FLICKR, SERGE MELKIResearchers recently proposed that domestic dogs originated approximately 18,000 to 32,000 years ago from European wolves. A new study shows that these wolves may have already had some social skills that helped them interact with humans. The research was published in Frontiers in Psychology this week (December 3).
“There have been several hypotheses regarding domestication, including that there are some social skills dogs have that wolves don’t, or that dogs can accept humans as social partners and wolves can’t,” coauthor Friederike Range of the Messerli Research Institute at the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna in Austria told NBC News. “The story is not that simple—this we can say for sure.”
Range and her coauthor Zsófia Virányi worked with wolves and dogs raised by humans at the Wolf Science Center near Vienna. In one set of trials, each wolf or dog was shown a treat, which they watched as it was hidden by a familiar person or pet dog. In control trials, the subjects were shown the treat, but then watched it be pocketed ...
