Would a tiger make a good pet for Paul Bunyan?

[Myria]

Tigers are bad pets for humans because they are dangerous. But if we were much larger than a tiger, would we have a relationship with them as we do now with housecats? Housecats are vicious killers, too; we're just much bigger than them.

How similar is tiger behavior to, say, the wild cats from which housecats derived?

[Carnildo]

With one exception, all the working animals (as opposed to food animals) that have been domesticated by humans live in groups with well-defined social structures, and a key element of domestication is to get the animal to accept a human as the leader of the social group. That one exception is the housecat -- we don't know how it ended up getting domesticated.

[poxic]

The most common story is that cats took up residence around the grain stores when humans began farming, since the stores attracted rodents. The cats didn't eat the grain or any other plants, and were small enough to not damage the livestock, so humans tolerated or even encouraged them.

In a similar way to how wolves may have self-selected for getting along with humans, the cats who could tolerate humans likely mated with each other, since they were hanging around together near human settlements. This produced litters of kittens that also tended to tolerate humans well, and so on.

Also, hey. They're cute.

[Qaanol]

Also, hey. They're cute.

Semi-relevant link.

[AvatarIII]

reminds me of Rudyard Kipling's Just So Story "The Cat That Walked By Himself" which is basically a story about the domestication of cats. obviously it's just a story, but it's enjoyable nonetheless,
http://boop.org/jan/justso/cat.htm

[dkas2929]

Myria,
If they're hungry or feel threatened tigers will attack anything even when raised from cubs in a home environment. So I don't think it would matter how big we were, case in point sigfred and Roy.

[Soralin]

Myria,
If they're hungry or feel threatened tigers will attack anything even when raised from cubs in a home environment. So I don't think it would matter how big we were, case in point sigfred and Roy.

Well, so can housecats, they're just small enough relative to us that it's nothing life-threatening, and we quickly learn not to try to pull a frightened housecat out from under a bed.

[Charlie!]

Lions, on the other hand...

[Copper Bezel]

And I guess that follows, since they're more social than really any other species of feline.

Also, holycrapthatwasadorable.

Edit: Also, this comedy swear check thing is baffling and actually a little annoying. Hulk likes centipede, etc.

[Charlie!]

And I guess that follows, since they're more social than really any other species of feline.

Also, holycrapthatwasadorable.

Edit: Also, this comedy swear check thing is baffling and actually a little annoying. Hulk likes centipede, etc.

Yeah, it goes in cycles. The philosophy is that we pay the rnoderators back in the coin of our rage and suffering

[Quizatzhaderac]

Myria,
If they're hungry or feel threatened tigers will attack anything even when raised from cubs in a home environment. So I don't think it would matter how big we were, case in point sigfred and Roy.

In Roy's case the tiger was actually trying to help him by dragging him away from danger. If he was a tiger cub dragging him by the back of the neck would be fine. In Mr. Bunyan's case the tiger would lack the strength to break his spine like that (Roy's main injury).