I Answer Animal Questions

Interesting! It makes me love dolphins more. <3

Can a dolphin be made a pet? Is it an animal that can be domesticated or tamed?

@Basil on horses:

There's several variables to keep in mind, mostly to do with temperature and humidity. Generally, the higher the temperature and higher the humidity, the more physically stressed an animal is going to be.

Horses need to eat constantly. Any food that has entered the digestive tract will be eliminated after about ten hours, and an empty stomach may cause the gut to collapse. In this case, the horse may suffer colic but keep going. I hear there was a study where they found horses could be kept alive (at rest) up to eight days without food and water. However, after about 3-4 days, the internal damage was irreversible and those animals did not survive.

Feeding intermittently, you can avoid some of those gut problems but not forever. Prolonged stress on the stomach can lead to ulcers and colic. So keep in mind that, even after your trip is done, you're not necessarily going to be in the clear.

All of that being said, depending on

• temperature
• humidity
• amount of food
• amount of water
• amount of rest
• frequency of feeding,
• initial condition of the horse

... the horse would dramatically lose weight, but probably be able to survive walking anywhere from a week to two months. I searched and didn't find any literature on horses being driven across barren landscape or how long they made it, so unfortunately there's nothing to reference, but that's my best guess. If you're writing about this situation, you'll need to make a judgement call on just how hard this trip is. The biggest key is making sure you're offering some kind of food every 4 hours or so. The longer the times between feeding, the worse off you're going to be.
Also mind that a typical horse is going to want to drink about ten gallons of water a day.


@Lightsong on dolphins:

Dolphins are definitely tamable, but I don't see them as a likely candidate for domestication. The general rule is, "If it's in a circus it's tamed, if it's on a farm it's domesticated." They may not be domesticated, but dolphins and humans have a long history together, and dolphins have even served in wars detecting mines, just like dogs and rats do in the field.

Keeping them as a pet, however, is a totally different story. They're so incredibly expensive, I doubt a private owner could keep them, at least not in any good condition. The biggest barrier in keeping most animals isn't the animal itself, but its husbandry demands. I can't even begin to tell you how difficult it is to maintain a small saltwater aquarium, not even to start on a large tank that could house a dolphin.

In the spoiler I'm going to break down some of the husbandry demands of large marine aquariums.

Spoiler

The zoo where I'm training doesn't have dolphins, but they do have penguins. For a small tank of about 45,000 gallons, they have three sand filters each the size a PT cruiser, a bacteria tower nearly two stories high (water trickles from the top to the bottom, providing a highly oxygenated environment for beneficial bacteria), and a very, very dangerous, and very expensive ozone system -- a system which electrocutes water as it comes through with the intensity of a lightning bolt, binding oxygen together into O3, which is highly unstable and ends up destroying smaller biological components in the water and eliminating contaminants and microscopic parasites like Cryptosporidium.
The zoo also spends a fortune on fish, which it sources from three different fisheries specializing in three different species, because different fisheries do better in different seasons, and local disasters can cut off supply. Fish is harder to obtain in large quantities than you'd think, so by buying multiple species across multiple vendors, you limit the risk of being left to starve. That's not to mention the expense of running a classroom-sized freezer where you store said fish.
Our director always jokes that if the zoo ever has a budget cut, the first animals to go will be the pelicans... because their costly diet makes them more expensive than any other animal in the entire zoo, including apes, tigers and even elephants.

This is just for penguins and pelicans. I couldn't even calculate the expense of keeping dolphins. I suppose if you did something like John Lilly, using sea currents to filter your tanks and not paying mind to the animal's wellbeing, you could keep dolphins in pretty confined quarters. Personally, I wouldn't recommend it. It's also worth it to note that Lilly had to give up his dolphins to a scientific lab when he ran out of funding, because even he couldn't keep up with their expense.

Here's a good link about the Lilly experiment, by the way. I realize I didn't get as into the relationship between Margaret Lovatt and Peter the dolphin as I'd intended to in my post, because I think it would appeal to you. It's a fascinating read.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... o-loved-me

Ultimately tragic, though.

