The fact that they have a short lifecycle with only 1 lifetime breeding cycle is though. A lot of intelligent animals, like humans, chimps, elephants, dolphins, orcas, have long lives with many breeding cycles and grandparent roles. Ideally we want an animal that starts breeding in 1 year AND lives for 5+ breeding cycles to be able to learn enough to be useful over its lifetime. It takes so long for humans to learn enough to be useful!
The fact that they have a short lifecycle with only 1 lifetime breeding cycle is though. A lot of intelligent animals, like humans, chimps, elephants, dolphins, orcas, have long lives with many breeding cycles and grandparent roles. Ideally we want an animal that starts breeding in 1 year AND lives for 5+ breeding cycles to be able to learn enough to be useful over its lifetime. It takes so long for humans to learn enough to be useful!