In my own experience, wyverns tend to be kept in stables not too unlike horses...although the boxes are obviously a lot bigger. The stables tend to be kept warmer than a horse stable, as well. Wyverns don't wear blankets nearly as well, both because their scales are more like large, overlapping plates and they're kind of pointy at the joints, plus the obvious matter of the wings. They take a lot less regular exercise than horses, too; as long as they're well-fed, they're generally happy to relax. Slower metabolisms again. They definitely don't get frisky or restless like horses do. And of course, there's a big difference in maintenance and feeding between a wyvern that isn't being actively flown much and one that is. It's one of the things that makes maintaining wyverns as part of a standing army viable in the long term.
So, since they're kept in relatively close quarters, like horses are, I guess you could say they get accustomed to the presence of other wyverns by proximity.
Ah, I think I might've explained myself badly. I meant that breeding for special colors of wyvern is the only effort to breed for anything specific in wyverns that I'm really aware of. But we do breed wyverns in captivity over trying to hunt down wild clutches or, even worse, trying to tame wyverns from the wild. That said, we really only breed them for up and coming wyvern riders 0 which is to say, kids who are going to be riders or soldiers. Wyverns take long enough to come for maturity that there's no point giving a young wyvern to an adult; they need to either be at maturity already, or come to it at about the same time as their rider.
One of the bigger challenges of wyvern riders in war is finding new wyverns for riders who lose their mounts, or new riders for wyverns who've lost their riders. Obviously those problems seem to solve themselves - just pair them up - but both rider and wyvern tend to develop pretty strong bonds with their particular mount. It's tough on both sides to adjust to a new partner. Some riderless wyverns have to be released because they won't accept any other rider; fortunately, even tame wyverns seem to take back to the wild life pretty quickly. I guess it's because they're not really fully domesticated. Humans tend to adjust to such losses better, but I've heard of men with big personalities becoming withdrawn for years because of a lost wyvern partner. It's obviously the worst with partners like myself and my own wyvern, who were raised together.
Older teenagers and adults who are paired with stable-raised wyverns manage those losses better, which is why you mostly see stable-raised wyverns among the rank and file of armies, where you expect to see those losses incurred more regularly. It's really only high-ranking military families, nobility, or those who maintain wyverns for travel and recreation that raise their own wyverns - and not even all of them do. You get much smarter, more responsive, more loyal mounts that way - but it's a big time and effort investment, and not everyone who reasonably make it necessarily wants to.
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Date: 2021-02-19 05:52 pm (UTC)So, since they're kept in relatively close quarters, like horses are, I guess you could say they get accustomed to the presence of other wyverns by proximity.
Ah, I think I might've explained myself badly. I meant that breeding for special colors of wyvern is the only effort to breed for anything specific in wyverns that I'm really aware of. But we do breed wyverns in captivity over trying to hunt down wild clutches or, even worse, trying to tame wyverns from the wild. That said, we really only breed them for up and coming wyvern riders 0 which is to say, kids who are going to be riders or soldiers. Wyverns take long enough to come for maturity that there's no point giving a young wyvern to an adult; they need to either be at maturity already, or come to it at about the same time as their rider.
One of the bigger challenges of wyvern riders in war is finding new wyverns for riders who lose their mounts, or new riders for wyverns who've lost their riders. Obviously those problems seem to solve themselves - just pair them up - but both rider and wyvern tend to develop pretty strong bonds with their particular mount. It's tough on both sides to adjust to a new partner. Some riderless wyverns have to be released because they won't accept any other rider; fortunately, even tame wyverns seem to take back to the wild life pretty quickly. I guess it's because they're not really fully domesticated. Humans tend to adjust to such losses better, but I've heard of men with big personalities becoming withdrawn for years because of a lost wyvern partner. It's obviously the worst with partners like myself and my own wyvern, who were raised together.
Older teenagers and adults who are paired with stable-raised wyverns manage those losses better, which is why you mostly see stable-raised wyverns among the rank and file of armies, where you expect to see those losses incurred more regularly. It's really only high-ranking military families, nobility, or those who maintain wyverns for travel and recreation that raise their own wyverns - and not even all of them do. You get much smarter, more responsive, more loyal mounts that way - but it's a big time and effort investment, and not everyone who reasonably make it necessarily wants to.