I'll pop in and help with the horse question. (I'm not silently monitoring the thread, noooo)

A horse fed a subpar diet would lose weight, is the short answer. In animals we talk about it in terms of "body condition," because if you think about it, a lithe Arabian and a powerful draught horse could be hugely different in weight but still appropriate for their size. Googling horse body condition will give you some direction. If you want to see what your malnourished horse will look like eventually, "horse BCS 1" will get you some unpleasant pictures.

Nutritional imbalances could also be a factor; I'm pretty sure the calcium:phosphorous ratio can cause problems in horses. Colic IS a huge problem in horses, but it's not necessarily nutrition-related. There are like a bazillion causes of colic; the two I can think of that might be related to malnutrition would be an overproduction of stomach acid causing ulcers, or an overproduction of gas causing intestinal distension. Those both cause pain, and pain = colic. A lot of causes of colic are due to the intestines tying themselves in knots for no apparent reason. I wouldn't be surprised if starvation would predispose to those conditions, but plenty of horses suffer weight loss for medical reasons without getting colic (eg a dental or throat issue so they can't chew or swallow well--physiologically not any different to someone not feeding them enough).

Long story short: dramatic skinniness and "unthriftiness" would be your biggest problem. Maybe diarrhea. Vitamin imbalances may or may not cause signs like stumbling & weakness, neurological signs, and other weird syndromes, but you'd probably have to look those up more specifically.

@Megrim Yes! Another animal person!

Please, if anyone has their own experiences, add on. I don't know as much about domestics so your post was educational for me.

Thank you both so much!!

If anyone has cat-specific questions, I can probably help. I'm not super informed on all the technical stuff, but I was raised among cats (that sounded weird), and I've volunteered alongside professionals and seen a lot of emergencies. So I'm pretty good with behaviour and health. Just tag me if you need to know anything!
Cats are also very misunderstood. A few basic facts-

A feral is a non-tame cat. A stray is a tame cat that doesn't have a home.
Cats are extremely social animals. The misconception that they're aloof, territorial loners comes from the fact that most pets are taken away from their mother and siblings at a very early age, and never learn to socialize properly. When left to their own devices, a group of feral cats will live together in a colony. Mothers will often share litters, nurse another cat's kittens, move in together, or adopt kittens that have been abandoned. Male cats will even take a turn babysitting while the mothers hunt. Often two or more cats will become inseparable friends and hang out together a lot. It's true that males can be territorial, but they generally don't go around looking to tear other males to shreds. There are two males living around my house, and every morning at 7:00 Blue chases Skittles up a tree as a token victory, then they ignore each other for the rest of the day.
Newborn kittens can go for 3-4 days without food. (Don't try this at home though!) Stronger kittens might make it a little longer.
For any animal, childbirth is painless unless something went wrong.
Upper respiratory (lung) and eye infections are common among cats living outside, as well as broken jaws. If an eye infection gets too bad, it can blind or rupture the eye.
Cats use very little verbal communication, unless they're trying to charm a human or have lived among people their whole life. More details on this if you're interested.
A female cat can get pregnant at three months, but won't go into heat until four months. Males usually don't start mating until six moths. Cat gestation period is around thirty days.
A pregnant cat usually won't show until the last week or so, because the babies start under her ribs and drop to the belly later. Same for dogs.

Let's say that this girl got her wish...



...and actually got a hippopotamus for Christmas from Santa Claus.

What would probably happen?

Just want to say that I find all this information most fascinating! I love watching nature documentaries and learning about animals.

Another question: We all know the film Madagascar in which various zoo animals -- a lion, a zebra, a hippopotamus, a giraffe, and a few pesky penguins -- are washed ashore on Madagascar. What are the chances of these animals theoretically surviving on this tropical island in real life, given that they are zoo-raised and nonnative to the island?

@Snoink on hippopotamus:

Let me think about it, but I'll start by saying that it could totally happen.

http://exoticanimalsforsale.net/animalsforsale.asp

@CoffeeCat on Madagascar movie:

Zero. Marty and his friends are dead.

Is it possible to imprint on a wild baby duck/goose? Or how would one go about raising a wild baby duck/goose abandoned by its parent/s?

JoeBookman wrote:bears don't hibernate... I can go on.

I don't really have any questions at the moment but...

