Why was it not a thing?

you would be too if you came across a pack while you were camping out in the wilderness without a gun or anything. i dont think most people are generally afraid of coming across a wolf in their day to day lives.

>Why was it not a thing?

Horses are:

Faster
More durable
Heavier
Stronger
Taller
Sturdier
Easier to feed
Easier to handle
Easier to train

Why would you ride a smaller, slower, more difficult animal that has a fraction of the endurance of a horse, when you can just ride a horse?

The point of cavalry is not to be a big scary opponent, it's to ride in formation, very fast over very long distances and use the speed, weight and (most importantly) height of the animals to overrun infantry.

Also, for all a bear's ferocity and strength, they can't bite through steel, their claws will glance harmlessly off plate and shields, they really offer no actual advantages in combat over a horse, only a fuckload of disadvantages.

Source?

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wojtek_(bear)

>Officially enlisted so the government pays for him
Okay, i get that
>Subsequently promoted to corporal
How? Why?

>How? Why?
He was a very good soldier.

As a recognition for service rendered
how does anyone get a promotion baka-sama

What do you think you're looking at?

>often visited by journalists and former Polish soldiers, some of whom would toss him cigarettes, which he proceeded to eat because there was no one there to light them for him.

So wait a minute they taught a bear to smoke????

Great!
Now make it breed, and have spread the idea to other northern nations as well

aren't horses basically fucked after they break a leg? not durable or sturdy at all

They're far too vicious creatures to be used as anything but highly controlled military mounts, that's why they never really saw widespread use.

They are miles easier to breed and train, and aren't going to rip your arm off half the time.

fpbp

>They're far too vicious creatures to be used as anything but highly controlled military mounts
You're only making them sound cooler

Just need a couple of generations to become more tame is all

He was a good bear obviously.

Soldiers oftentimes smoke.

Not him but while a pack might be menacing, encountering a single wolf isn't that bad. They're fucking pussies and not even that strong.
Bears are a different story, I'm still terrified of meeting one whenever I enter a forest.

bears are legitimately fucking useless when trying to train them

Is that Command and Conquer art?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kostroma_Moose_Farm

What about other cervides?

Because Russian law forbid arming of bears.

>Wars Battle of Monte Cassino
??????

>few

We can get fucked up by a LOT of animals

>PPSh-41
>MP-40

oh so this is about WW2, that's go..

>AK-47

no

It's probably as simple as the insane amount of food they need and keeping such powerful animals pinned up. Horses and reindeer are more efficient

>polish intellectuals

This

Their main and only advantage is that unlike horses, moose are adapted to the dense snowy forests of the Swedish borders, so they're way more effective for border patrol.
Otherwise moose are solitary beasts, that rarely group together, unlike horses. This is a problem because unlike horses they don't have the concept of dominant/submissive relationship and refuse to be domesticated, so they can at best be tamed.
Moose handlers are very prone to injury because of the sheer viciousness of the creatures, and they've been tamed since the 16th century.
Other cervides are too frail to be mounted by most humans, so unless you're a 150cm Sami, they wont be useful for much but pulling sleds.
They are way more friendly though.

/thread

It's much easier to domesticate animals that live in a herd/pack with a leader. Moose are generally solitary animals so they would not instinctively know how to follow commands as well

It's not easy to just come across a pack of wolves. They tend to be very skittish animals, incense that you are coming by smell and sound. We are not their normal prey, and usually don't have any motivation to hunt humans. The idea that wolves are a danger to humans is archaic and misguided, and is mostly the result of hysteric fear.

Horses are incredibly durable animals. It doesn't mean they are impervious to leg fractures. If it's malnourished or genetically compromised, that's a different story, but for the most part horses legs don't just break without some kind of serious trauma.

Carnivores as a whole are more intelligent animals. That means that in order to train one you have to also have a very intelligent trainer, which have not been abundant, historically.

>being afraid of the 2nd most apex predator in the world is misguided
Climb out of your arse. Yes wolves are also afraid of humans and if you're armed they're not that much of a threat, but they are extremely intelligent and if they decide they want to kill you, they will kill you. It is smart to be afraid of wolves

because Bears would not be ok with this

No, if you care for them until they make a full recovery they are fine. But horses are not worth that cost, and racehorses will never be as fast as they originally were, which is why they are immediately put down

Ungulates are objectively the best animals for land movement because they are built to be travelers, carnivorans are short distance predators they fucking suck.

...

Could be a patrol somewhere in 49

>alternative universe where Russian cossack troops ride bears
>ak-47 being early is the issue

Wolves are actually a lot bigger then most people expect. And a pack of them would be terrifying.

you would have to feed them with your own troops

>meese
I completely respect what you are doing.
English needs to be fucking fixed.

Except they RARELY decide to kill humans. If you have stats or articles on wolf packs hunting humans please share them.
The infrequent occurrences where wolves have hunted humans usually involves a wolf that is too weak or sick or old to hunt it's normal prey, and is reduced to hunting humans, which don't have the same amount of meat as something like a bison would.

Source: I've studied wolves and worked with organizations involving different species of wolves for over half a decade.

Not him, but you're still an idiot. They're highly dangerous predators. They steer clear of humans for the most part because they know that we're dangerous predators too. Still, it would suck to be you if a wolf decided it wanted to fuck you up. That's why people are afraid of them.
There's a number of other creatures (like bears) that are unlikely to attack people for no good reason, but it's still wise to steer clear of them because there's little you can do to defend yourself on the off chance they decided to attack.

Steering clear? Duh, of course.

The problem is that there has existed a fear of wolves that compels people to vilify and hunt them into non-existence. And yes, there is a danger with any animal, be it a bug or a deer in rut, but having a trigger happy attitude is overkill for any reasonable person.

Exactly!
It may be a foreign word, but it's not madness to change it around for it to fit better in with the english language

Because using a PPSh and an AK-74 in the same timeframe is silly.

Objection, good sir!

Is it not the case that horses used to be too small to be ridden as well, thus first used for cart and chariot pulling and such?

how did you indentify the caliber of the Ak in the background ?

Pigs used to be boars, dogs wolves, same with horses, people didn't just one day climb on one and there it was. We had to domesticate those.
Aurochs were bigger and meaner than meese. And we turned those into cows. Native peoples were just shit.

Muzzle flash

k
kys

Reddit didn't exist back then.

Domesticating predators is not economically viable.
You need to grow other animals to feed them.

Domesticating solo animals is also much harder.
Easier to domesticate herd animals, you just convince then that you are the alpha and they follow.
Bears have no such structure.