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Look at what the cat's tail does when it leaps through the air, or the dogs tail when turning a corner at high speed, and it will become clear. It's for balance and agility. Greyhounds and Cheetahs naturally have fairly long tails.
Can we call a greyhound's tail natural , if it has been bred for purpose by people?
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Can we call a greyhound's tail natural , if it has been bred for purpose by people?
Can you call any domesticated animal natural?
That we semantically look at our own involvement as somehow different on outcome isn't really the intent of artifice, I think. Rather that humans, individually and collectively, modify the environment to suit their needs.
I'm not really looking to argue the point, but interested in hearing other's thoughts on this.
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Can we call a greyhound's tail natural , if it has been bred for purpose by people?
Can you call any domesticated animal natural?
If the question is learned behavioral domestication vs bred genetic domestication... Is a banana natural? Apples oranges grains, virtually every verity of produce at the store has been ’domesticated’. Are they natural?
Humans have been bred for group behavior, language and manual (slave) labor by means of evolutionary pressure and natural selection. Are we unnatural?
Pretty sure ‘natural’ is not the delineation we want to use
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Showing someone (or another dog) that you're excited or scared ("tail between his legs") is a very potent social mechanism I think. I don't think it adds much to the motor skills of the dog, besides maybe giving it a tool to keep flies and insects away from the ol' pooper.
Watch something like a greyhound or German Shepherd at full throttle and you might reassess your view about whether it adds to motor skills. It seems to be a very active part of a full speed sprint. It's also a very subtle tool for social interaction as you note - the difference between tail wagging whilst up, horizontal and down, or wagging just the tip and so on. There's quite a lot of complexity hiding there.
My opinion: long mammals like cows, horses, camels, etc can't reach their behinds with their limbs. They can use their head (especially when the tail doesn't reach the fronter part of the behind), but it's not efficient because their head is heavy (and they're heavy animals in general) and has more inertia. Therefore, a tail is their swift efficient defense for the behind. By contrast, smaller mammals like cats, dogs…
My opinion: long mammals like cows, horses, camels, etc can't reach their behinds with their limbs. They can use their head (especially when the tail doesn't reach the fronter part of the behind), but it's not efficient because their head is heavy (and they're heavy animals in general) and has more inertia. Therefore, a tail is their swift efficient defense for the behind. By contrast, smaller mammals like cats, dogs…
This is another reason why cutting the tail is wrong - besides the fact that it's cruel (it's almost incredible now, but it was common a few years ago, and it is still practiced in some countries).
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Can you call any domesticated animal natural?
It’s a legitimate question but it's a slippery slope. A wild horse can be domesticated, is it natural? Donkeys, and camels too, even birds like parrots and raptors can be trained to do work and be subservient to humans. If the question is learned behavioral domestication vs bred genetic domestication... Is a banana natural? Apples oranges grains, virtually every verity of produce at the store has been ’domesticated’.…
My opinion: long mammals like cows, horses, camels, etc can't reach their behinds with their limbs. They can use their head (especially when the tail doesn't reach the fronter part of the behind), but it's not efficient because their head is heavy (and they're heavy animals in general) and has more inertia. Therefore, a tail is their swift efficient defense for the behind. By contrast, smaller mammals like cats, dogs…
tl;dr: “Our work shows that a horse’s tail isn’t just an ornament. It’s their main line of defense against biting insects”
That's interesting considering it can really only swat away insects around it's behind and is useless for the rest of the body.
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> The only good material for them is carefully selected tail hair from horses in places with cold climates, like Mongolia. Do string players usually try drinking horse blood mixed with fermented horse milk? I only played trumpet, so no idea what’s normal for orchestra culture.
Hey man, are you having a good day?
It's not really any different than how most people who are ethnically Norwegian or Swedish are probably eventually going to try lutefisk, not because they expect it to be good but just because it gives context to their identity or whatever.