...what?

So that scene in Planet Earth... where the polar bear and her cubs come out of the den in springtime? Was she not asleep for four months? D:

My world view has been changed.

Could Osprey be trained to fish using falconry techniques by using a ground-type lure made to look like a fish instead of a rabbit? If so, how could you train it to return to your fist as opposed to another perch?

Also, what is the level of communication that could be reached with a corvid by using techniques like Irene Pepperberg did with Alex/Griffin/Wort for ALEX? I know this is a new area of science, but with your knowledge base, what is your best guess?

Thank you all for being patient.

@Snoink on getting a hippopotamus for Christmas,

Very possibly this. Sadly I've never worked with hippos personally, so I can't give much creative insight. You're gonna need a looot of grass though, and possibly meat, too. Cuddle with caution.


@Basil on imprinting ducklings:

I believe all duck and goose species imprint, and imprinting occurs either immediately after hatching or shortly after. Any duck or goose, wild or not, may imprint on humans as long as it is early enough in life. However, if you are talking about raising ducklings who have already lived long enough to meet their mother, I believe it would be highly, highly unlikely to ever transfer that identity. Imprinting is powerful and, as far as I'ma ware, irreversible.

How you raise the animal(s) totally depends on your goals. Are you wanting to release to the wild? There are entire movies on that problem. Raising them as pets and raising them for meat or egg laying also changes what kind of husbandry you'll provide.

Addressing the bare basics, you'll need:

• A heat lamp and thermometer. The temperature of your container will depend on the age of the ducklings. Heat only one end, so that the ducklings can escape it if it's too much.
• A brooder, preferably something with a drain (chickens are different, since ducklings tend to be far messier with their water). A brooder is basically any container you can trust to contain the ducklings.
• Bedding. There are thousands of opinions on what's best. Popular choices are straw, pellets, and wood shavings. Always avoid cedar.
• Water receptacle. To prevent the ducklings from actually getting into the water, you can take a gallon jug and cut a hole into the side large enough to fit the head but not the entire body. Never leave young ducklings alone with a water dish.
• Food dish and food. I've heard chicken starter feed works in a pinch, though most enthusiasts mix their own mashes.

Those bare basics will get you through if your character is just trying to make them survive, but if you are really interested in getting the nitty gritty of duck husbandry, there are tons of forums out there. I personally love joining facebook groups for all manners of species so that on a daily basis I get to review questions and information on the most random things.

This guide here has a lot of great info.


@StellaThomas on bears & hibernation:

Aha! I was wondering when someone would notice that. Bears do not hibernate, but they do go into an intense sleep known as torpor.

There are a few key differences between hibernation and torpor that are important to note.

First and most notably, torpor takes place in much shorter bursts, whereas hibernation is more long term. Hibernation will take place over a winter season, where the animal will typically only rouse every 1-3 weeks to drink and keep their immune systems active. Torpor, on the other hand, may last only a few hours at a time and may be entered at any time in the year.

Second, hibernation is voluntary whereas torpor is not. An animal will go into hibernation when it feels it has enough fat stored and a safe place to begin their rest. Animals who become torpid, however, enter it because of a drop in temperature or a lack of food. When the ambient temperature has dropped enough, the animal becomes sluggish and slows their metabolic rate, regardless of whether they're in the position to sustain that sleep or not.

That's the key difference that makes it clear to me. Hibernation is triggered by daylight and hormones, while torpor is triggered by temperature and food availability. Animals that hibernate have a hormone called HIT (Hibernation Inducement Trigger) which becomes present in the blood when days grow shorter. Animals who become torpid do it as a direct response to outside temperatures or lack of food and become active again during times of more bearable weather or better food availability. Some even go into torpor on a daily basis, year-round, like many species of bats. Hibernation is seasonally dependent, while torpor is not.

The key similarities between hibernation, and torpor, are reduced activity, a decrease in heart rate, decrease in metabolic rate, and lack of responsiveness to outside stimuli. Because they do very similar things, many people consider hibernation to just be a long state of torpor. However, in my opinion, since they are triggered by entirely different stimuli, to say that hibernation is just extended torpor is generalizing things a bit.

