Questions tagged [domestication]
For questions about the changes to a species of fauna or flora over multiple generations by intelligent beings, often for the purposes of harnessing the abilities of the species in question, usually through a process of directed breeding. Compare [evolution].
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Is it reasonable that the people of Pandemonium dislike dogs as pets because of their genetics?
The world of Pandemonium is a world in another universe where humans may exist, that is gravitationally connected to Earth in our universe. Over the course of history since the big bang, these ...
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Harness for soft-bodied animal
There is a soft-bodied animal approximately 1m in length. It has a worm-like body with a hydrostatic skeleton, and several pairs of legs that function as muscular hydrostats. Its anatomy has a rather ...
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What would be the easiest way for a fictional civilization to feed carnivorous mounted animals?
Many fictional worlds have their civilizations (usually the bad guys) ride some sort of carnivorous animal, usually something like a wolf or a creodont. Think something like the Wargs from Lord of the ...
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What population would the Americas have if the natives were as advanced as Europeans?
If you check a list of the most densely populated nations, a lot of New World countries are near the bottom and almost no Western Hemisphere nation (excluding small islands) are near the top. The ...
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Would merfolk gain any real advantage from mounts (and beasts of burden)?
In writing my merfolk centric fantasy novel, I've largely ignored any creatures of burden used within their society. Animals of burden were very important in the growth of human civilization, and the ...
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Could advanced Aboriginal Australians have domesticated the Emus/Cassowaries?
In an alternate universe where Eurasia is less advanced and the native peoples of the Americas and Australia build powerful civilizations, what animals could be domesticated that weren't domesticated ...
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Could cavemen domesticate the Tyrannosaurus Rex?
In pop culture, there are ideas that paleolithic humans and dinosaurs lived together. The Flintstones is the most famous example of this idea. This obviously wasn't the case in reality, but what if by ...
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Could the Malagasy domesticate the Dodo bird?
In an alternate universe where other groups explored the world before Europeans, what new animals could have been domesticated? In my alternate history world, the Malagasy that came to Madagascar not ...
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Could medieval Native Americans domesticate the bison?
In an alternate universe where Eurasia is less advanced and the native peoples of the Americas and Australia build powerful civilizations, what animals could be domesticated that weren't domesticated ...
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Koala Domestication
Eucalyptus is known to be responsible for bushfires in extreme heat during summer months in Australia. These wildfires negatively affect the koalas (https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/12/7/more-than-...
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My cows lactate oil instead of milk, how do I stop them from igniting?
Starting off, these domesticated herbivores, much like cows, exist on a terrestrial world 15-20% larger than Earth. With a higher gravity of 11.2 G, Earth-like atmosphere, and if it existed in our ...
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How would domesticated semi-intelligent reptiles differ from mammals?
A common complaint I see about fictional reptiles is that they behave like mammals instead of reptiles. One of my cultures has almost exclusively reptiles (e.g. monitor lizard-like creatures) as pets/...
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Hypothetically, can early humans have an alliance with giant ants? Maybe even assist humans in the agricultural revolution?
Any ant-keeping geeks out there? I know what it's like to keep ants and they are quite fascinating, I was wondering if there were giant ants (their gigantism is due to high O2 levels) could they be ...
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Can I Domesticate [X]
Worldbuilding generates a lot of "Can I domesticate [insert real or fictional creature here]" questions.
This is intended to be a canonical version of that question. I'll self-answer, but ...
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Could Toxodon, Macrauchenia, and Megatherium be Domesticated, and if so, What Would Their Uses be? [closed]
In my book series, there is this huge flat savannah in the tropical north of my continent (it's in the southern hemisphere), very similar to the Brazilian cerrado in terms of plant life and animal ...
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How plausible would apple-sized raspberries be?
In one of my settings, the people have domesticated the wild raspberry plant, and selectively bred it for larger and larger berries. Would it be plausible for these berries to reach the sizes of ...
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Paraceratherium's impact on society, warfare and culture? [closed]
So I'm creating a low fantasy world with numerous discrepancies between theirs and ours, one of those being fauna. Specifically pets, livestock, and beasts of burden.
Many different species that have ...
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How many generations does it take to domesticate plants?
Modern crops have diverged significantly from their wild ancestors over thousands of years of selective breeding. Not all of this was deliberate, e.g. an early adaptation of wheat was for seeds that ...
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Can ferrets substitute for cats as mousers?
House cats are among the oldest domestic animals on Earth. They basically followed domestication of cereals in the Middle East; mice infiltrated human habitation to eat the stored grain, and cats came ...
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Would nomadic mermaids be capable of domesticating fish that they herd?
In my world, most mermaids migrate and have two family groups: A warm-water group and a cold-water group. When the water is cold (winter) the mermaids move down south to warmer waters. There the ...
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Ideal large flightless birds for domesticated* cattle [duplicate]
Ideal large flightless birds for domesticated cattle
(Just a note about this question being a duplicate. Some of the points people raised on a basis to close the question were fair and some... weren't....
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Could giant mermaids domesticate baleen whales?
While many mermaids are hunter gatherers some live a pastoral life, herding creatures like domesticated manatees. Along with this some mermaids (particularly giant mermaids) herd baleen whales using ...
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Theoretical Evolutions of Domesticated Lions
So in my fictional universe there is a collection of tribes which, over the millennia, domesticated a closely related ancestor to modern day lions, much like how humans domesticated closely related ...
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Ideal large flightless bird for domesticated* cattle [closed]
Ideal large flightless bird for domesticated cattle
So, just to be clear, when I mean "giant birds", I mean the families that presently consist of giant flightless birds (think moas, emus, ...
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Wargs: Where would they be economically significant if they existed on Earth?
