Few animals are as loyal and affectionate as dogs. New research shows that wolves may also show the same affection and loyalty to their humans, according to a study.
While earlier studiesAlthough similar suggestions have been made, there is not much research that has been done on the attachment of wolves to humans. The results have varied. This study team wanted to follow a standard approach where dogs and wolves were raised under identical conditions from birth.
Researchers believe that dogs were domesticated between 40,000 and 15,000 year ago from extinct wolf species. Their findings could shed light on the traits that evolved through domestication and what they were like in the first place.
“Wolves with human-directed attachment might have had a distinct advantage in the early stages for dog domestication.” SaysChristina Hansen Wheat, an ethologist from Stockholm University in Sweden, is the study’s principal author.
The study examined the behavior and responses of 12 Alaskan Husky Dogs and 10 European Gray Wolves (Canis lupus) in what’s known as the Strange SituationThis is a scientific test that was used originally with children to determine their attachment towards caregivers. It was then adapted for dogs (and in the case of this dog, wolves) twenty years ago.
The dogs and wolves had been cared for from their earliest days to their 23-week old age by trained caregivers. They were then subjected to a 15-minute experiment.
It would allow the female primary caregiver for the wolves or dogs to take turns with a female stranger, going in and out and engaging with the animals through active play, or if they are engaged, petting.
As dogs, the wolves were more affectionate than the dogs and spent more time greeting and engaging in physical contact with the familiar person. The familiar person was more likely to be followed as they went.
“It was evident that the wolves as dogs preferred the familiar over the unknown.” Hansen Wheat.
“But perhaps what was even more fascinating was that the test environment did not affect the dogs, but the wolves were.”
Comparable to dogs, wolves displayed more fear- and stress-related behaviors when dealing avec strangers than dogs. This included pacing and crouching as well as tail-tucking.
These behaviors occurred when the stranger entered the space and when the stranger, wolf and familiar person were not present in the same room.
These behaviors would diminish when the familiar human returned to their room. It was as if the familiar human acted as a’social buffer’ to the wolf.
Scientists continue to study the differences between dogs and wolves. They aren’t all the same, in an attempt to understand their evolutionary history – but it appears that in terms of bonding with people, there are some key similarities. These differences suggest that future research should be done on these areas.
“Together, with previous studies making important contributions, I believe it is now appropriate for me to entertain the possibility that, if there is variation in human-directed attachment behaviour in wolves this behavior could have been an early target for selective pressures during dog domestication.” Hansen Wheat.
The research was published in Evolution and Ecology.
