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You have to check out two new episodes of NOVA on PBS called "Dog Tales" and "Cat Tales". Fascinating scientific information about the evolution of domestic animals from their wild ancestors and their unique relationship with humans.
For example, when animals are specifically bred for domestication (lack of aggression to humans) it also changes their appearance and other physical traits. Dogs are not smarter than wolves. Dogs are just so much easier to train because dopamine production makes them receive almost as much pleasure from human praise as from food. They are actually physically wired to be "man's best friend".
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So is this why we see everyone riding around on zebras and having a good ol African time? After all, zebras are closely related to horses and yet not domesticated. Large cats are very seldom domesticated either. Now granted that some wolves have been domesticated, but certain species do not lend themselves readily to domestication. You would think we could domesticate deer and harvest them the same as cattle, but they're not readily domesticated. There seems to be a few blips in the program here. Perhaps it has to do more with natural dopamine production than anything we stupid humans have ever accomplished. I reckon dopamine production is what it boils down to, but whatddoIknow? I'm not a animal psychologist nor biologist.
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(02-13-2020, 11:26 PM)grampahol Wrote: Perhaps it has to do more with natural dopamine production than anything we stupid humans have ever accomplished. I reckon dopamine production is what it boils down to, but whatddoIknow? I'm not a animal psychologist nor biologist.
With dogs it had to do with natural selection. Humans did not make the wolves hang out with them. Instead wolves started hanging out with people to eat their scraps and leftovers. The ones that were less aggressive towards humans became closer. Eventually humans and dogs began working together on the hunt. Dogs would help find and track the game and humans would help kill it.
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I'm glad I clicked on this.
Considering the OP, I was a little worried this might be a beastiality thread ...
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It was very informative. Definitely answered some questions you may have about how dogs evolved from wolves, and what makes them different from them.
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Ehhh..I'd be too broke in another week plus I'd have to go back to Walmart. I still have one left over in the fridge. I usually try to avoid standing in line at Walmart if at all possible.
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Chicago sounds rough to the maker of verse, but the one comfort we have is Cincinnati sounds worse. ~Oliver Wendal Holmes Sr.
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