Eli5: Why can’t you make a pet out of a wolf, a bear or a lion?
In: Biology
Wolves, bears, and lions are dangerous because they are wild animals that could hunt and kill you. They are wild, their mommy and daddy were wild, and their grandma and grampa were wild too. So it is in their blood to be wild and hunt people.
Dogs and cats are not wild animals. They are pets and are nice to humans. Their mommies and daddies were nice to humans and their grandma and grampa before that. It’s in their blood to be nice to humans.
A long long time ago someone was nice to a wild wolf and wanted to be friends with it. That wolf was less mean than other wolves but it was still dangerous. But people kept trying. When that wild wolf had puppies, they took the nicest one of those puppies and trained it, but it was still mostly wild. Then that wolf had puppies and they again took the nicest one to try and train. After many years and lots of puppies, eventually they had a dog who wasn’t wild anymore and who was nice to people. It takes many generations to get an animal to stop acting wild.
Domestication is a genetic level change. You *can* make a pet out of a wolf… it just takes thousands of generations spanning several thousand years, and turns the wolf into a husky. Or a pug.
Probably not the answer you’re looking for but anyway, idk about other animals but wolves/wolf mixes are super fearful about new stuff.
My uncle owned a wolf malamute mix with about 70% wolf and the poor thing was terrified of everything, loud noises cars etc he could tolerate my uncle and his wife and that’s pretty much about it. He had a sorta enclosure on their property where he was as comfortable as he could but whenever anyone came over he would hide and never get out.
Wolves are tricky to keep I guess.
wolves specifically ‘could’ be a pet. the main problem there is that by nature wolves are super social and understand their position and all that, but they are also constantly on the alert for ANY sign of weakness from their group. say you were walking your pet wolf and you stumble and fall, that wolf notices that as a major red flag. they may even attack you right then to just to test you and if you fail the test its over. wolves do not follow the lame and they see it as a move into higher standing to kill the weak and make the pack stronger
The first dogs were literally wolves which just happened to be friendlier and less aggressive. In a modern setting these early wolves we kept definitely would not be trusted around society. But at that time, if you kept those wolves around and kept feeding them your scraps, eventually they’d get close, let you pet them, maybe start living in your home over the course of months or years. Then, when they birthed some cubs, they would be much more trustworthy, as the cubs would think of you as one of their own. You could then breed the wolves with the friendly, obedient, healthy wolves, whatever trait you need you could breed for that. These wolves could help you track an animal to hunt, protect your tribe from other animals or humans, or simply give you affection, which is why we kept them around. Eventually, over time, these wolves became the various dog breeds that we know of today.
Bears, Tigers and Lions are pets, to a degree. They are raised as cubs, but only the people who were there while they were raised are really the only ones they won’t attack. Mike Tyson had a tiger for example. They haven’t been bred though for favourable traits, and are still massive animals weighing hundreds of pounds and they require huge amounts of meat to maintain them and their health. This is completely unsuitable for a house pet.
You CAN. If you raise a baby wild animal and act like its mother, they will grow up recognizing your face, scent, and most likely develop an attachment to you as their parent. You most likely cannot pet animals that have lived in the wild, if we pick one at random, unless you are very familiar to them and they have learned to trust you.
Domesticating large carnivores would be too difficult, dangerous and is not worth the effort. Let’s compare dogs to bears and lions.
Let’s start with it’s not worth doing. People might want lions and bears for home defense for to guard property but these animals are much harder to contain than a dog. If they get out they’ll kill people. If they’re having a bad day they’ll kill people. Lions view humans as food and bears just don’t wanna deal with you.
In 2023 there was 4.5 million dog bites reported in the United States alone. Those bites resulted in less than 50 fatalities largely because most dogs are small in comparison to humans. The average lion weighs several times more than the average dog, bears can easily be 10 times heavier or more. The size discrepancy between humans and lions or bears means mass death if we started keeping them as pets. Because if you get bit by a 60 pound dog, you probably survive. If you get bit by a 300 pound lion or 800 pound bear you die.
Imagine having a 500 pound male lion or 800 pound grizzly in the backyard down one day at besides your toddler smells delicious. That line is going right through a window and bears are strong enough to tear cars apart. There’s no controlling these animals if they decide to kill you.
I’m wondering, if we have enough zoo life over a long time, will this domesticate them enough to be noticeable in a reasonable time?
Ever wondered why Africa never conquered the world? No cavalry. Zebra, antelope, hippos, rhinos, elephants can’t be domesticated, so Africa never developed a land transport system any better than walking.
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