I'm reading Ryan North's "How To Invent Everything," and I'm up to the part about the requirements for an animal to be possible to domesticate. I think barn owls potentially meet all the requirements. I wonder why nobody has domesticated owls?
🦉
@frameacloud A little cursory Googling suggests these issues may apply to owls in general, though I don't know enough about barn owls to say if they'd apply to them. Granted, many of the following are true of other domesticated species (ponies are BASTARDS) and have been dealt with...
* largely nocturnal
* very little flocking/bonding instinct
* require fresh/frozen prey; difficult to feed consistently
* require disproportionately large habitats compared to other domesticable animals
* extremely messy and difficult to housetrain
* raccoon-scale destructiveness (*blush*) when bored
* violent when surprised or stressed
* comparative lack of veterinary expertise for the species
* EXTREMELY loud during mating season
* dumber than a bag of hammers O:)
