Top 5 animals that cannot be tamed or domesticated

Raccoons

Raccoons are a good candidate for domestication. They are skillful climbers and can get into tight spaces, making them an excellent work animal. If domesticated, raccoons could be useful for the elderly and physically challenged.

Despite their cute appearance, raccoons are quite aggressive. They are naturally curious like to move, and quickly become destructive when confined to a certain area. They usually need to be constantly monitored and bite when they are hungry or angry. Bites can even be fatal, as they can infect humans with rabies.

Since raccoons can use their hands like humans, they usually try to open anything they can touch. They are also experts at escaping. This is the main reason why domestication attempts have failed. In addition, raccoons like to be alone, are not social animals and are not loyal to humans.

Common raccoon, rinse raccoon (photo: Wikipedia)

Foxes

Once upon a time, we completely domesticated foxes. However, they became extinct, and modern attempts to domesticate them again have only partially succeeded.

The extinct fox that we domesticated was called the Fuegian or Jagan dog. Interestingly, the Fuegian dog was not very popular at the time. This was probably because it was not as useful as an ordinary dog.

There is also evidence that we tried to domesticate foxes long before the Fuegian dog but gave up trying for cats because we could not determine what to use foxes for.

These animals are difficult to domesticate because of their incredible stubbornness. Geneticist Dmytro Beliaev sought to change this in the 1950s. He began a project to domesticate silver-black foxes, which are red foxes affected by melanism, which is the opposite of albinism and turns affected animals black.

After four generations, the foxes exhibited dog-like behavior. They admired people, wagged their tails, and licked their breeders. Now, fifty generations later, they bark, react to people, and understand gestures. They also make sounds that are different from wild foxes.

The project continues and is considered a success. However, the foxes are tamed, but not domesticated.

A pair of red foxes (photo: Wikipedia)

Dingoes

Dingoes are dog-like animals that live in Australia. Despite their resemblance to dogs, they are not considered dogs and are not domesticated. Australian farmers even consider them pests. There is a theory that we partially domesticated dingoes thousands of years ago before allowing them to return to the wild.

There is a slight difference in how humans domesticated dogs and dingoes. While dogs are considered companions, the early Indigenous Australians who likely domesticated dingoes considered them a source of food. In addition, indigenous Australians did not selectively breed animals for their favorable characteristics.

Dingoes at the Sydney Zoo (photo: Wikipedia)

Moose

Several centuries ago, when cavalry was still in vogue, King Charles XI of Sweden decided that he needed a more ferocious animal to replace his horses. An animal that would make enemies flee the battlefield at first sight. He stopped his search for elk.

Unfortunately for the king, the plan never worked. As it turned out later, the moose was too dangerous to approach. The situation worsens during the mating season when they become uncontrollably aggressive. In addition, elk are susceptible to disease and have a varied diet that is difficult to provide.

Elk are intelligent creatures and usually avoid the war front. When they do approach the battlefield, they flee the moment the first one is killed. Attempts to use them as meat have also failed. The animals refuse to go to the slaughterhouse when they realize that the moose that was driven there earlier does not return.

Sometimes moose show little fear of humans (photo: Wikipedia)

Coyotes

All attempts to domesticate coyotes have failed because they naturally avoid people. Breeders are wary of these animals because they can be infected with dangerous diseases such as rabies and tularemia.

However, some people have dared to take these risks and tried to domesticate the coyote. One common method is to cross a male coyote with a male dog. Although the resulting hybrid is less aggressive toward humans, it is not a true coyote.

Another method is to take young wild coyotes away from their mothers and train them for adulthood. Wild coyotes become less wary of humans after about three generations, but they are still not pets.

Many attempts to domesticate the coyote have ended with the coyote attacking the breeder. This happens because a coyote close to humans often begins to see humans as prey and will look for the best time to attack. Interestingly, coyotes are slowly becoming domesticated naturally.

Coyote, or meadow wolf (photo: Wikipedia)

Sources: List Verse and Wikipedia.