And then there's aestivation -- similar to hibernation, but occurring during summer months to escape heat and dryness.

Animals that hibernate:

• Hedgehogs
• Bumblebees
• Box turtles
• Ground squirrels
• Many bats
• Poorwills (the only hibernating bird)

Animals that go into torpor:

• Bears
• Skunks
• Raccoons
• Some mice
• Many bats

Animals that aestivate:

• Many snails
• Many tortoises
• Lungfish
• Many crocodilians
• Many frogs and salamander

@featherstone9086 on osprey falconry:

I don't know much about osprey, but as they are natural fishers, you shouldn't have to use any kind of training to get them to hunt fish. They will naturally hone in on prey and take it.
What I do know about falconry in general is that it isn't normal to begin with for the birds to return their prey to their handler, though they can be trained to go after prey too large for them (such as rabbits) and wait for their handler to reach them (where they wait on the ground) to dispatch the animal.
In regards to osprey particularly, I hear they can be temperamental and difficult to keep alive in captivity. Their feathers are brittle, they generally have flighty personalities, and apparently consistent eating can be a major problem. Falconry involves intense monitoring of a bird's weight, so anything involving diet complications is a serious issue. So if you're writing a story and want to be realistic, I am sorry to say that the osprey fisherman is a no-go. But if it's fiction with willingness to bend a few rules, I say: osprey falconry sounds awesome.

You may be interested in cormorant fishing. It has less to do with training than it does equipment and some people question the ethicality, but I think it's pretty cool.



On communication with corvids:

I personally believe that almost every bird is far more intelligent than we currently give them credit for, and I imagine corvids would be on the same level as most parrots. These are incredibly intelligent creatures which have already been proven to craft tools, recognize faces, and communicate to other crows/ravens/jays information about people which can pass through generations.

However, because parrots can engage in vocal communication with far more ease than most corvids, I would guess that it's unlikely we'll ever strike a conversation with a corvid on the same level it's been (or will be) achieved with parrots like Alex. They do possess vocal ability, but not to near the extent. That isn't to say we won't be able to eventually find evidence for many of the same concepts we did with Alex and his fellow subjects, and perhaps we will encounter a corvid who chatters more than is typical.

Without doing any research to back up this claim right now, I believe parrots are used most often for cognitive experiments solely because of their communicative abilities, but corvids are of special interest because of their problem solving skills.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to bring up jays, which have been proven to practice deception, which is a bigger deal than you might think. Take how major self awareness is, then try to imagine how advanced an animal's cognition must be in order for it to be able to understand that other animals perceive reality differently according to information they perceive, and that they can intentionally give other animals false signals to make them behave on that information in faulty ways to their advantage.

It's all fascinating.

Thanks, @JoeBookman. I'm apprenticing as a falconer and I'd been mulling over how one could train an osprey- I figured if they naturally hunted fish it would be the same principal as hunting any other raptor. I see what you mean about the care difficulties, though. About the cormorant fishing- I looked into it but couldn't find much information. Do you have any materials you could suggest?

On a different note, I am writing a fantasy novel in which werewolves, dire wolves, and worgs play a large part. I've pretty much fleshed them out, but there was one thing about worgs that I wasn't sure what to do with. In my world, the primary thing that separates worgs from dire wolves is the fact their lower canines have become large tusk-like saber teeth (like a saber-tooth tiger, but the lower canines). These fangs are larger in the males than the females and can grow up to 2 feet long (the creature itself is horse-sized and very dense). They are usually used in combat for dominance, territory, hunting large quarry, and competing for mates (though they do have human intelligence, so it is sometimes used as a tool). However, I came across a problem: first, I wasn't sure how long it should take them to grow. The average lifespan of a worg (this includes deaths from being killed and such, not just from old age) is around 40-60 years. Second, I wasn't sure if they should grow throughout the worg's life or if they should stop growing once fully developed. Lastly, are there any special adaptations I have overlooked that would be needed to compensate for the teeth? Of course, this is fantasy, so it doesn't have to be 100% correct- just as accurate as I can get to make this work.

