stratego
Trying to be good.
I've read somewhere that the last animal we domesticated was over 1000 years ago. Why don't we domesticate any others. Is it because wild animals we have today can not be tamed, or do we just not try anymore.
Domesticating Animals
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Mescalhead
Vincebus Eruptum
I don't see any reason that we would actively domesticate animals. Now it will come in the form of gene tailoring (spider-silk goat-milk). And of course what the extensive urban development of the last 200 years will do to local animals, will remain to be seen. Anything that would require an animal in earlier times could probably be more than substituted by something automated.
h4ppy
You sir, pineapple?
Alligators and Buffallo. 
Loaf Warden
(no party affiliation)
We pretty much domesticated every animal that can be domesticated. The others are too wild to domesticate. As cool as it would have been to see African warriors riding into battle on zebras and lions, or an elite Inuit cavalry conquering their neighbors from mooseback, these animals just weren't possible to domesticate.
Some animals can be tamed individually, but that's not the same thing. You can have a pet tiger, and even play around with it. But you'll never fully domesticate it. Even if you raised it from birth, you'll never get it to the point where you can safely turn your back on it. Most animals are too wild for complete domestication.
Some animals can be tamed individually, but that's not the same thing. You can have a pet tiger, and even play around with it. But you'll never fully domesticate it. Even if you raised it from birth, you'll never get it to the point where you can safely turn your back on it. Most animals are too wild for complete domestication.
Drewcifer
Agent of Karma
We are probably some generations away from fully domesticating the bison but I think it is only a matter of time. They are too ideally suited for ranching on the northern plains of this continent for it not to happen. They taste good, have less fat than chicken, don't get BSE and don't die of exposure when it is -30 F the way cows do.
I don't think the alligator will ever be truely domesticated. They are too primitive. Just because they are farmed doesn't mean they aren't still dangerous wild animals.
I don't think the alligator will ever be truely domesticated. They are too primitive. Just because they are farmed doesn't mean they aren't still dangerous wild animals.
hsiehtm
Chieftain
Weren't Turkeys domesticated less than 1000 years ago? Domestic animals are always much genetically mcuh different than a wild animal due to breeding. If people do decide to domesticate a tiger, the end result is a tiger that is physically much different than a wild tiger.
Ossric
Hedonistic Ruler
Why? Domesticated cats look similar to wild cats
Aphex_Twin
Evergreen
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Any animal can be "domesticated" to some degree. Hey, fleas can.
Drewcifer
Agent of Karma
What do domesticated killer whales do?
I wonder what killer whale cheese tastes like.
Killer whales are dogs. Their natural social instincts are precisely like those of wolves, so this is really old ground for us. They do for us whatever dogs would, in a whale's body: leap, beg, sing, haul things around and fetch and so forth. They're less liable to ...snap... than domestic cats.
If we'd known sooner how easily killer whales domesticate, they'd have been fine companions in the baleen whale fishery, before sonar.
Maybe there's yet some use for them besides being the star attractions at aquariums.
If we'd known sooner how easily killer whales domesticate, they'd have been fine companions in the baleen whale fishery, before sonar.
Maybe there's yet some use for them besides being the star attractions at aquariums.
EdwardTking
Deity
Blasphemy. Domesticated cats do not exist. There are
merely smart cats that have domesticated humans.
Live humans are too big for cats to eat. If you
shrank to mouse size, your cat would eat you.
Aphex_Twin
Evergreen
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Remind me not to take in a tiger as a pet, ETKing 
HighlandWarrior
Mr Political Analyser
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american indians domesticated turkeys over 1000 years ago
We haven't really had any need to domesticate more animals. The stuff still out there (big cats and etc) wouldn't really serve any purpose except for amusement. In the last 150 years the true need for domesticated animals (those that do work- horse, mule, etc) has dropped more and more. In the "modernized" parts of the world, domesticated animals really only exist today as pets or otherwise for amusement.
There are nearly no animals out there that we would want to domesticate really. I mean we have other animals that fullfill our needs just as much as the animals that are not domesticated. I think its better for some animals to be preserved as much as possible and not domesticated.
Some navies and specialised industries employ aquatic mammals like dolphins and seals. These working animals are very domesticated.
If we'd kept up with carrier pigeons, they'd still be useful now coupled with new technologies, like tiny cameras. Imagine the military or search-and-rescue application of saturating an area (like a forest) with small trained birds bearing little broadcasting video cameras.
EDIT: A couple more recent additions.
Honeybees, I think. Did we keep bees 1000 years ago in man-made hives as today? The picky intimacy of our management must qualify this as domestication, more than herds of cattle even.
Leaf-cutter bees are a brand-new acquisition. For those unfamiliar with these specialised insects: The leaf-cutter bee lives to clip and carry home leaves of a certain size and shape. They may be raised in vast batteries, released at key moments upon fields of young plants. In this way an entire field may be pruned such that every single plant grows very differently - and more productively -than if left to branch out naturally. The batteries of leaf-cutters are trucked from farm to farm, doing real work at our discretion.
If we'd kept up with carrier pigeons, they'd still be useful now coupled with new technologies, like tiny cameras. Imagine the military or search-and-rescue application of saturating an area (like a forest) with small trained birds bearing little broadcasting video cameras.
EDIT: A couple more recent additions.
Honeybees, I think. Did we keep bees 1000 years ago in man-made hives as today? The picky intimacy of our management must qualify this as domestication, more than herds of cattle even.
Leaf-cutter bees are a brand-new acquisition. For those unfamiliar with these specialised insects: The leaf-cutter bee lives to clip and carry home leaves of a certain size and shape. They may be raised in vast batteries, released at key moments upon fields of young plants. In this way an entire field may be pruned such that every single plant grows very differently - and more productively -than if left to branch out naturally. The batteries of leaf-cutters are trucked from farm to farm, doing real work at our discretion.
