I feel like bears is the most obvious answer. In this scenario it would have started thousands of years ago. We’d have dozens/hundreds of breeds with different shapes,sizes and characteristics. What do you think would be the most interesting/cool?
Definitely foxes and some others already mentioned. Maybe ringtails. In my region we call them ‘cacomixtle’ which sounds cacophonic (and cute). They’re like raccoon-cats.
I still think a fox is manageable. Cat software running on dog hardware seems…interesting
Maybe a large seal species. Something to ride in the water, but that could still come on land and fall asleep by the fire.
The Liger. It’s pretty much my favorite animal.
I couldn’t afford to feed a Liger
Red panda
Giraffes of course.
Silly question.
People
I think that’s just called a sub.
we already have consumers.
yes I’m criticizing myself too.
Hmm, I would say a monkey would be an obvious choice since they can manipulate objects and do all kinds of things, are also fluffy/cuddly, and there’s a potential for two-way communication. Possibly an ape, though it would be bigger–maybe too big and not as cute, and it could easily kill you if things don’t go well.
Lowland gorillas are the new pitbull.
Quokka of course.
Not domestication per se, but we should teach our ape cousins how to control fire and develop technology. Ascend, my brethren! Come and join your furless kin! Reach out your hands and grasp the tools that are your salvation! Reject the weakness of your flesh!
Ook
Foxes, Wombats, cats.
Give
Me
Giant
Pet
Salticids
Yeah but if they turned on you that would be fucking horrific
I like to think that jumping spiders could easily kill us with their bites, but they’re simply too sweet to even think about attacking us
This applies to my hypothetical giant spider puppies
Large birds, so they could take us flying. It would solve transportation issues and by doing so, get rid of commutes, make housing more affordable due to ease of transport from more places and be so cool.
Which birds see large enough for a person to fly on?
Have you never seen Rescuers Down Under? A golden eagle obviously!
Oh, are we doing realism in this hypothetical scenario that suggests bears is a good domestication option, lol?
I’d probably go pterodactyl if no giant eagles or falcons are big enough to carry humans. I assume they are not, given other large birds like emus and cassowarys are land based.
My school’s motto was “think bigger”
Who said anything about just one bird? :D
Having a school of birds lift you off to work on Halloween would be a thing I’d splurge on
Raccoons are cool. They seem to be in the early stages of self-domestication, which is probably how we got cats.
There was a video being shared by someone who studies raccoons.
The tl;dr was they are too smart and tend to hold grudges to become domestic.
Still, they would be cool pets.
Hi I really like raccoons but have not seen this video. Do you have a link to this video?
I found the channel. It is all about raccoons.
This is the video that I saw: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxgUOQRFjh8
(And this one is also à propos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E181sIZhhfA)
Thank you! Have a [raccoons photo] (https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/4cd579d3-be4b-488e-9131-74d4810a9006.jpeg)
Even better, if after their domestication they were still smart and resistant enough to not fall into the hands of owners that treat them like toys.
This argument is always so silly. Domestication is the process of changing animals so they become more suitable to living with humans. The fact that wild animals aren’t domesticated and therefore have traits that are problematic for that is tautological.
2 points:
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Quolls, in Australia, are apparently about the same smarts as raccoons: you have to childproof EVERYTHING in a house they’re living-in. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quoll ( the article I’d read pointed-out that they’re endangered BECAUSE people can’t have them as pets, whereas cats aren’t endangered & are pets )
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grudge-holding may not be amendable, through breeding-program.
_ /\ _
Pretty much any behavioral trait is changeable through natural or artificial selection. That includes intelligence. Actually it’s pretty clear that part of domestication for dogs was making them less intelligent.
Some species may take longer, and it’s generally a slow process. I doubt these animals will be domesticated during our lifetimes but in the future who knows?
Actually it’s pretty clear that part of domestication for dogs was making them less intelligent.
Had a Mastiff. Can confirm.
Actually it’s pretty clear that part of domestication for dogs was making them less intelligent.
There was a scientific study run in the US comparing the behavior of wolves and dogs.
Within 2 days, the scientists had to add a lock to the door of the wolf enclosure because the wolves had learned by watching them how to open the door and escaped. The dogs kept the same simple door latch throughout the entire experiment and never escaped.
This dog begs to differ!
So our beloved man’s best friend are just derived from the dumbest of the wolves?
Kind of…
The domestication of dogs brought out a lot of neoteny traits – juvenile traits retained into adulthood. Our beloved man’s best friend are derived from wolves that never fully grew up and instead remained puppy-like for their entire lives. This makes them smaller, friendlier, more submissive, and easier to train (among other things) … but it also does make them a bit stupider.
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you just described cats
Ha. True! I do have one revenge-seeker living under my roof!
They can be very cat like too. Super chill one minute, total asshats the next
I looked into this a while back and it seems that keeping one as a pet is a full day job.
Right. They are not yet domesticated to the level of companion animals and trying to keep one as a pet now is a bad idea.
Yeah, my grandfather raised one when I was a kid. It was fine until it was grown, then it got bitey and he turned I loose on his property.
It only takes one day? Sign me up!
I personally get freaked out by animals with human like hands.
I would love having a squirrel as pet. Unfortunately most squirrel types don’t do well in captivity because they are too anxious. I nursed a baby squirrel once as a volunteer and it would just sleep in my shirt pocket or bra and be the cutest little thing until it was old enough to start learning to be a wild squirrel.
Username checks out
I think I’m going to side with you on this one. They start out calm enough, simple feeding and housing requirements, they can’t hurt you as much as some of these larger animals, and most don’t seem to get too bad an attitude even as adults unless they’re cornered. Honestly my biggest problem would be them going to the bathroom everywhere and in places not readily accessible to clean. Eww.
We tried to keep squirrels as pets for more than 2 years. Couldn’t hold them ever. Eventually we just opened the door to the pen and it was a squirrel hotel for years. Watched lots of little babies come out of that thing.
I hope they were native squirrels! The netherlands almost had an escaped-pet-turned-invasive-species problem because some imported squirrels escaped.
They were native. It was still illegal. Originally what happened is a pair of squirrels lost their parents and literally wouldn’t stop trying to crawl all over us whenever we went outside. So we planned on keeping them safe for a little bit. My mom got attached. Then they got out once and came back so we just left the door open. Eventually they got bored of that “hotel” and just stopped coming around altogether.
