GUNS, GERMS AND STEEL - Cloverport Independent Schools

172. • GUNS, GERMS, AND STEEL
are much more uniformly so.) Zebras have the unpleasant habit of biting
a person and not letting go. They thereby injure even more American zookeepers
each year than do tigers! Zebras are also virtually impossible to
lasso with a rope—even for cowboys who win rodeo championships by
lassoing horses—because of their unfailing ability to watch the rope noose
fly toward them and then to duck their head out of the way.
Hence it has rarely (if ever) been possible to saddle or ride a zebra, and
South Africans' enthusiasm for their domestication waned. Unpredictably
aggressive behavior on the part of a large and potentially dangerous mammal
is also part of the reason why the initially so promising modern experiments
in domesticating elk and eland have not been more successful.
Tendency to Panic. Big mammalian herbivore species react to danger
from predators or humans in different ways. Some species are nervous,
fast, and programmed for instant flight when they perceive a threat. Other
species are slower, less nervous, seek protection in herds, stand their
ground when threatened, and don't run until necessary. Most species of
deer and antelope (with the conspicuous exception of reindeer) are of the
former type, while sheep and goats are of the latter.
Naturally, the nervous species are difficult to keep in captivity. If put
into an enclosure, they are likely to panic, and either die of shock or batter
themselves to death against the fence in their attempts to escape. That's
true, for example, of gazelles, which for thousands of years were the most
frequently hunted game species in some parts of the Fertile Crescent. There
is no mammal species that the first settled peoples of that area had more
opportunity to domesticate than gazelles. But no gazelle species has ever
been domesticated. Just imagine trying to herd an animal that bolts,
blindly bashes itself against walls, can leap up to nearly 30 feet, and can
run at a speed of 50 miles per hour!
Social Structure. Almost all species of domesticated large mammals
prove to be ones whose wild ancestors share three social characteristics:
they live in herds; they maintain a well-developed dominance hierarchy
among herd members; and the herds occupy overlapping home ranges
rather than mutually exclusive territories. For example, herds of wild
horses consist of one stallion, up to half a dozen mares, and their foals.
Mare A is dominant over mares B, C, D, and E; mare B is submissive to A
but dominant over C, D, and E; C is submissive to B and A but dominant
over D and E; and so on. When the herd is on the move, its members
maintain a stereotyped order: in the rear, the stallion; in the front, the top-