Everyone knows the tame domestic
dog is descended from the wolf. But how did we get from the grand gray wolf to
the little mottled dog?
I shall address this question in three ways.
First I
consider what really is the difference between a wolf and a dog. I shall
describe our research at Wolf Park on the cognition of wolves in which we found
that many of the claimed fundamental differences in intelligence between wolves
and dogs were artifacts of different ways that researchers had tested dogs and
wolves.
Second I outline a trip I made in September to Siberia to see the "tame"
foxes created by Dimitri Belyaev and his colleagues. These animals really are
amazingly friendly - but what conclusions about dogs can we draw from them?
Finally, I show that confusion in trying to understand the origins of dogs in
wolves stems from looking in the wrong place for the wrong wolves - and for the
wrong reasons.
Clive D. L. Wynne is a professor of psychology at the University
of Florida and Director of Research at Wolf Park. He has been studying cognition
in dogs and other canids for some years and will be teaching a one-day seminar
at Wolf Park discussing the origins of the domestic dog. |
