So weve been discussing the suitability of animals for domestication.., particularlyanimals that live together in herds. Now, if we take horses, for example... in the wild,horses live in herds that consist of one male and several females and their young.When a herd moves, the dominant male leads, with the dominant female and heryoung immediately behind him. The dominant female and her young are then followedimmediately by the second most important female and her young, and so on. Thisis why domesticated horses can be harnessed one after the other in a row. Theyre"programmed" to follow the lead of another horse.
On top of that, you often finddifferent herds of horses in the wild occupying overlapping areas-they dont fight offother herds that enter the same territory.But its exactly the opposite with an animal like the uh, the antelope... which... well,antelopes are herd animals too. But unlike horses, a male antelope will fight fiercely toprevent another male from entering its territory during the breeding season, ok verydifferent from the behavior of horses. Try keeping a couple of male antelopes togetherin a small space and see what happens. Also, antelopes dont have a social hierarchy ——they dont instinctively follow any leader.
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