This spaniel wolves This animal like dogs, they recognize and respond to familiar human voices more than strangers. Research results may have implications for understanding both the history of dog domestication and hitherto unknown aspects of the animal world.
Holly Root-Gutteridge of the University of Lincoln (UK) and co-author of the published study Animal Cognitionuntil now The dogs’ ability to distinguish human voices was the result of selective breeding developed over generations, which is not the case with wolves.
“That’s why we wanted to study wolves, because obviously no one is doing selective breeding that would allow them to recognize different human voices,” he said.
24 wolves in Spain
conducted by Root-Gutterridge and colleagues Experiments were conducted in five zoos and natural parks in Spain, using a total of 24 gray wolves.Male and female aged 1 to 13 years.
Set installed speakers and first broadcast the voices of a certain number of unknown persons to the animals.. The animals eventually got used to these sounds and acted indifferently towards them as if they did not represent anything important in their lives.
But at a second stage, The speakers emitted the voice of the caregiver telling them familiar and everyday things in Spanish. “Hey, what’s up wolves?” or “Hello little ones, good morning, how are you?”
That’s when The wolves raised their heads, pricked their ears, and turned to look at the speaker in gestures any dog owner would instantly recognize.
repeat the experiment
To prove that this effect was not random, the researchers played the audio recordings of the strangers to the wolves and found that the animals once again lost interest in the wolves.
Finally, the team had the keepers say a series of phrases that were less common and more alien to the animals, to make sure the wolves were actually recognizing their caregivers’ voices, rather than saying the words their caregivers would normally say to them. Despite this, the wolves continued to listen attentively.
Regarding the results of this experiment, Root-Gutteridge told AFP agency: It is important that wolves have the ability to distinguish between different people. even though our species followed separate evolutionary paths tens of millions of years ago.
Elephants separate different human tribes
Previously, special studies were conducted on how animals distinguish the sounds of other species. Studies had shown that gorillas, our close cousins, were listening to humans, but this didn’t surprise scientists as expected.
Big-brained elephants have also been found to be able to distinguish people’s gender, age, and ethnicity by their voices.for example, assigning less threatening value to women and children and fearing Maasai elephant hunting more than Kamba farmers.
Given the new discovery, “most likely many species will listen to us and recognize us as individuals”Adds Root-Gutterridge.
And it’s not just about people, he said. Dogs, for example, may be listening to neighbors’ cats and recognizing the difference between one meow and another.
“If the abilities are very general, this means that animals may have much more interactions between species than we previously thought,” the researcher said.
Reference work: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10071-023-01796-9
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