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Domestication leaves dogs and wolves worlds apart

It’s the stuff of legends — a human raises an abandoned wolf pup and they form a lifelong bond that transcends the boundaries between the wild and human worlds.

Domestication is more complicated than simply befriending a wild animal, however, and in the case of wolves, much debate exists about whether it’s possible and to what extent.

While understood the modern dog descended from wolves, according to scientists there was a split in the genetic tree around 15,000 years ago and dogs got their own branch.

What that means is while there are similarities between dogs and wolves, each went their own direction and over thousands of years have developed and changed in unique ways — hence one makes puppy eyes to get humans to help them solve problems, while the other’s life mission is to avoid humans altogether.

Despite the unrefuted wildness of wolves, they are sometimes raised in captivity and ongoing interest exists to understand if they truly bond with humans.

Research conducted in 2005 found hand-raised wolves were distinctly different from dogs because when subjected to stress, wolves didn’t turn to human caretakers for help or comfort but dogs did. Those findings implied wolves don’t form the depth of bonds with humans domesticated dogs do and forwarded the thought being raised in captivity doesn’t alter long-term perspectives of wolves toward humans.

Based on that, Hungarian researcher Dorottya Ujfalussy and a team of researchers used the same 10 wolf pups from the 2005 study to gain a deeper understanding of what, if any impact hand-raising and extensive socialization has on how wolves see humans.

Hand-raised by foster parents through an animal park program, the pups spent up to 24 hours a day with their human caretakers in urban environments until about 4-months-old, then moved to the park where they continued to interact with their caretakers’ multiple times each week

After an adjustment period, researchers gave the pups a greeting situation test at 6-months-old with a group consisting of their caretaker, a complete stranger, a stranger they had met once and an acquaintance with whom they had interacted regularly, then again at 12 and 24-months-old through one-on-one interactions with the same four types of humans.

Detailed observations were made of things such as proximity seeking, contact, tail wagging, jumping, tail tucking and crouching.

At 6-months-old, the pups readily approached humans but spent most of their time with their caretakers, according to the report published Wednesday. When older they still readily approached humans without aggression and, as before, preferred caretakers and acquaintances, but showed fear toward strangers.

The findings highlighted that while, based on the 2005 study, captive-raised wolves may not develop a dependency on human caretakers like dogs, through deliberate and extensive human socialization, they can form long-term attachments to caretakers and familiar humans, helpful when they will be raised in captivity without possibility of release.

But researchers cautioned even hand-raised wolves demonstrated conflicting feelings about strangers, which could spell trouble.

There’s little debate wild animals can be acclimatized to and may even develop affection for humans, but with thousands of years separating their branches on the family tree, it’s safe to say dogs and wolves remain worlds apart.

Sharna Johnson is always searching for ponies. You can reach her at:

[email protected]

 
 
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