Hippotragine Antelopes: A Suitable Alternative For Actual Horses?

Question

The hippotragines are a small subfamily of antelopes that bear physical resemblance to horses. There are three separate genera--Hippotragus, Oryx and Addax. As grazers, rather than browsers, the "Hippo" in Hippotraginae refers to the slightly horse-like characteristics of body size and proportions: long legs and a solid body with a relatively thick muscular neck. What's more, they are built for environmental extremes and live lives that might be suitable for domestication:

The Arabian Oryx, as the name suggests, lives in the hostile deserts of the Arabian Peninsula, and it lives in mixed-sex herds of 2-15 (though herds numbering 100 have been reported.)

The Scimitar Oryx can go for a long time without water and can even thrive in temperatures too high for most other mammals, hence their natural location in the Sahara Desert.

The Gemsbok lives in herds of 10-40, led by one dominant male alongside a few other subordinate males.

The Addax gets all the moisture it needs from the plants it eats and, like the Arabian Oryx, lives in mixed-sex herds.

So the question is, can any of the listed species be suitable alternatives for horses in the art of domesticating for the sake of cavalry? Or do they have personalities that would make domestication not worth the effort?

Answer 1

TL;DR: Probably not, but you could still make it work if you played around with human history enough.

Most anything can be domesticated, and the criteria for early people domesticating an animal really boil down to economy rather than behavior, which changes as both sides gradually adapt their lifestyles around each other. It also heavily relies on culture: not every animal that can be domesticated will be domesticated, otherwise we'd see independent events all over the place very early on.

It's important to note that the first domesticated megafauna were not ridden or put to harness. Even horses were simply livestock in the beginning. After some generations, they became more amenable to carrying packs or even pulling things, and horses developed strong enough backs to be ridden for longer periods of time.

Riding, specifically, will require a minimum wild-type weight to be physically possible. Most animals seem to be able to comfortably carry 20-30% of their weight; this is true for horses, llamas, goats, and dogs. I can't find anything immediate for cattle, although yaks carry about this percentage for long distances and can carry nearly their entire body weight for short trips.

Usage in battle may require a social structure that allows themselves to follow the herd and listen to the rider in stressful situations (donkeys lack this, and will freeze up or flee a battle). And the additional economic factor here would be their performance: speed, stamina, agility etc.

Now, let's look at your antelope. The Arabian oryx and addax are immediately out; a wild Arabian oryx would barely exceed 200 lbs and the heaviest addax barely reaches 300. This is smaller, on average, than the guanaco whose maximum weight goes just over 310. Even llamas, slightly larger, can only carry about 90-100 lbs.

Your strongest contenders for weight are the gemsbok (460-530 lbs - max weight for females vs males) and the scimitar-horned oryx (309 - 460 lbs). The wild-types of both animals are still too lightweight to support a fully grown human. With sufficient selective breeding, they may reach such a size, though it might be difficult. It's hard to find trustworthy data on tarpan weight per se, but a description of the height of the last living tarpan was measured at about 13 hands, which means we can make a semi-educated guess it weighed anywhere from 638 to 770 pounds.

So, both of those will have an even larger curve than horses, but potentially within the range of possibility. The most realistic path to reach this weight would be if they were first bred for food, then pack (or both), potentially even draft (not an option if you already have cows), and bred for size on all of those factors before someone has the insane idea of breaking one to ride.

Both the scimitar oryx and gemsbok seem to have appreciable herd structures; they're very similar to how horses and cattle conduct themselves. They definitely appear very close knit and could be efficiently herded, make good caravans (though, again, donkeys got by for both of those without having such a strong herd structure) and may conduct themselves well enough in war assuming one was large and strong enough to ride.

It would be a stretch, but I'm not saying it's impossible. What will complicate things is that looming economical factor. IOTL, we already had goats and cattle for food and labor. The oryx was only tamed for ceremonial use and for show, though I'm sure it was eaten at some point. Since you won't be able to use these antelope for riding immediately, you'd need them for the same roles already occupied by other animals that have already been domesticated. People will trust an ox over an oryx to pull a plow or transport goods, would rather milk a goat than a gemsbok cow, and will just generally have an easier time with their domestic animals than the wild ones, forgetting entirely what it was like when their ancestors were first making use of the aurochs and ibex. Get rid of those, you might see them with other animals.

If you want to domesticate antelope, you're not exactly limited to these guys. There are other antelope slightly larger, such as the roan, sable, kudu, and wildebeest, and at least two large enough to ride already: the nilgai and eland. Those two I think have the best chance, and I've written very favorably of elands myself in this post.

Answer 2

Two of them are too small for cavalry, and one was domesticated.

But the problem for the others is IF they can be domesticated, there are quite a few traits an animal needs to be domesticable. Even in equids, horses have been domesticated but zebra have not, despite many attempts. To be domesticated prior to industrialization an animal needs the right combination of traits; the right kind of herding behavior, the right kind of mating strategy, the right kind of territoriality, the right temperament, and the right diet. Without the right combination, you can't breed them in the first place. Very few animals have this perfect combination, and they are the ones we have domesticated in antiquity.

In African plains animals, it can be even harder because many have evolved to respond to humans aggressively because they evolved alongside humans. You need animals that will tolerate humans being close by.

Animals especially prone to running from anything that startles them (spooking) can't be domesticated because trying to shepherd and pen them results in the animals exhausting and/or injuring themselves, sometimes to death.

On the other hand, an animal that will attack other animals in its pen even if otherwise docile is common. They won't be domesticated because it is not economical if each animal needs its own field the sheer amount of land needed makes it impossible. Many herd animals will not tolerate new members this makes breeding particularly difficult.

