3 ms·

wild and feral are used interchangeably in today's vernacular, but it appears these truly are wild (as in undomesticated, the opposite of your dog). How cool!

riffic 2y ago
notably pigeons are feral and I absolutely was thinking the same thing here going off the headline. I guess we don't need to rewrite the stones song though.
- vsnf 2y ago
  In my understanding feral is a domesticated creature that has found it self adapting back to the wild, while a wild creature was never domesticated at all. How can pigeons be feral?
  - tomrod 2y ago
    Pigeons are domesticated doves. Humans have used them for meat and, if memory serves, communication for a long time. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feral_pigeon https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feral_pigeon
    - jimnotgym 2y ago
      Some pigeons are domesticated doves, the kind of pigeons you see in town. Wood pigeons are wild and distinctly different from town pigeons. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_wood_pigeon https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_wood_pigeon
      - RoyalHenOil 2y ago
        There are over 300 pigeon/dove species, and nearly all of these are wild and have never been domesticated. However, when people say "pigeon" without specifying a particular species, they are almost always referring to feral rock doves (Columba livia domestica) commonly found in urban environments all over the world.
  - delecti 2y ago
    Multiple types of Pigeons(/doves) have been domesticated through history. The pigeons most people are familiar with in big cities are feral domesticated rock doves.
- saghm 2y ago
  I think I might disagree, I would absolutely love there to be a rerecording where Mick Jagger croons that feral pigeons couldn't drag him away
pvg 2y ago
wild and feral are used interchangeably Both of these terms are much easier to say than "Przewalski" which probably attracted the headline writer. And a reader is less likely to confuse these wild horses with escapees from an oligarch's zoo or somesuch.
- Apocryphon 2y ago
  Would that some zebras do that and interbred with these horses
MostlyStable 2y ago
From my understanding, exactly how "wild" these horses are is mildly controversial, with some claiming that they have a non-trivial amount of domesticated horse ancestry. From Wikipedia: >Przewalski's horse was formally described as a novel species in 1881 by Ivan Semyonovich Polyakov. The taxonomic position of Przewalski's horse remains controversial, and no consensus exists about whether it is a full species (as Equus przewalskii); a subspecies of Equus ferus the wild horse (as Equus ferus przewalskii in trinomial nomenclature, along with two other subspecies, the domestic horse E. f. caballus, and the extinct tarpan E. f. ferus); or even a subpopulation of the domestic horse.[6][7][8] The American Society of Mammalogists considers the Przewalski's horse and the tarpan both to be subspecies of Equus ferus, and classifies the domestic horse as a separate species, Equus caballus.[9]
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]

riffic 2y ago

notably pigeons are feral and I absolutely was thinking the same thing here going off the headline. I guess we don't need to rewrite the stones song though.

vsnf 2y ago
In my understanding feral is a domesticated creature that has found it self adapting back to the wild, while a wild creature was never domesticated at all. How can pigeons be feral?
- tomrod 2y ago
  Pigeons are domesticated doves. Humans have used them for meat and, if memory serves, communication for a long time. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feral_pigeon https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feral_pigeon
  - jimnotgym 2y ago
    Some pigeons are domesticated doves, the kind of pigeons you see in town. Wood pigeons are wild and distinctly different from town pigeons. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_wood_pigeon https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_wood_pigeon
    - RoyalHenOil 2y ago
      There are over 300 pigeon/dove species, and nearly all of these are wild and have never been domesticated. However, when people say "pigeon" without specifying a particular species, they are almost always referring to feral rock doves (Columba livia domestica) commonly found in urban environments all over the world.
- delecti 2y ago
  Multiple types of Pigeons(/doves) have been domesticated through history. The pigeons most people are familiar with in big cities are feral domesticated rock doves.
saghm 2y ago
I think I might disagree, I would absolutely love there to be a rerecording where Mick Jagger croons that feral pigeons couldn't drag him away

pvg 2y ago

wild and feral are used interchangeably Both of these terms are much easier to say than "Przewalski" which probably attracted the headline writer. And a reader is less likely to confuse these wild horses with escapees from an oligarch's zoo or somesuch.

Apocryphon 2y ago
Would that some zebras do that and interbred with these horses

MostlyStable 2y ago

From my understanding, exactly how "wild" these horses are is mildly controversial, with some claiming that they have a non-trivial amount of domesticated horse ancestry. From Wikipedia: >Przewalski's horse was formally described as a novel species in 1881 by Ivan Semyonovich Polyakov. The taxonomic position of Przewalski's horse remains controversial, and no consensus exists about whether it is a full species (as Equus przewalskii); a subspecies of Equus ferus the wild horse (as Equus ferus przewalskii in trinomial nomenclature, along with two other subspecies, the domestic horse E. f. caballus, and the extinct tarpan E. f. ferus); or even a subpopulation of the domestic horse.[6][7][8] The American Society of Mammalogists considers the Przewalski's horse and the tarpan both to be subspecies of Equus ferus, and classifies the domestic horse as a separate species, Equus caballus.[9]

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]