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RE: [RC] Hunted to extinction? - heidi

If I remember my world anthropology correctly, there were more humans in Asia 
10,000 years ago than there were here--and the horse thrived there.  Your 
points about the horses's disposition are well-taken--but given the outcome on 
another continent, it still does not stand to reason that they would have been 
hunted to extinction here.  

I agree that we will probably never know what killed them off here--but since 
many other species were also killed off at around the same time, it does not 
make sense to suggest that any of them were hunted to death by the low numbers 
of humans who had to hunt on foot and by stealth and cunning.

Heidi


Heidi said:

Given the very low population of humans at the time,
and the fact that many other much-hunted species
thrived (eg the buffalo), the idea that man was responsible
for the demise of the horse on this continent 10,000 years
ago doesn't wash.

This is not necessarily the case.  Wild horses have been hunted to
extinction everywhere on the planet, and, I contend that the reason for
this is the same as the reason that man was able to domesticate horses.
Horses do not have the dispositions or natures to protect themselves
adequately against skillful hunters.  Neither their flight instinct nor
their fight instinct is very well developed by comparison to many other
large mammal species, which makes them easy prey.

The nice thing about this, is it also makes them fairly easily
domesticated.


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