea_cow


:)
 
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slow breeders

"Although female West Indian manatees are mostly solitary creatures, they form mating herds while in estrus. Most females first breed successfully between ages of seven and nine; they are, however, capable of reproduction as early as four years of age. The gestation period (pregnancy) lasts from 12 to 14 months. Normally, one calf is born, although on rare occasions two have been recorded. The young are born with molars, allowing them to consume sea grass within the first three weeks of birth. On average, manatees that survive to adulthood will have between five and seven offspring between the ages of 20 and 26. When a calf is born, it usually weighs between 60 and 70 pounds and is between 4.0 and 4.5 feet long. The family unit consists of mother and calf, which remain together for up to two years. Males aggregate in mating herds around a female when she is ready to mate, but contribute no parental care to the calf."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Indian_manatee

It takes too long to and too many to build a sustainable herd not to mention that for most of their year they are solitary and not herding animals.

A domesticated food animal should be one that forms herds in nature and reproduces at a reasonable rate, reaching sexual maturity relatively quickly, otherwise you are eating them faster than they can reproduce.
 
Slow breeders. Phildup got it in one.

Also, really really specialized habitat.

Hypothetically, you could get domestication, but you'd need a culture without better alternatives.

The Taino of the Caribbean domesticated a microlivestock, and hunted sirenians. It's not out of the question that they might have, with the right circumstances, tried to domesticate or at least manage the sirenian population.

As I said, they didn't have a lot of better alternatives. The only large animal of the Antilles, a ground sloth, had been hunted to extinction previously.
 
I remember reading somewhere that the meat is not very palatable, with even the slaves refusing to eat it. So there's another reason not to farm with it.
 
Aren't there ethnic groups in Southeast Asia who live entirely or almost entirely on water? I vaguely remember reading something about a people in Indonesia who lived on boats, moving from island to island and setting up makeshift villages offshore. Sort of water nomads. It seems to me something like that would be the best bet to domesticate sirenians out of a lack of other options.
 
DValdron actually had an almost domestication of the Stellar's Sea Cow for his Lands of Ice and Mice TL. The Thule never actually domesticated them, but did tame some individuals and reintroduced them to an area where they had previously gone extinct.
 
DValdron actually had an almost domestication of the Stellar's Sea Cow for his Lands of Ice and Mice TL. The Thule never actually domesticated them, but did tame some individuals and reintroduced them to an area where they had previously gone extinct.

It's really difficult to domesticate sea mammals for obvious reasons. The best you could do would be to manage and manipulate the species a little bit.
 
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