Other than humans, are there any animals that domesticate other animals?

https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/1h30icv/other_than_humans_are_there_any_animals_that/

created by delicious-urine on 30/11/2024 at 00:47 UTC

41 upvotes, 4 top-level comments (showing 4)

Comments

Comment by cygx at 01/12/2024 at 12:22 UTC

90 upvotes, 1 direct replies

Depends on your definitions, but ants are known to herd aphids (cf ant-aphid mutualism[1]). Some species of ant also do fungus farming (cf ant-fungus mutualism[2]).

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphid#Ant_mutualism

2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant%E2%80%93fungus_mutualism

Comment by objective_yeast at 01/12/2024 at 11:12 UTC

34 upvotes, 2 direct replies

Domesticate might be too strong of a word, given animals are wild, but i imagine it would be a case of cooperative cohabitation where one animal is inherently seen as stronger. I''d suggest sharks and pilot fish, crocs and plover birds. Microhylid frogs often live with larger spiders and work well together, and it looks like they keep them as pets.

Also, some monkeys and wolves live comfortably together in an odd partnership https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn27675-monkeys-cosy-alliance-with-wolves-looks-like-domestication/

Comment by imsowitty at 01/12/2024 at 16:34 UTC

8 upvotes, 0 direct replies

A species of ants will 'farm' aphids for the food they make: https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/did-you-know/farmer-ants-and-their-aphid-herds#:~:text=Several%20species%20of%20ants%20have%20a%20special,primarily%20on%20the%20sap%20from%20plants%20and

Comment by svarogteuse at 02/12/2024 at 22:17 UTC

4 upvotes, 0 direct replies

In general domestication is not just the capture and use of animals, it involves breeding the animals over successive generations so that they show behavioral and often physical changes from the original species; Dogs are no longer wolves, hogs are no longer wild boars, cattle are no longer aurochs. Even when returned to the wild for multiple generations the domesticated animals are decidedly different than their always wild cousins. Texas longhorn cattle still demonstrated domesticated traits despite redeveloping large horns, and were easily brought back under human control.

I do not believe that it has been shown any animal other than humans have domesticated another. There are animals which live in varying forms of symbiotic relationships, even to the extent of ants gathering, protecting and milking aphids but its not domestication, its more akin to our use of elephants. Elephants are captured in the wild and tamed, they are not breed as a species or subspecies in themselves for human use.