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A comment on Squirrel stores thousands of nuts inside man's parked truck. Parent comment

Re:Squirrel stores thousands of nuts inside man's parked truck by ascar on Tuesday September 28, 2021 @07:50PM (#28688798)
Haven't all large domesticated pets (i.e. those that can't be kept in a cage) been used for practical purposes for hundreds of years before they became mere pets in modern times? Like cats were used for pest control and dogs for all kinds of workloads.
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Re:Squirrel stores thousands of nuts inside man's parked truck by jasonhansel on Tuesday September 28, 2021 @10:52PM (#28689761)
Domesticating rats takes about 20-30 generations. Squirrels, though, take about 9 months to mature; rats are much faster, less than 2 months, which is probably one of many reasons why we've domesticated rats but not squirrels.

Still, hypothetically, it should be possible to domesticate squirrels within a few decades. In foxes, domestication only took 7 generations, so it could even be faster.

Incidentally, I have a new startup idea: first you domesticate squirrels, then you produce a line of commercially packaged squirrel food and an "invisible fence" type system for "outdoor" squirrels.

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Re:Squirrel stores thousands of nuts inside man's parked truck by saalweachter on Tuesday September 28, 2021 @08:20PM (#28688977)
Even weird tiny dog breeds usually have their origin in "we wanted a dog that could chase animals into their burrows".
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Re:Squirrel stores thousands of nuts inside man's parked truck by BugWatch on Tuesday September 28, 2021 @09:51PM (#28689442)
Or to run a rotisserie.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turnspit_dog

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Re:Squirrel stores thousands of nuts inside man's parked truck by Bayart on Wednesday September 29, 2021 @06:43AM (#28692097)
Terrier is quite literally French for "burrow". They still work great with rats, farmers love these dogs.
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Re:Squirrel stores thousands of nuts inside man's parked truck by Arrath on Wednesday September 29, 2021 @07:57AM (#28692535)
My parents had a terrier when I was younger, and she loved it when it was time to mow the grass. She would be out there eating her fill of the field mice that got flushed out and just having a blast.
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