Why do animals like lions and tigers sometimes “forget” about their previous owners but dogs don’t have that instinct to kill them?
In: Biology
Wild animals don’t become tame. They learn to tolerate people. They learn that you’re a source of food, they learn that you’re not a threat, they learn you are something they can tolerate.
The thing about tolerance is that it can end. Sometimes it can end real quick over things that a person doesn’t even realise they did.
I have an uncle who cares for reptiles of all kinds. He’s quite knowledgeable and provides zoos with advice. About fifteen years ago he got attacks and completely tore up by some large monitors that he’d been taking care of for years.
Normally those monitors were completely docile around him. The day he got attacked he was bending over near a bucket of raw chicken he was about to feed to the lizards. The angle between him, the lizards and the buckets was such that they perceived him as competition for the food. A mistake that cost him about 400 stitches.
Dogs have thousands of generations of selective breeding to get rid of any undesirable qualities. The big difference between a dog and a wolf is that a dog is selectively bred to crave your approval. A wolf doesn’t give a fuck what you think and if you cross a line with a wolf it will step up in a way your dog won’t even consider.
Latest Answers