In that same world there are the Hunters who hunt the aforementioned wolves. They of course need horses and they use dogs to assist them. The horses need to be able to withstand a variety of climates, be fast and have endurance, and be trainable and intelligent. Any breeds that fit that criteria? For the dogs, they use two types: a hound of some sort to run down the wolf (so far I was using a wolfhound but I am not very knowledgeable in the way of horses or dogs) and a type that helps in combat against the wolf/a watchdog (I was thinking a german-shepherd-like breed) that can obey complex commands quickly and accurately. Any thoughts about breeds/hybrids/alternatives to accomplish this?

Also, I can, for the most part, help with falconry/birds of prey questions. I even have my own thread. I'll be asking things I don't know here, too, though XD.

@featherstone9086 on cormorants:

Cormorant fishing is done by taking cormorants out onto the water, putting a collar or "noose" around their necks, and shaking the raft or boat you're on to get them to dive into the water. The cormorants will instinctually capture fish, but the collar will prevent them from swallowing. They'll then return to the raft, where the fisherman takes the fish they've caught and returns them to the water.

You can read in depth about it here and here, see some beautiful pictures here, and watch some BBC footage of it here.

On worg design:

Right away I'll tell you that you should relocate the enlarged canines to the upper jaw. The upper jaw can handle much more strain and are far less likely to result in a fatal accident. Think of it this way: if a tusk on the lower jaw gets caught, the animal struggling will be pulling their jaw out of place. If it's the upper jaw, they have the whole strength of the skull and neck behind them. You're removing reliance on the strength of a hinge. Look at nature for design. Animals who use their tusks for fighting or utility typically have tusks on the upper jaw:














Keep in mind that having those large canines or tusks on the upper jaw will also reduce a lot of feeding problems. The only animals I can think of which have lower canines more developed than their upper are: sometimes hippos, sometimes certain swine (mostly domestic), and a few extinct species of elephant-like creatures like deinotherium.

As far as special adaptations to sustain large canines/heavy tusks, you'll need a strong skull and well developed muscles on the neck. It's in your interest to write that the teeth grow continuously as they do in elephants, walrus and swine, as fracture is common. If they're being used as tools, you may also note that one tusk/tooth is going to be more worn down than the other; in elephants, the shorter tusk is their "dominant" tusk, just as you or I have a dominant hand. The more dominant tusk is used more and wears down more quickly.

As for the size, it would depend entirely on the size of the animal itself. Horse size, two feet seems feasible enough to me, especially in a fantasy setting.

On worg-hunting horses and dogs:

You know, I'm not super well versed with domestic animals like horses, but the first breed that comes to mind is the Mongol horse. These are the horses they say Genghis Khan rode while conquering the western world, and are supposedly unchanged since that time. While they're a bit on the smaller size, it's actually intentional; a lower bearing makes it easier for the rider to strike an opponent on the ground. They can drink as seldom as once a day, eat nothing but grass, survive exceedingly hot and cold environments, reliably traverse uneven terrain, sustain themselves on what the environment provides without assistance of the rider, and exhibit excellent stamina. Ancient records of the Mongols indicate that one of the most terrifying aspects of the invaders were their "tireless" mounts. The horses also provided for their riders, who used their milk and meat for sustenance and their fur, leather, and hair for clothing, rope, shoes, and musical instruments.

Looking online, I also see that each mongol rider actually brought several horses with him, which all rode together as a group, so that he could switch horses and always be on a fresh animal. You might consider doing that.

If you find a better breed, you might still look up the Mongols and how they utilized horses for ideas.

As for dogs, I'm again not super familiar with domestic breeds but the first ones that come to mind are Rhodesian ridgebacks, which are used in Africa for hunting lions. If you're looking for a cold weather breed, I know the Caucasian ovcharka is used in Russia for wolves and bears. Wolfhounds have been used to hunt wolves and smaller game too. For intelligence I would go for a collie, sheepdog, or other shepherd mix. As for a watchdog, if you want a dog that has a specific job I'd honestly go for a small yappy breed which will flee from anything scary and wake everyone up. Could be a nice dash of humor in the story too.

Unless you want to explain it away as fantasy (which is totally an option!), I would avoid using wolves or high content wolfdogs. They're incredibly intelligent but lack the innate desire to please or accompany humans which means they're prone to disperse or try to dominate human counterparts.