Animal training in the context of "Companionship"

Imitation (from Latin imitatio, "a copying, imitation") is a behavior whereby an individual observes and replicates another's behavior. Imitation is also a form of learning that leads to the "development of traditions, and ultimately our culture. It allows for the transfer of information (behaviors, customs, etc.) between individuals and down generations without the need for genetic inheritance." The word imitation can be applied in many contexts, ranging from animal training to politics. The term generally refers to conscious behavior; subconscious imitation is termed mirroring.

Street performance or busking is the act of performing in public places for gratuities. In many countries, the rewards are generally in the form of money but other gratuities such as food, drink or gifts may be given. Street performance is practiced all over the world and dates back to antiquity. People engaging in this practice are called street performers or buskers, although busker is generally not used in American English.

Performances are anything that people find entertaining, including acrobatics, animal tricks, balloon twisting, caricatures, clowning, comedy, contortions, escapology, dance, singing, fire skills, flea circus, fortune-telling, juggling, magic, mime, living statue, musical performance, one man band, puppeteering, snake charming, storytelling or reciting poetry or prose, street art such as sketching and painting, street theatre, sword swallowing, ventriloquism, weightlifting and washboarding. Buskers may be solo performers or small groups.

Vaudeville (/ˈvɔːd(ə)vɪl, ˈvoʊ-/; French: [vodvil] ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment which became popular in the United States and Canada from the early 1870s until the early 1930s.

In some ways analogous to music hall from Victorian Britain, a typical North American vaudeville performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill. Types of acts have included popular and classical musicians, singers, dancers, comedians, trained animals, magicians, ventriloquists, strongmen, female and male impersonators, acrobats, clowns, mimes, illustrated songs, jugglers, athletes, lecturing celebrities, or scenes from plays, one-act plays, minstrels, and films. A vaudeville performer is often referred to as a "vaudevillian."

A tame animal is an animal that is relatively tolerant of human presence. Tameness may arise naturally (as in the case, for example, of island tameness) or due to the deliberate, human-directed process of training an animal against its initially wild or natural instincts to avoid or attack humans. The tameability of an animal is the level of ease it takes humans to train the animal, and varies among individual animals, breeds, or species.

In the English language, "taming" and "domestication" refer to two partially overlapping but distinct concepts. For example feral animals are domesticated, but not tamed. Similarly, taming is not the same as animal training, although in some contexts these terms may be used interchangeably.

A war elephant is an elephant that is trained and guided by humans for combat purposes. Historically, the war elephant's main use was to charge the enemy, break their ranks, and instill terror and fear. Elephantry is a term for specific military units using elephant-mounted troops.

War elephants played a critical role in several key battles in antiquity, especially in ancient India. While seeing limited and periodic use in Ancient China, they became a permanent fixture in armies of historical kingdoms in Southeast Asia. They were also used in ancient Persia and in the Mediterranean world within armies of Macedon, Hellenistic Greek states, the Roman Republic and later Empire, and Ancient Carthage in North Africa. In some regions they maintained a firm presence on the battlefield throughout the Medieval era. However, their use declined with the spread of firearms and other gunpowder weaponry in early modern warfare. After this, war elephants became restricted to non-combat engineering and labour roles, as well as being used for minor ceremonial uses.

Dozens of orcas are held in captivity for breeding or performance purposes. The practice of capturing and displaying orcas in exhibitions began in the 1960s, and they soon became popular attractions at public aquariums and aquatic theme parks due to their intelligence, trainability, striking appearance, playfulness, and sheer size. As of 24 March 2024, around 55 orcas are in captivity worldwide, 33 of which were captive-born. At that time, there were 18 orcas in the SeaWorld parks.

The practice of keeping orcas in captivity is controversial, due to their separation from their familial pod during capture, and their living conditions and health in captivity. Additionally, concerns have been raised regarding the safety of animal trainers entering the water to work with captive orcas, which have been responsible for numerous attacks on humans—some fatal. In contrast, wild orcas are not known to have ever killed a human, and physical interactions with humans in the wild are extremely rare and typically non-aggressive.

The domestic rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus domesticus) is the domesticated form of the European rabbit. There are hundreds of rabbit breeds originating from all over the world. Rabbits were first domesticated and used for food and fur by the Romans. Rabbits may be housed inside, but the idea of the domestic rabbit as a house companion, a so-called house rabbit (similar to a house cat), was only strongly promoted starting with publications in the 1980s. Rabbits can be trained to use a litter box and taught to come when called, but require exercise and can damage a house or injure themselves if it has not been suitably prepared, based on their innate need to chew. Accidental interactions between pet rabbits and wild rabbits, while seemingly harmless, are strongly discouraged due to the species' different temperaments as well as wild rabbits potentially carrying diseases.

Unwanted pet rabbits sometimes end up in animal shelters, especially after the Easter season. In 2017, they were the United States' third most abandoned pet. Some of them go on to be adopted and become family pets in various forms. Because their wild counterparts have become invasive in Australia, pet rabbits are banned in the state of Queensland. Domestic rabbits — bred for generations under human supervision to be docile — lack survival instincts, and perish in the wild if they are abandoned or escape from captivity.