Hyenas are indeed much stronger than most domestic dogs in the world. On the African grassland, one hyena often dares to challenge the cheetah, and two or three can take away the leopard's prey. A group of hyenas can even compete with cubs. Such a powerful animal, tamed to protect its home, does have a higher sense of security.
But we have to consider, can spotted hyenas really be domesticated Theoretically, it is possible. Most animals in the world can be domesticated. It's only a matter of time.
Domesticating animals is not simple, but it can be done. As we all know, dogs and gray wolves have a common ancestor. Dogs were domesticated by some extinct late Pleistocene wolves. As early as prehistoric civilization, people began to keep dogs.
Except common domestic animals such as cats, dogs, pigs and sheep, human beings have never domesticated any animals for a long time, so that most people think that only cats, dogs and other animals can be domesticated by human beings, and other wild animals cannot.
In fact, this is a wrong cognition. As long as humans are willing, basically most animals can get domesticated individuals after a long period of reproduction and reproduction.
Russian scientist Dmitry Beliaev once did an experiment. He wants to simulate the domestication of dogs, but he takes silver foxes as the experimental object.
Dmitry first raised a large number of silver foxes and obtained enough experimental samples, then recorded the personality characteristics of each silver fox one by one and divided them into docile ones, and then found the most docile and violent ones to continue breeding in the next generation.
In this way, generation after generation of selection, generation after generation of reproduction, after 60 years, to 40 generations, Dmitry got the desired experimental results.
The offspring of the docile experimental group became very docile, and many individuals showed some "dog-like" characteristics in appearance, such as their ears became soft and drooping, their tails began to roll up, and their eyes softened a lot.
The offspring of the cruel experimental group are more violent, extremely aggressive and have quite biting eyes. Even in the cage, as long as a living thing approaches or makes a little noise to scare it, it only gets a grin.
Dmitry's experiment verified the process of dog domestication, but it also showed that silver foxes can also be domesticated, which broke our previous cognition.
Another reference example is the zebra in Africa. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has thought about this problem. Can zebras be tamed to ride?
The fact is that some people have been doing this for a long time. For example, Rosendo Ribeiro, a doctor in Nairobi, used zebras as a daily means of transportation in the early 20th century. Walter Rothschild marched in the city with several zebras, attracting a large number of people to stop and watch.
Of course, humans have not really domesticated zebras so far, and some zebras used for riding are only tamed temporarily, just like lions and tigers performed in circuses.
Many attempts by predecessors have initially weakened most of the wildness of zebras, which made it possible for zebras to be further domesticated. But why has no human ever domesticated zebras in history? Mainly zebras are not suitable for large-scale domestication as draught animals.
In addition to many small defects such as barking, crying ugly and biting, it is more important that it does not have the possibility of being raised on a large scale. Such as cattle and sheep. There is a leader who controls the leader and the whole flock.
The zebra herd is quite loose and there is no leading horse. Imagine how much manpower it takes to manage a herd of zebras. Is it worth taming such an animal?
Generally speaking, I believe it is only a matter of time before a zebra is successfully domesticated, although it is much more difficult than an ordinary horse, as long as we raise thousands of zebras and then invest time and energy in breeding from generation to generation.
Similarly, hyenas can be domesticated. Hyenas are not uncommon in some parts of Africa. They bring spotted hyenas into the street and interact with them as pets, just like a dog with different looks.
Of course, these hyenas are not domesticated by humans, but only temporarily, just like liger in the circus and the zebra mentioned above. However, this practice also provides the possibility for the further domestication of spotted hyenas.
Why don't people tame hyenas? I think the input and output are not proportional. The spotted hyena is a large animal with a big appetite. It is described as an animal that can never get enough to eat in The Lion King.
Early humans domesticated animals mainly for the better survival of human beings. For example, if they domesticate dogs, they will have hunting assistants and nursing home partners, and they can also serve as backup food in times of famine. Domesticating pigs means that human beings can live a self-sufficient life without going out hunting in the hot sun and cold.
What about domestic hyenas? This means that they need to provide a lot of meat every day. Who would do that when people were hungry?
Dogs can be raised on a large scale because they evolved the ability to digest starch more than 7000 years ago, which gave them an advantage over all domesticated species at once.
Because as people gradually change from hunting lifestyle to planting-oriented farming era, food becomes rich and cannot digest starch, which is always incompatible with human life.
The early hyenas were not domesticated because they did not have the corresponding conditions with humans, and later they were not domesticated because humans had better substitutes.
Although dogs are not as good as hyenas, they are more suitable than hyenas in terms of food and loyalty. Moreover, there are many fierce dogs in the world that can compete with hyenas, such as Tibetan mastiff, Caucasian dog, canoe dog and so on, which can replace hyenas well.
In modern times, fences, electronic security and other means have replaced the housekeeping function of dogs, and their original functions have gradually disappeared and become the nature of pets. So why domesticate hyenas to protect their homes? So it can be domesticated in theory, but people just don't do it.