(writing on chalkboard)

- Hi there, I'm Josh Clark.

And this is Brain Stuff.

And this is the Brain Stuff where I

explain to you why we don't ride zebras.

Is that right?

Maybe you've seen somebody ride

a zebra before, or, there's videos

on You Tube, and there's a movie

called Sheena, Queen of the Jungle,

and all of it made you think,

why don't we ride zebras?

Why isn't it just a normal thing?

First, Sheena, Queen of the Jungle

actually had a painted horse, not a real zebra.

And secondly, while it is possible

to get a zebra, once in a while, to let you ride it,

you can't actually domesticate the

zebra species, as a whole.

Here's why.

So an animal that's domesticated

is actually a member of a species

that has been modified from its

brethren in the wild by human intervention.

Through selective breeding and

making a species dependent on us

for their food supply, we make them

pretty much compliant to whatever

humans want them to do, whether it's

walk down a chute to their death,

or pull a cart, whatever.

Domestication means we've taken a wild species

and made it utterly and completely tame,

as a species.

With me so far?

Now that you understand domestication,

through that lens, it's kind of not that surprising

that we don't have more domesticated species.

All domesticated animals, including the big five

that we humans have really come to depend on:

cows, pig, sheep, goats, horses

have six main things in common, as pointed out

by Jared Diamond, who's the author of a number

of cool books, including Guns, Germs, and Steel.

These six things are kind of big.

They are that the animal is capable

of breeding in captivity.

They aren't picky eaters, which means that

the average human can go out and get food

for these animals.

They have a social hierarchy, which means that

a human can step in as the leader of the group.

They grow very quickly, so you can grow

a bunch of them as quickly as you need them

and replace the ones that die.

They tend not to panic which is

kind of important when you have something

in captivity that, you're saying,

Breed, breed!

Here's some food.

And probably most important of all,

they have a pleasant disposition, which means

they won't attack you every time you go in

to take them their food.

You put all these six factors together

and you have yourself a species that

could conceivably be domesticated.

But, if just one of these factors is missing,

that species will likely never

be able to be domesticated.

And zebras, it turns out,

do not match these criteria in a lot of ways.

Probably most of all, zebras are jerks.

They're very hostile.

They're very aggressive.

And that really means that you can't

domesticate them easily.

But you can't blame zebras for their stripes.

(drum rimshot)

See, zebras evolved on the African plains

and they evolved as a food source for lions.

Zebras don't want to be a food source for lions,

so since they have to fend off these apex predators

on a daily basis, they learned to be

very aggressive and to kick really, really hard.

In fact, a zebra can kick a lion to death.

So just think about what it could do

to a human head!

They also have a really nasty habit

of biting and not letting go.

(munching)

You put all that together, if you

go to take a zebra its food,

while you're trying to domesticate it,

you're in for a big surprise.

All of this about their disposition

and tendency to panic, frankly,

is not to mention that they're

too small to ride.

Zebras backs aren't evolved to allow

a human to ride along, or to carry

even a lot of cargo.

And you can't properly saddle them.

So really, even if zebras were

the nicest animal on the planet,

we would just break their backs

when we tried to ride them.

This is not to say that there is no such thing

as a tame zebra, like we've seen.

But a tame zebra is just an individual.

It's not a member of a domesticated species.

For example, the 2nd Baron Rothschild

used to ride around in a carriage

pulled by his train of zebras

in Edwardian London.

Must've been quite a sight to see.

Plus there's another guy named Bill Turner

who's known to ride his zebra around Dorset.

Apparently it has a stronger than usual back.

But for the most part, you can do away

with your wild, wild dreams of ever

riding a zebra at the park.

It's probably not gonna happen.

And now you know why.

So what animal do you wish you could ride?

I think I would look awesome riding an ostrich.

It's just my thing.

Let us know in the comments below.

And while you're down there, go ahead

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And for even more cool Brain Stuff stuff,

go to BrainStuffShow.com.