• bleistift2@sopuli.xyz
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    7
    ·
    1 month ago

    What distinguishes zebras from horses is that zebras live in anonymous herds. That is, they like to clump together to ward off predators, but they don’t know or like each other. They are not a uniform group with a leader. Horses on the other hand do have authorities and followers among them. And humans can hijack the role of the leader.

    CGPGrey: The Real Reason We Don’t Ride Zebras (6:23)

    • Tar_Alcaran@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      1 month ago

      zebras live in anonymous herds. That is, they like to clump together to ward off predators, but they don’t know or like each other.

      Zebra’s don’t like anyone, and they’re not afraid to show it. Repeatedly.

      • M137@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 month ago

        And donkeys like only one person and will absolutely fuck up anyone or anything that tries to hurt that person or the donkey itself.

    • Skullgrid@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 month ago

      What distinguishes zebras from horses is that zebras live in anonymous herds.

      says a lot about 4chan, the penny arcade GIFT theory, etc

      • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 month ago

        With how Facebook forces real names, the idea that being anonymous has any influence where or not someone is a fuckwad had been debunked.

        • AbsolutelyNotAVelociraptor@piefed.social
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          1 month ago

          It’s not the anonimity that makes people fuckwads. It’s the lack of immediate consequences. A fuckwad won’t get a punch in the face for what they say on facebook, hence they feel they can say anything and be a fuckwad.

          • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            1 month ago

            “Social media made y’all way too comfortable with disrespecting people and not getting punched in the face for it”, Mike Tyson

            Regardless of how you feel about Tyson, Truth is Truth.

    • stenAanden@feddit.dk
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      edit-2
      1 month ago

      This makes me wonder… How much of what he says is just conjecture? Do we ACTUALLY know with good certainty that zebras can’t be domesticated due to their nature? Or is it just a hypothesis/theory that has reached widespread popularity?

      I have heard that zebras (along with other African animals) can’t be domesticated because they have evolved to live among humans, when we were still man-apes. But that maybe that’s just conjecture too.

      Note how he have no sources in his video or description. And his comparison to chickens, cows, sheep and cats don’t seem to make much sense. The relation between humans and chickens/cows/sheep is markedly different from that of horses. Do wild fowl really have family structures? Cats don’t yet they are still docile among humans.

      Edit: even if we really can’t do we know the reason why?

        • stenAanden@feddit.dk
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          1 month ago

          But what if we spent longer time doing it? Like centuries, like with most other domesticated animals.

          • stray@pawb.social
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            1 month ago

            I’m not sure why you’ve been downvoted because you absolutely could domesticate them given sufficient time and consistent selective breeding. You could turn them into crabs if you wanted to. The trouble is that they don’t have a very social disposition, so no one is motivated to dedicating their entire bloodline to the project. Most domestication happened kind of on accident as we developed symbiotic or exploitative relationships with various species.

          • BCsven@lemmy.ca
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            1 month ago

            Might take more than centuries, but yes.

            We have a rescue dog from Korea as well as some neighbours ( not a standard breed, but a Korean Village dog, they basically live alongside humans as a breed but developed their own way). They are much different than “normal” dogs. They are more like cats. Their way on their terms. Like other dogs, don’t enjoy humans much. So even though they are domesticated, they still show the old lineage of being independent. My dogs idea of a good time is never chasing a stick or ball, but finding the highest vantage point at a park and watching everyone. A carryover from watching the plains from the hillside, or something.

  • PieMePlenty@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    1 month ago

    There’s some accounts throughout history, but humans generally leave them alone. They’re aggressive creatures surrounded by even more aggressive killing machines. So it stands to reason that an animal in that environment would be pretty tough to tame.

  • X@piefed.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    1 month ago

    “Motherfucker, do you see the way I look?! Shit ain’t for the insta, that’s for sure. I’m quite visible to you so you have a long enough time to be getting far the fuck away from me.”

    • underisk@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      1 month ago

      I thought the stripes were actually camouflage and they’re just monochromatic because the things they’re hiding from have poor color vision.

      • bleistift2@sopuli.xyz
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        1 month ago

        Latest theory I heard was:

        A 2014 study found a correlation between striping and overlap with horse and tsetse fly populations and activity. Other studies have found that zebras are rarely targeted by these insect species. Caro and colleagues (2019) studied captive zebras and horses and observed that neither could deter flies from a distance, but zebra stripes kept flies from landing, both on zebras and horses dressed in zebra print coats. […] White or light stripes painted on dark bodies have also been found to reduce fly irritations in both cattle and humans.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zebra

  • stenAanden@feddit.dk
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    1 month ago

    I honestly wonder if we actually COULD domesticate zebras but it would taking centuries or millennia. Just like other domesticated species.

    • oatscoop@midwest.social
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 month ago

      Selective breeding is no different than natural evolution in how drastically it can change an organism given enough time and the right selections for “fitness”.

      So you could produce a domesticated, tame zebra – but waiting on and favoring the right mutations would take a very long time and be prohibitively expensive. It’s possible, but not realistically feasible.

    • Chais@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      edit-2
      1 month ago

      No. Zebras don’t have a herd hierarchy we can exploit. With horses you pick out the lead horse, tame it and boom, the whole herd follows you.
      With zebras you get one zebra, if you’re very lucky. More likely you’ll get kicked and bitten.

      • redbrick@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 month ago

        crocs are damn scary. They once ripped off an oar from our boat…freaking scary ass moment. Dad chased it off with the other oar. If Jurassic Park were real, crocs are a glimpse of that.

      • Eddyzh@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        1 month ago

        Hm it’s not a fake picture apparently but the situation is definitely not as implied.

        Thanks for sharing!

        • pageflight@piefed.social
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          1 month ago

          Did expect: self defense. Did not expect: eventually the croc wins, also all the other zebras just walking by.

          • Eddyzh@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            1 month ago

            About the walking by, nice example how safety in numbers works. One can cover the others.

    • SPRUNT@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      1 month ago

      Spoken like someone who knows nothing about zebras. They’re not striped because of camouflage; that’s their prison uniform, and they are all violent offenders.

      • Denjin@feddit.uk
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 month ago

        There’s not many animals that haven’t been domesticated because they’re cunts. And zebras are one.

        • nesc@lemmy.cafe
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 month ago

          Cats on the other hand are domesticated despite being cunts and we absolutely adore them.

            • ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              1 month ago

              They kept rats out of our food storage and we viewed it as adequate enough to not kick them out.

          • rumschlumpel@feddit.org
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            0
            ·
            1 month ago

            I bet house cats would never have been a thing if they didn’t house-train (bury their feces) instinctually.

            • nesc@lemmy.cafe
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              0
              ·
              1 month ago

              They are extremely useful and adorable. I think it’s the violence that makes them so magical, like they are extremely cute cold blooded killing machines.

              • rumschlumpel@feddit.org
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                0
                ·
                1 month ago

                The usefulness is dubious for most house cats. Most households don’t have mouse infestations, and cats who go outside actively endanger wildlife (and yes, that is an issue for humans as well).

                I do agree that they’re extremely cute, probably very useful on a psychological level, and honestly I don’t know any other cute pet animals that are as cleanly with their feces (dogs can relatively easily be trained to not shit on the carpet, but not to shit in a dog toilet).

                • nesc@lemmy.cafe
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  0
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  1 month ago

                  Most households where? Even in rich modern nations mice and rodents were a problem very recently. Like in the lifespan of some users on this network.