Basically in the past they were able to tame/control elephants and us them in battle but why not a rhino or a hippo?
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Intelligence. Elephants are far more intelligent than rhinos and hippos, and are therefore readily tameable. A rhino/hippo simply wouldn’t follow along with the reward/repeat cycle of taming very well!
Herd animals are just much more easier to tame, they follow a leader in nature already, we just make sure they see us as the leader. This can be done by giving them rewards such as extra food and making them trust us.
We also get to take into account the natural disposition of animals. Horses, for example, run away when scared or threatened. Zebras kick the shit out of everything. Horses run because they can outrun their predators on an open field. Zebras get ambushed by crocodill, so they try and kick the attacker away.
If humans attempt to tame a zebra, they will likely end up kicking you to death before you make much progress. Horses will run away, we can work with that.
Apply that same thing to rhinos and hippos, their first instinct is to trample/bite/impale you to death. We may eventually get to taming them, but i sure as heck wont be the one to try.
Technically we can tame any creature (if it have brain of course), but hippos and rhinos are just to aggressive and stupid to make it worth, elephants on the other side are quite smart and docile to humans. Some studies says that they even see as as cute (at least the tamed ones) :). Basically the smarter creature is the easier it is to tame because it understand quicker that if it behave in expected way it will get food, shelter and protection.
For starters, both the animals you’ve listed *have* been tamed because they live in zoos and interact with/are cared for by humans. They’re not domesticated but they’re able to be peaceful and interact with humans.
You’re also presupposing that that we haven’t because we can’t and not because we simply don’t want to. Elephants are useful work animals for humans in some parts of the world. They’re very intelligent, strong, and can carry a lot of weight. Those are all traits that make them useful in parts of the world where they’re found.Rhinos and hippos are just *not* useful for humans. Hippos are mean, aggressive, and spend much of their time being lazy in the water. They’re just not useful to humans. And in the area here rhinos live, there just wasn’t ever any need for a large animal like that.
A substantial number of animals are just not worth taming. All of the animals we’ve domesticated serve very specific purposes in hunting, transportation, agriculture, or labor.
Notice also that the animals we have domesticated are generally easy to transport and control.
There is basically no value to taming a rhinoceros. What would be the benefit?
The cost/benefit isn’t good, so it wasn’t done.
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