Review If you can domesticate a wolf into a dog, why not a cheetah? Humans were once domesticated

According to research, wolves were domesticated into dogs tens of thousands of years ago, just like the well-known Erha in our lives, which is quite similar to wolves. Wolves and dogs belong to the same species. Similarly, cats and leopards belong to the same species of the cat family, so why couldn't our ancestors domesticate the more agile leopard to help humans?

In people's common impression, the cheetah is not only fast, but also a fierce carnivore, a wild beast that can be seen from a distance but not played closely, and an animal that makes people fear and stay away. So, can cheetahs be domesticated? The early domestication of cheetahs was a product of the ancient Egyptians, who began to use domesticated cheetahs as a symbol of power and status because of their worship of cats.

The process of domesticating cheetahs is not difficult, it often takes six months, the ancient Egyptians would first wrap the head of the cheetah cubs in a black cloth to make them afraid and fearful, and lure them with food, and the cheetah cubs would be easily tamed.

But due to the domestication of cheetah cubs, adult cheetahs need to be killed first, a practice that has led to a drastic decline in cheetah populations. Therefore, the ancient Egyptian dynasty did not allow commoners to domesticate cheetahs, and cheetahs became the exclusive property of nobles, most of whom were just pets of nobles and had no practicality.

The Mongolian aristocracy, on the other hand, preferred to domesticate cheetahs to help with hunting.

Yelu Chucai vividly depicted the scene of hunting with cheetahs in the long poem "Hu Cong Winter Hunting": the strong man bent his bow to kill strange beasts, and drove tigers and leopards to chase greedy wolves.

This will also reduce the number of cheetahs, which is not conducive to domestication. Therefore, it is not difficult for us to see that the domestication of cheetahs by humans has led to a decrease in cheetahs, and the domestication of cheetahs is only the right of a few, which has been the case since ancient times, in ancient times, only the royal officials and nobles had enough capital to raise cheetahs, and now, only the local tyrants in the Middle East can raise cheetahs. Without strong financial strength, it is impossible to domesticate and raise cheetahs, let alone domesticate them into domestic leopards for hunting.

In the process of domestication, it was found that wolves seemed to be easier to tame by humans and easier to domesticate as hunting assistants. The process of domesticating wolves into dogs has a certain amount of chance. Because the wolf pack is a large population and the internal competition is very fierce, some old, weak, sick and disabled wolves come to human settlements because they are ostracized and lack of food. They began to eat human leftovers, including meat, rice, flour, vegetables and other omnivorous food, and they stayed in human settlements, developed a good impression of humans, and gradually domesticated themselves.

Unlike wolves, cheetahs belong to the feline family, and cats are generally loners and do not have a stable group structure, which means that it has no obedience and is more difficult to tame. Just like a kitten raised at home, do you think that the cold cat is tamed by humans? Even if you are kept in captivity, in the subconscious of the cat, it is your owner. And a social animal like a wolf, with good teamwork ability, has a stable class system, and often has a wolf king, although the wolf king is not easy to domesticate, but its subordinate low-level wolves will be easier to domesticate than leopards because they are accustomed to obedience.

Another point is that cheetahs are too picky eaters, they only eat fresh meat, while wolves eat wild fruits, carrion and rice and flour in addition to meat, and wolves are easier to feed for domesticated people. Moreover, in the process of hunting, the wolf will chase after a prey when it sees it, and once another prey appears, the wolf will shift the target, while the leopard will keep chasing. In this way, when domesticating, the wolf is controllable, while the leopard is not. Although the leopard is agile and can often do more with less during the hunt, depending on the speed at which the leopard chases its prey, it may not take long for the cheetah to disappear from your sight.

In addition, leopards are much more threatening to humans than wolves. If you tame a wolf, people will only feel slightly scared when you take it out, but if you tame a leopard, people will avoid it. Because wolves are in people's subconscious, they will only steal chickens and sheep and the like, and they do not dare to approach humans. Leopards, on the other hand, cause panic when they appear, because humans are not too sure to deal with them.

At present, the animals that have been domesticated by humans are very diverse, most of them are running on the ground, swimming in the water, and flying in the sky, most of which have been conquered by humans. For example, puppies are man's best friend, and being trained at home can prevent theft, accompany and protect humans. There are puppies in different fields, such as in the police force, puppies are excellent search and rescue dogs and drug detection dogs, and in the face of blind people, puppies are intimate guide dogs.

In our daily life, common chickens, ducks, geese, cattle, sheep and horses are kept and bred by humans. Poultry can be made into different delicacies for people to enjoy in different countries and regions, and cattle and horses can help farmers in rural areas to transport things and reduce people's burden.

There are dolphins, seals, sea lions, etc., and we can see the tricks of these animals in the zoo, and we can't help but marvel at the intelligence and cuteness of dolphins and sea lions.

There are pigeons and parrots flying in the sky, and early humans used pigeons as a medium for correspondence according to the habits of pigeons, and they were mostly used on the battlefield. Parrots like to imitate the sounds of other birds and animals in the wild, and have also undergone a certain degree of directional breeding after being domesticated by humans, so it is natural that pet parrots are good at imitating human behaviors, such as talking, singing, and whistling.

Although the rule of nature is that the weak eat the strong and the fittest survive, human beings must treat small animals well, abide by the rules of the Animal Protection Law, and every life deserves to be respected.