Why do 134 species of large mammals fail to be domesticated? List and give examples

Question

Why do 134 species of large mammals fail to be domesticated? List and give examples

Answer 1

This sounds like you're skipping out on reading Guns, Germs and Steel and hoping the internet will answer your homework questions for you. Well it worked, but you are missing out on a good book.

Answer 2

why does this sound like a homework question?

Answer 3

Most mammals, like deer, zebra and antelopes, do not have sweat glands. They can not be beasts of burden, and so there was little incentive to domesticate them.

Answer 4

Some animals have behavioral patterns that make them nearly impossible to work with.

Gazelles will panic if penned, and then repeatedly batter themselves against the fence often fatally.

Other animals have dietary requirements that are extremely difficult to meet. A Koala will only eat certain kinds of leaves, and then only at certain times in the plants development.  Compare this to a dog, which can pretty much eat anything, vegetable or animal. An omnivorous dog can live after the scrapes left behind by humans, the specialist koala cannot.

Still other animals grow too large and are too aggressive to handle safely. Bears are omnivorous and relatively easy to find. Bear cubs have commonly been captured and trained throughout history. However, these cubs grow rapidly into large adults that are difficult to handle.  

Answer 5

Domesticating an animal takes dozens of generations of selective breeding.  No one is undertaking that process for animals that don't appear to be of immediate value to human beings.

For example, no one is even trying to domesticate elephant seals.  I mean -- why bother?  You can extend that logic to most of the pinnipeds.  Same for the giant anteater.