An animal that is overly aggressive or dangerous will not be domesticated because of the risk involved, zebra are an example, the Dutch Boers tamed them by the hundreds and tried for decades to domesticate them, but they would attack their keepers biting and kicking seemingly at random making handling them too risky. Modern zoos even have special handling instructions because you never know when a zebra might decide to attack. Similarly, you can imagine why domesticating lions never happened, it's hard to domesticate something that might decide to try to eat you if it misses a meal.

Now for the specific animals you are asking about.

The scimitar oryx actually was domesticated in Egypt or they at least made an attempt. depictions on the Tomb of Ty and Abydos. They were used as food, leather, and a sacrificial animal, they are too slight to make good riding animals. The new kingdom gave up keeping them although no one knows why, likely they just were not economical. The also tried to domesticate hyena, but if zoo behavior is any indicator they proved too aggressive to be worth it. There is one obvious problem the length and cure of their horns means that the horn is basically pressed against the riders chest, not a great thing in a combat animal. If the rider leans forward they are serous risk of impalement or losing an eye.

To ride an animal any distance you need a big animal, generally, you want something that outweighs humans by several times. Even donkeys, the smallest domesticated riding animal, weighs 2 -3 times what a human does, the wild ass weighs around 500lbs, although we have bred smaller non-riding ones. The Gembok is the only one on your list large enough to breed for cavalry riding but it has several issues, it has highly territorial and aggressive males (towards humans and each other) and the females also spook easily. So the females are panicking while the males are trying to kill you. People may tame individual ones but they are not going to keep a breeding population.

If you handwave their behavior, (maybe your people found a family of mutants), then yes the Gembok could be bred for calvary. Physically they would work fine, it is only their behavior that makes them unlikely candidates.

Introduction to domestication

Answer 3

Given enough time and effort, any of these hippotragines could be bred and trained (and it takes both of these things) to make something akin to cavalry.

But your question actually seems to be whether it would be worth the effort. If you have access to anything already domesticated capable of carrying anything, the answer is probably no. I actually think you would be better off trying to selectively breed cows for this rather than starting with these wild animals.

But if nothing else is available, lets try and work out how much effort it would take.

The Russian fox experiment took 30 generations to become domesticated. In real terms, this means that the offspring would consistently not rip your face off given half a chance.

So an oryx female breeding age starts at around two to two and a half years old. So at best, with gestation, 30 generations would be 90 - 100 years.

So after 100 years of effort, you have something you can start working with, train etc. and only now can you begin selectively breeding for size and other characteristics.

Other factors you may need to consider are:

• how many of these animals you have to begin with (currently some oryx species are on the endangered list)
• luck, most of the foxes in the Russian foxes relate back to one female with a good temperament produced early on in the experiment
• amount of people to breed and test all of these animals for suitability to add to the next generation

But honestly, I think most people would give up before 100 years.

Answer 4

A Suitable Alternative For Actual Horses?

Of course they are, assuming domestication & selective breeding is involved then any suitably sized quadruped is, if the time it takes to selectively breed to make them large enough doesn't matter then we can even throw out "any size" & just say any quadruped, mouse cavalry anyone?

There are only two possible reasons they might not be.

1. Their skeletal structure may not be suitable for carrying heavy burdens (aka an adult human) for long periods of time without causing them injury.
2. Their temperament & tractability may be unsuitable for training.

But neither of those potential problems matter because both can be addressed by selective breeding & the domestication process.

can any of the listed species be suitable alternatives for horses in the art of domesticating for the sake of cavalry?

All of them are suitable, though some of them may need to be bred to be a bit larger.

Or do they have personalities that would make domestication not worth the effort?

Any problem with personality in the species will normally automatically be bred out of them by the domestication process, if still a bit intractable then more selective breeding can always fix it.

The only thing that tends to make domesticating a new species to serve as a mount not worth the effort is the prior existence of an already domesticated animal used as a mount (aka horses) which does make domesticating a new species for the same use a little bit like reinventing the wheel.

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To be perfectly clear wild animals are not domesticated even if they are tamed & trained to perform tasks or tricks, that isn't domestication & they are still wild animals, domestication is something else entirely & is only achieved over several (normally a great many) generations of selective breeding.

Some wild animal species may be easier than others to tame & train but that does not make them domesticated & the word domesticated is misused* when referring to a tamed wild animal.

* A prime example of this misuse is the many articles you'll find if you Google "domestication zebras", there has never been an attempt to properly domesticate the zebra & if you read the articles (rather than just their titles & first few lines) you find in every case that what they're really talking about are attempts to tame & train wild zebras to saddle or harness, not comprehensive breeding programs.

A good example of the real domestication process is the Russian Domesticated red fox.

Any species can be domesticated given enough time & it is in this context I answered the question.

Answer 5

Given 5,000 years of selective breeding, I'm sure you could.

That's the trouble with replacing horses, they've been domesticated pack and riding animals for a very long time. They've been bred to be the perfect pack/riding animals for humans.

Could you replace them with another quadruped? Perhaps with any other quadruped given sufficient years of selection. Though we've previously discussed the need to avoid using predators as mounts, mostly due to the inefficiency of feeding them.

It helps that they're herd animals, that means they have the right sort of group mentality that can be exploited by humans. They're all too delicate in the body and fundamentally too flighty as wild animals as they are. By the time you've finished breeding them for strength and temperament you'll probably have something that looks a lot more like a domestic cow or ox than a deer.

The question isn't really "could they be domesticated" as "is there something better"? Deer and antelope as a general rule haven't been worth domesticating, they're too difficult to work with when there are stronger and more passive animals available. You're talking about taking on a project that's going to take generations to complete, look for shortcuts to some aspect before selecting a creature to work with.