When it comes to showing affection towards people, many dogs are naturals. Now a report in the journal Ecology and Evolution reveals that the remarkable ability to show attachment behavior toward human caregivers also exists in wolves. The findings were made when scientists at Stockholm Universit
When it comes to showing affection towards people, many dogs are naturals. Now a report in the journalreveals that the remarkable ability to show attachment behavior toward human caregivers also exists in wolves., tested 10 wolves and 12 dogs in a behavioral test specifically designed to quantify attachment behaviors in canids.
These discoveries build on a slowly accumulating body of evidence contradicting the hypothesis that the abilities necessary to form attachment with humans, arose in dogs only after humans domesticated them at least 15,000 years ago.“We felt that there was a need to thoroughly test this,” says Dr. Christina Hansen Wheat, PhD in Ethology from Stockholm University, Sweden.
“That was exactly what we saw,” says Dr. Hansen Wheat. “It was very clear that the wolves, as the dogs, preferred the familiar person over the stranger. But what was perhaps even more interesting was that while the dogs were not particularly affected by the test situation, the wolves were. They were pacing the test room.
“Wolves showing human-directed attachment could have had a selective advantage in early stages of dog domestication,” she says.