Using the Tolkien depiction of Wargs (horse-sized and fairly intelligent large lupines that can be domesticated), where would they likely find an economic niche as livestock or work animals? I would ...
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What Would the Uses of Domesticated Bunyips be?
In my book series, one of the main cultures has domesticated Diprotodon Optatum (called "Bunyips" in-universe). For those of you who don't know, here's what they look like (they're the herd ...
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Domesticating rockfolk
part 2 of: Evolution of Rockfolk
the world i'm writing a sub-species of my Rockfolk have been Domesticated by humans becoming Golems, and are commonly use as a type guard dog or for field labor. some ...
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How rare would the relationship between humans and dogs be, if you could somehow sample all alien life?
Humans have a lot of different pets, and I assume aliens would too. But the relationship between humans and dogs is kind of different. There aren't any other animals that have been as symbiotic for ...
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Can fallow deer be used for milk?
Is is possible or easy to milk a fallow deer, is it a quality milk, and can it be turned into cheese?
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Is there any wild animal that exists today that shares a similar niche with the auroch?
I am exploring alternative domestic animals instead cows, while still using a cow-like animal. The question I ask is in the title, and is pretty self explanatory
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What anatomical changes would you need to get 1 ton ride-able rodent?
So, I've decided that in my fantasy fiction, I want to have Megabara riders. Massive Capybaras, being ridden into a battle.
I've done some basic research and I came across this extinct species that ...
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Would it be realistic for a species to be able to domesticate a predatory animal larger than it?
The sentient species is about one and a half feet tall, and resembles a feathery raptor. The predatory creature is around two and a half feet tall at the shoulder. It resembles a thick furred dog with ...
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Could Orcs have domesticated hyenas?
In the story i'm writing Orcs have managed to domesticate hyenas possibly even cave hyenas
In actuality, could Orcs (or any other intelligent hominid) domesticate hyenas? Even if we assume that ...
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Utility of a domesticated dwarf elephant
In prehistoric times, there used to be a dwarf elephant species in many Mediterranean islands.
They were about 1.5-2 meters high, but probably became extinct before the arrival of the first human ...
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Which domestic animal would pose the greatest threat to humanity during zoopocalypse?
Set in the modern days, one night the sky is suddenly lit up in a mysterious bright blue glows that fades off almost immediately. It seems that somehow the event caused a mutation in one of the ...
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What Australian Megafauna Would be Suitable for Domestication, if Any?
Imagine an alternate universe where the aborigines' impact on the Pleistocene Australian ecosystem was much less severe than it was in our timeline, and the Pleistocene megafauna managed to survive ...
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Why did I choose a pet fox? [closed]
Lets say I was a mountain man going to live in Alaska during the early 1870's (also in a fantasy setting) and a trader comes to me offering either a domesticated fox or dog to take as a pet. Why would ...
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Domesticated Hominids
So, for my setting, I have an idea for domesticated hominids (previously orcs). They're intellectually comparable to gorillas, weigh around the same amount (350 lbs), and can carry 15-20% their body ...
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How could my society potentially "de-claw" dragons in order to work with them safely?
My society uses dragons for various tasks. Blacksmithing, mining, warfare, fishing, hunting, carriage pulling/plowing, carrying messages, etc. My dragons have four limbs (2 legs/2 wings), and can get ...
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Could moose/elk survive in the Amazon forest?
In my story, there is a civilization living in the Amazon rainforest. They need some time of mount that is adapted to the forest. I don't think horses can survive by themselves in there, so I was ...
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Why did Europeans not widely domesticate foxes?
So I've been thinking for a while about making a world where cats aren't as common and instead are more of a regional domesticated animal, replaced in (mostly Northwestern) Europe by foxes.
How come ...
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Could Giant Ground Sloths have been a good pack animal for the ancient Mayans?
In my world, the Mayan Empire expanded into the Caribbean and met the relict ground sloths of the Caribbean. In this same world, the Mayan empire saw the use of these creatures as useful domestic ...
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What kind of animals can be raised like cows?
Looking for animals specifically used for meat. They must be able to be kept in way that that cows can be, That could mean in a pen with corn or in a pasture with just a tall fence.
Edit: I know ...
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Best mythical creature to use as livestock? [closed]
Imagine a world where all the magical and fantastical creatures that exist in mythology or folklore actually exist. Everything from dragons, griffins, goblins, harpies, trolls, etc. - they can taken ...
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How could our ancestors have domesticated a solitary predator?
It is a well known fact throughout human history that cats are bloodthirsty psychopaths, and a menace to society. Cats murder billions of innocent rodents a year, cause ecological disasters, and give ...
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Alternative to horses in a dry climate
I'm looking for an alternative for horses. Why not horses? the short answer is the gods didn't want to create them. The gods in my universe like to annoy humanity. Horses only seem to really benefit ...
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Could domesticated mammoths sustain a group of nomads
In a fantasy world I have planned, I wanted one of the nomadic groups to live on a frozen steppe. They would primarily subsist by herding and domesticating mammoths.
Would mammoths be comparable to, ...
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What animals would a sedentary centaur civilization domesticate?
The first in a series of questions on building a realistic sedentary centaur culture.
From what I have encountered, centaur civilizations are usually modeled on (semi)nomadic cultures from the ...
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Hippotragine Antelopes: A Suitable Alternative For Actual Horses?
The hippotragines are a small subfamily of antelopes that bear physical resemblance to horses. There are three separate genera--Hippotragus, Oryx and Addax. As grazers, rather than browsers, the "...
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Could Argentavis be Ridden?
In my book series, there is a planet called Aurea that is home to all sorts of strange fauna. Not only does it have animals from the real world, but it also has prehistoric and mythical creatures as ...
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