Figure 1.--Allowing children to have pets starting at an early age is a great way to teach them how to handle responsibility. More than that, children who grow up taking care of at least one pet tend to adopt a more caring attitude towards animals and other people. The pgotograph here came from a Swedish news agency. we are not sure, however, where it cane from. we think it may be Britain or Germany. Photographer:

Some people have taken in wild animals as pets. Here there is a period at very young ages that animals can become imorinted on people. Work conduced in the 20th century has provided a good deal of information. It seems tht birds no matter how different that people look cn become imprintd on people. And many other animals show similr behavior. Other researchers have found that creful breeding can turn aggressive animals such as mink into more docile creatures in just a few generation. Here of course short life spans are importnt. But there are many instances of humans caring for baby animals without such breeding. Some of the most fasinating instances are work with African animals such as elephants, hippos, and rhinos. Every animal has its own behavioral characterustics and dietary needs. Orphan rhinos have proven very difficult to raise. It seems that they are psycolocially vulnerable. One baby rhino suffered so muchwhen separted from his human adoptive mother that he died if I ecall correctly in just 2 days. There is no interest in donesticating these animals, rather the focus is more on on how to save baby orphaned animals without allowing them to become imprinted on humans so they can be retuned to the wild. There is a great deal to be leaned here. It is not clear, for example, why zebras to not seem to be eaily domesticted like horses. Smaller animls like foxes nd rcoons hve been taken in by people, but generlly speaking this is not something tht most people can undertake, especially in n urbn environment..

Created: 1:56 PM 2/28/2016
Last updated: 1:56 PM 2/28/2016