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Message: <blockquote data-quote="topkollek" data-source="post: 27446533" data-attributes="member: 510150">Contrary to what one may imagine based on their timid nature, antics in circuses, and temples, elephants are not domesticated. <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/2827868" target="_blank">Domestication</a> involves the adaptation of a species to humans and its captive environment through genetic changes that occur over generations. A domesticated species is bred in captivity and is different from its wild ancestors so that it is more useful to humans, who control its reproduction, behaviour and food supply. For thousands of years – from Hannibal’s African war elephants to the modern Asian elephants – elephants are not domesticated but are rather just wild individuals whose ‘will’ has been tamed. They remain immune to our domesticating attempts by virtue of their long gestation periods, their low birth rates and their large size and appetite (expensive to maintain for the many generations needed for domestication). And yet historically, the sheer power, size and scale of elephants have made them attractive to humans as an enormous powerhouse waiting to be tamed.<a href="https://thewire.in/culture/journey-from-the-wild-how-to-break-an-elephant" target="_blank">https://thewire.in/culture/journey-from-the-wild-how-to-break-an-elephant</a></blockquote>

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