taming
Taming describes the adaptation of the behavior of wild animals to the needs of humans. Taming means that the animals gain confidence in humans, lose shyness and the flight reflex and do not attack or injure humans and abandon other wild behaviors. The taming of animals is not to be equated with dressage , i.e. the further training of the animal, or domestication .
Taming is also used as a synonym for calming down and, in a figurative sense, also applied to rivers and people. Historically, taming was also used for cultivated plants until modern times.
Animals
Most of the time, wild animals are caught first. To be tamed, trust must be built. To fit into the human way of life includes the recognition of the human being as a person of authority . Horses are ridden in for this. Taming is often equated with the violent subjugation of animals, but non-violent taming is much more effective.
The process of taming
The captured animal must first be housed in a species-appropriate manner and supplied with food and water. The animal then needs a certain period of time to calm down and to get used to the new environment. Humans should make contact with animals slowly and cautiously. The first contact shouldn't be much more than observation and closeness to the animal. If it is caught in the wild , the animal may react very fearfully or aggressively to the presence of the human. It is hardly possible for an animal to feel fear or to show aggressive behavior for many hours. If it notices that the person around it is not threatening, it will calm down over time. Then the animal can be spoken to in a calm voice so that it gets used to the human voice.
The next step is to get used to the human smell. For this, the animal should be given a worn item of clothing that it can smell. This is especially important for most mammals , while the smell of humans is rather unimportant for some species of birds or reptiles . If it is a very young, harmless animal, it can be taken out of its new housing and accustomed to the human smell on the arm. Care should be taken not to overwhelm the animal during this first physical contact.
Most adult animals can harm a person, even if they are only the size of a mouse . Therefore, you should be very careful with the first physical contact with them and first offer them the back of the hand of the closed fist to sniff. It is much easier for an animal to bite a finger than a closed fist. Many animals can be convinced with food that humans are friendly to them. If the animal has gained confidence in the human being and does not react fearfully or aggressively to the human touch, the taming is considered complete.
Animals that can be tamed and untamed
Almost all animals can be tamed if they have sufficient brain capacity and are able to learn. So apply z. B. jellyfish or insects are not considered tame. Among the mammals, only a few are considered untamable or very difficult to tame, like the zebra . But zebras can also be tamed with a lot of patience. However, this does not mean that you can ride zebras immediately after they have been tamed. It just means that they tolerate contact with people and show no aggression or fear.
Reptiles are considered to be untamable, although they get used to human touch and accept that touch. However, reptiles are not cuddly animals and often react with stress to being too close to humans. Reptiles can suddenly attack despite years of getting used to humans.
Example horses
Young people drawn from horses are used in most cases to people and therefore need not be tamed, but are normal world ridden . Wild horses, for example Dülmen wild horses , are gradually tamed in Europe by slowly getting used to them and then broken in like young horses. This process is comparatively slow.
In the USA, on the other hand, Mustangs are broken and broken into by force to save time. Only the Join Up introduced by Monty Roberts was accepted as a new method in the USA, because it leads to the goal even faster than breaking.
People
Occasionally taming is also applied to human relationships, as for example by William Shakespeare in his play " The Taming of the Shrew " (around 1594). Here, too, it is about getting closer to a person's living conditions and rhythm. In the fable “ The Little Prince ” (1943) by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry , the fox asks the prince to tame him in order to learn to love him .
gallery
The sample pictures show the taming of a wild squirrel in different phases. You can see the total tension of the body in the first picture, the trusting approach in the second picture and the relaxed eating out of the hand in the third picture. In the fourth picture the squirrel eats out of the hand several weeks later and can be touched.
literature
- Jürgen Döring: Cultural change among the North American Plains Indians. On the role of the horse among the Comanches and Cheyenne ; Berlin: Reimer, 1984.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Franz Dornseiff: The Greek words in German. Berlin 1950, p. 49.
- ^ Brehms Thierleben (1883): Zebra (Equus Zebra).
- ↑ Reptiles are not cuddly toys for everyone.