Talk:Feral

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The article deals effectively with ferals in North America, but could benefit from additions on the phenomenon in other places, e.g. the difference on the Australian continent, where there are feral cattle, deer and camels as well as horses, goats etc.

Is one reason for this difference the sparser human population? The harsher landscape?

Quill 22:42, 20 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Contents 1 fancy word "resources" 2 Harmful effects and interests of the feralization 3 Other language reference to escaped slaves? 4 Readability 5 Inaccurate or Unhelpful 6 Other Edits 7 Feral 8 Contentious content

[edit] fancy word "resources"

feral resources: must use fancy word "resources"?

I changed the subtitle from Feral Animals in Australia to Feral Animals, because many of the examples weren't from Australia.

The list of feral animals in Britain includes many animals that are just invasive species, but aren't feral. Feral animals have to have been domesticated at one time, not just a wild animal from a different area. I'm deleting the whole list, because I don't believe any of the creatures on it have ever been domesticated, and I'm certain most have never been. Baiter 01:06, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

Some have been domesticated : rock dove, goat, and cat, but that's right, they might be too definition of feral animals, either only domesticated species, or all introduced species. I gess it would be more accute to tell only about domesticated ones. About "resources", is their an other word ?Astirmays 18:33, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Harmful effects and interests of the feralization

I guess nobody did correct this part that I did include from the french page. It probably isn't perfect english, since it is a google translation that I just corrected few. Astirmays 21:57, 3 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Other language reference to escaped slaves?

The German link leads to "Cimarrón" - a Spanish term for escaped slaves. Though I see the connection, this seems inappropriate in this context.

That's right, it must be removed. Yes it's the same term for feral and Maroon (people) in spanish and french, but 2 articles : es:Cimarrón and es:Esclavo cimarrón in spanish, and fr:Marronnage (animaux) and fr:Marronnage in french.

In German, I found the article de:Dedomestikation, which is not exactly on the same topic since it links back to Breeding back Astirmays 17:27, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Readability

From the look and sound of the article, much of it appears to have been originally written in a language other than English and translated by bablefish ("Zealand New???"). I hope that people do not object to my attempts to render sections into more readable phrasing. I realize that some terms may have a correct technical meaning, but they are incomprehensible to the average reader and should be replaced with something more readable. (FYI, this is not "dumbing down" the article--just making it intelligible to the general public, who may not have a specialized scientific vocabulary.) Also, a more minor point, a couple places had a strong "animal rights" POV in the language, which I attempted to phrase in a more neutral manner. Montanabw 21:11, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Inaccurate or Unhelpful

I've stumbled across this page. Your definition of a feral is preposterous: A "feral" person is someone who has unique, interesting, or different traits or characteristics which make them stand out. These traits may indeed be found in some ferals, but they fail to distinguish ferals from all the other people who may also be 'interesting' and 'different'. Ferals, in Italy {Punca bestia} are a sub-culture, whose members resemble animals in some superficial way (although obviously they are still human), untethered hair (impromptu dreadlocks), the keeping of animals (usually dogs), unwashed. Their social system is based upon the following practices and philosophies: environmentalism (usu. radical), refusal of most property systems founded on tenure or ownership (usually resulting in nomadism and/or squatting), pot-smoking, dog husbandry, suspicion (usu. justified) of non-ferals. The origins probably lie in enviromentalism, hippydom, and post-psychedelia.

If no one objects I will post the above defintion in place of the previous one.

Marabunta 15:06, 22 December 2006 (UTC) Italic text

[edit] Other Edits

I've removed a weird use of the word evolved, since biologists don't speak of environments evolving. Speciate 06:05, 6 January 2007 (UTC)speciate

[edit] Feral

Now here's a question: Is a Furry Lifestyler [[1]] feral in any way? I'm talking the EXTREME lifestylers, not the guys in fursuits.

[edit] Contentious content

I have to question the following paragraph:

Populations of feral parrots descended from escaped pets/zoo specimens have established themselves in various areas of Europe, North America and Australia. Rose-ringed Parakeets and Monk Parakeets have been particularly successful in this regard.

I accept the facts, but not the label "feral".

Unless the domesticated ancestors of the "feral" parrots are genetically different from their wild ancestors, surely they were captive rather than domesticated. In this case, the parrots should not be referred to as "feral", but rather as "escaped" (first generation) or "naturalized" (subsequent generations, if the population is considered self-sustaining. Anyone agree?—GRM (talk) 17:11, 18 May 2008 (UTC)

I don't have strong feelings on the issue, but my only horse in this race (pardon the pun) is the equidae section. I'd say if you can find an outside source per WP:V that either places parrots as captured OR feral, that would be the best approach. Sources settle many a dispute. Montanabw^(talk) 00:23, 21 May 2008 (UTC)

Christopher Lever, 1996. Naturalised birds: feral, exotic, introduced or alien? British Birds 89(8):367–368.

Now, I admit that this is only a letter and not the source I was looking for; however, Lever defines "feral" as "An animal that has reverted to the wild from domestication. 'Feral' should never be used to describe the naturalisation of a wild (i.e. non-domesticated) species." He goes on to say "I agree that mere keeping in captivity does not constitute domestication, and that the 'Feral Pigeon' [Rock Dove] Columba livia and perhaps the Muscovy Duck Cairina moschata are the only British feral birds." Is this sufficient evidence (or precedent) to use the narrower definition of the word, especially in the context of British birds?—GRM (talk) 17:53, 24 May 2008 (UTC)

I should, perhaps, have noted that this Christopher Lever is the author of at least four books on "Naturalized" animals—GRM (talk) 17:55, 24 May 2008 (UTC)