The Fascinating Factors That Explain Why Horses Were Domesticated But Zebras Were Not

In the first part of his Americapox series, the CGP Grey explained how certain diseases were brought to the New World via newly domesticated animals. The second part of the series explains the four different factors of domestication (friendly, feedable, fecund, family friendly), why certain species that lent themselves to to domestication while others did not despite their physical similarities to those that were tamed.

Horse, herds, hierarchy. You can see it when they travel in a line. The male, top female, her foals, second female, her foals and so on. By capturing and taming the lead male, you become head horse. …For a zebra, there’s no such thing as a society. They hang out in groups because it’s a good survival strategy, but they don’t really care. Catch a zebra and his family won’t follow. Try to ride him and you’ll be lucky to keep your fingers. Zebra look like horses on the outside, but not on the inside.

Part One of the Americapox series.