Re: 1st Season New Amsterdam - The Golden Boy - 5 star poll - SPOILERS AHOY !

On Tue, 18 Mar 2008 02:49:25 -0500, Mark Nobles
<cmn-nospam@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:

>Joetheone <joetheone@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>> "Lee Hulbert" <pythor@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message 

>> >     *     Tendency to Panic - Animals that run at the first sight of
>> > danger are difficult to domesticate.  Does this apply to bison?
>> 
>> No worse than horses. It can be trained out of them. Any herbivore's
fist 
>> option in defense is to run away.
>
>But not all of them use that option. Bison have another option, which
>is to form a circle of adults around an inner group of young. It's
>pretty effective against people without guns. This was the same tactic
>Wellington used against Napoleon's cavalry.

Most famously a behavior of Musk Oxen.

>> >     *      Social Structure - To be easily domesticated, large
>> > herbivores generally needed 3 social traits: Herds, Well established
>> > hierarchy within the herd, Overlapping ranges of separate herds.  Do
>> > bison have a well established hierarchy within the herd?  If so, are
>> > they territorial, or do they allow mixing of herds when they come
>> > together?
>> 
>> I really don't know if they are as hierarchical as, say, horses. That's
the 
>> main thing that makes horses so trainable. Every horse has it's own
place in 
>> the herd, and there will be scrapes and scratches and blood as a new
horse 
>> finds that place. The key to training is presenting yourself as the
alpha. 
>> That doesn't mean beating them up, it's more an attitude thing, acting 
>> confidently, like you expect them to be led by you.
>> As far as buffalo go, I haven't had enough day to day interaction with
herds 
>> to know just how theiy're structured.
>> I don't think they have a problem with mixing herd members.
>> 
>> >     From what little I know of bison, I suspect that one of the last
>> > two traits is the sticking point.  Care to enlighten?
>> 
>> Maybe light enough to find the keyhole on the doorknob? 
>
>Could it have been something as simple as not being around the animals
>long enough? Bison and Native Americans migrated together from Siberia
>no more than about 20,000 years ago and had to do a lot of adapting in
>their new home. The people who domesticated animals were around them
>much longer than that.

AFAIK, wisent were never domesticated, despite being around humans for
millennia, so maybe all bison are not susceptible...
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