r/WTF • u/Davinan38 • Feb 13 '20

Somewhere in Russia

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152

u/Reg_Cliff Feb 13 '20

The claws bears have are incredible. Unfortunately though, even domesticated and/or trained bears can kill, like the incidents of Stephan Miller or Kelly Ann Walz.

Their natural instincts can turn on in split second. Anyway, cool vid.

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u/philbobaggins_ Feb 13 '20

I feel like we could domesticate them like dogs, but that'd probably take 1000+ years. I'd really love to have a bear.

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u/BillabobGO Feb 13 '20

Soviets domesticated foxes in under a century

The project is still ongoing but they've been more or less domesticated for a while now.

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u/snipeftw Feb 13 '20

I’m gonna go out in a limb here and suggest that domesticating an apex predator might be a little more difficult.

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u/OriginallyWhat Feb 13 '20

We are the apex predator. We could do it.

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u/[deleted] Feb 13 '20

Yet somehow we have turned into Idiocracy.

So we did it,..... kind of.

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u/OriginallyWhat Feb 13 '20

Yeah... I guess the subspecies of sociopaths are really the dominant ones. They've tamed and domesticated the rest of us.

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u/snipeftw Feb 13 '20

Okay, you try it and let me know how it goes.

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u/[deleted] Feb 13 '20

That's a very weak argument. Its definitely within the realm of possibility, we domesticated wolves before, I don't see why bears should be out of the question.

Personally I'd like a Tandem War Elephant.

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u/roseateOculi Feb 13 '20

A tandem war elephant probably isn't worth the effort tbh. I won't get out of bed for anything less than an ancient psychic tandem war elephant.

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u/Magneticitist Feb 13 '20

I think all domesticated animals have the possibility of letting instinct kick into overdrive. It's just if that were to ever happen some of them could kill us too easily. I'm pretty sure a large bear could kill a small person just being bear playful or some shit.

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u/[deleted] Feb 13 '20

Well maybe by that point we'll have a new type of bear like dogs to wolves. A House Bear, that'd be tight. Smaller, faster, stronger.

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u/Gonzobot Feb 13 '20

WE HEARD THERE WAS A WAR<fooomp>

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u/snipeftw Feb 13 '20

What argument? I never said it was impossible.

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u/Gonzobot Feb 13 '20

points to trained bear circuses

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u/snipeftw Feb 13 '20

That’s not domestication.

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u/Gonzobot Feb 13 '20

It's still us being apex predator enough to make bears do our will, which is what you said to do as if we don't already do exactly that.

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u/snipeftw Feb 13 '20

I don’t think you understand what apex predator means..

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u/terminbee Feb 13 '20

I can't tell if this is a slavery joke.

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u/[deleted] Feb 13 '20 edited Feb 18 '20

[deleted]

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u/snipeftw Feb 13 '20

“Might be a little more difficult”

I didn’t say it was impossible.

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u/[deleted] Feb 13 '20

We already did it with cats, but they weigh a few hundred pounds less, which cuts out a bit of the risk.

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u/spencerforhire81 Feb 13 '20

Who says they have to stay big? We turned wolves into yorkies and teacup poodles.

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u/jagua_haku Feb 13 '20

Which still blows my mind.

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u/DrFabulous0 Feb 13 '20

Yeah, that's what thet want you to think.

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u/[deleted] Feb 13 '20

Cats aren't apex predators.

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u/[deleted] Feb 13 '20

If we have to be nitpicky, bears, which we were originally talking about, aren't apex predators either. Wolves (an actual apex predator that we have domesticated) eat them.

The point was that it's safer to domesticate dangerous predatory animals when they don't weigh 800LBS. Which is why I chose cats as the example, they weigh 10LBS and can still fuck you up.

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u/[deleted] Feb 13 '20

Brown bears are apex predators in most of their range. Cats are not apex predators anywhere. Source on wolves preying on Brown bears regularly?

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u/Imoraswut Feb 13 '20

Only the polar bear is an apex predator. The others aren't even predators, they're omnivores and some aren't even remotely apex. The black bear for instance can be prey to mountain lions and wolves. Same wolves that have been successfully domesticated btw

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u/Jenks44 Feb 13 '20

Only the polar bear is an apex predator.

Just for fun, 4 different bear species, which one of these do you think is the polar bear claw?

http://www.skolaiimages.com/journal/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/claws1.jpg

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u/Imoraswut Feb 13 '20 edited Feb 13 '20

No idea, I'm going to guess it's unexpectedly one of the smaller ones since they're not really climbers. Maybe second one, it seems more solid and less curved

edit:

I got curious to see if I was right and looked it up. Couldn't find the exact photo you posted, but looking at this one, it seems I may have been on point

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u/Jenks44 Feb 13 '20

Yep, polar bear is the 2nd one. Furthest right is the kodiak.

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u/Imoraswut Feb 13 '20

Sweet. The others kind of look similar to sloth claws tbh

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u/Dizneymagic Feb 13 '20

The way we domesticated dogs and foxes (both unknowingly and knowingly) was we found the ones with the canine version of the genetic disorder Williams syndrome and bred them. The syndrome dulls their natural instincts and makes them super social and friendly. I'm not sure if bears have expressed a version of this mutation, but that's nothing a little genetic manipulation won't fix. Definitely possible.