Talk:Dedomestication

As the current article obviously is insufficient in many respects, I am strongly in favour of merging its information into Feral. I think that could be much more beneficial. -- DFoidl (talk) 21:11, 20 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Support Montanabw^(talk) 21:38, 20 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

This term is infrequently used, and mainly with plants. However, feral and dedomestication are not the same. The first refers to domesticated animals living in wild conditions, the second refers to the loss of the domesticated traits in an animal. The difference is between situation and evolution. Feral animals generally can be tamed again, just think about the mustang adoption program. You never ever could do that with wild or dedomesticated horses. Domestication is a long directed process, and to let nature retake that will take a long long time. There is probably not enough good information to satisfy a standalone article, and so, I suggest to add a small section in the domestication article on dedomestication, and move most examples to feral as they are generally not examples of dedomestication. -- Kim van der Linde ^{at venus} 02:16, 22 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I am well aware of the difference between dedomestication and feral (by the way, I didn't know that this term is not very common in the English language, in german it is indeed). The problem is that this article seemingly is too insufficient in its current version, since it only has very little literature as reference. Therefore, there are two options: improving it by using good literature, or merging the tangible information into feral (a subsection could do it fine, since all dedomesticated animals are in fact feral). I wasn't able to find any further information, so maybe the second option is the better one. -- DFoidl (talk) 17:29, 22 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I advocate the second option as well. And you are right, dedomesticated organisms are also feral, but not all feral organisms are dedomesticated.-- Kim van der Linde ^{at venus} 04:52, 23 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

What's in there now isn't working, so whatever does work, just do it right. My question is simpler, are any feral animals actually "dedomesticated," then? Montanabw^(talk) 23:18, 25 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

No, feral animals are not necessarily de-domesticated, in fact, many are still domesticated. -- Kim van der Linde ^{at venus} 14:44, 27 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

At least in german, it is usual to refer to animals such as mustangs, dingos or Chillingham cattle as dedomesticated animals. By the way, I had a closer look at the Feral article and discovered that it actually does provide all the information this article does, therefore I suppose a simple redirection to Feral from this article.-- DFoidl (talk) 09:59, 27 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I disagree. Dedomestication is not the same as feral. -- Kim van der Linde ^{at venus} 14:44, 27 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, its not the same, but this article is insufficient and we apparently do not have any citable literature at hand to make the article reliable, and most of those examples given in the text are found in Feral as well. -- DFoidl (talk) 08:08, 28 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

How much of this IS a language issue? Mustangs are, unquestionably, feral, NOT wholly reverted to the wild, they are routinely captured, trained to ride, and easily returned to full domestication. How does that in any way equate to "dedomestication?" No opinion on dingos, though when in Aussie, I met some people who DID have a tamed young one, seemed just a slightly rowdier than usual puppy; I've seen Chows and Akitas here that were more of a danger to children. But only one example. Mustangs, on the other hand, I have more experience with. (Haven't owned one myself, but have several friends who have adopted off the range) Montanabw^(talk) 22:19, 28 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]