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Primate domestication
Topic Started: Jun 17 2010, 11:02 PM (1,018 Views)
Pando
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I've been watching Avatar: The Last Airbender recently, and it seems to have a lot of domesticated primates. So the question is, what if primates have been domesticated as pack animals or pets? What new forms could evolve?
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Canis Lupis
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Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.

Well, I know someone who does have a primate for a pet.

I'd say they'd be more like a cat crossed with a dog. Smart and sweet like a dog, but agile and arboreal like a cat.
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Pando
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It also depends upon the species.

Could they breed a gorilla as a work animal?
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Canis Lupis
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Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.

It's possible.
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Ammonite
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I don't really think so. Primates are nowhere near as dumb as the large ungulates we have domesticated are, and their minds don't have the same receptiveness that a dog has because they are not as heirarchical as dogs are. I.e. There is not going to be any master-worker relationship going on.

There have in the past been instances where people would train monkeys to do certain things for them, but the monkey would only do this if they knew they were going to get something out of it. You can't really give orders to a monkey. Or an ape, for that matter. All those cases where people have tried to keep chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans worked out horribly because the animals rebelled against their "owner" so don't get me started on how stupid I think it is to keep an ape as a pet. Morally, I feel that keeping an ape as a pet is akin to slavery so I very much disagree with it. All primates seem to have a heightened sense of self and I think both apes and monkeys are too smart to have that bred out of them.

For monkeys, I think the most we will be able to get from them is the same kind of relationship we have with a cat. It is also likely the monkey will conciously learn how to train us for its purposes.
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Pando
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What about lemurs?
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The Dodo
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They are generally considered less intelligent than other primates, but I don't think a suitable means has been found for testing their intelligence yet.
On a side not, has anyone read the book Congo which has a group of gorillas that a society used as guards.
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TheCoon
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I do think monkeys and lemurs can be domesticated. My family had a spider monkey (I don't remember because I was a baby) and it was very obedient and loyal untill it died. An ape, on the other hand, is far smarter and dangerous to domesticate. I've heard in the news many times how people get killed by their ape pets.
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Ddraig Goch
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Ar hyd y nos

Thing is, there isn't a very large call for monkeys or apes as pets. Sure, for some they make an interesting "exotic" pet, but most people are more likely to stick with more "traditional" pets, like cats or dogs.

I personally agree with Ammonite, though - it's cruel to keep monkeys as pets, because they are too intelligent, and also, there are no "monkey-breeders", so they have to be caught from the wild, which is very traumatic for them.
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Pando
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What about if humans stayed in the tropics or most of us did until recently? That would potentially allow people to domesticate monkeys.
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MitchBeard
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Monkeys helping out in the harvest in Mayan orchards. That's a cool mental image.
I think its very possible.
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Ddraig Goch
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Ar hyd y nos

It's very likely that, if we still lived in rainforests, we would have a brilliant working relationship with monkeys, similar to the one between fishermen and dolphins in some countries, where we would help each other find and catch/ harvest food. However, that still wouldn't make them our pets.
Save the Blibbering Humdinger from extinction!
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Spinosaurus Rex
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Indeed. Having a monkey or ape as a pet is incredibly stupid, and since apes and monkeys are extremely intelligent (Comparatively speaking.), it's just plain cruel. As far as I know, you can't breed out strategic thinking or self-concept.

Even if we were far more involved in the rainforests, I doubt they'd be our pets. Certainly an equitable relationship, especially with some of the smarter ones like Bonobos, Chimps and Gorillas, but no way in hell we'd domesticate them.
The Dreaded AOL Dial-Up has left me afraid to spend more than 5 minutes posting at risk of losing it all. Arghhh.

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Pando
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What if there were some dumb ones, about half as smart as a lemur?
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Ook
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some little south american monkeys could be domesticated
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