The deep bond between dogs and humans traces back to the ancient bond with wolves, a relationship formed around 15,000 years ago. A new study in Ecology and Evolution explores how this human-animal connection might be reflected in the animals themselves, suggesting that the capacity to attach to humans may not be exclusive to dogs.
Researchers from Stockholm University in Sweden tested 10 wolves and 12 dogs with a behavioral setup designed to measure attachment to people. In this setup, a 23-week-old wolf showed the same spontaneous ability as dogs to distinguish a familiar person from a stranger, and both species spent more time near and in closer contact with the known individual. The results add to growing evidence that wolves can form strong bonds with humans, challenging the idea that such attachment appeared only after domestication.
Beyond simple recognition, the presence of a familiar human had a calming effect on wolves, reducing stress in challenging moments. The findings support a broader view of attachment as a trait that may have origins before domestication, suggesting that social bonding with humans could have deep roots in the ancestral wolf population.
Christina Hansen Wheat, a professor of ethology at Stockholm University, stressed the importance of thorough testing. Her team raised wolves and puppies from ten days old and exposed them to different behavioral scenarios to observe how attachment cues manifest in various environments. In one setup, a familiar person and a stranger alternated their entries into the testing room, creating moments of mild stress for the animals.
The test, originally designed to assess attachment in human infants, rests on the idea that a stable yet occasionally unsettling environment can trigger attachment behaviors such as seeking closeness and comfort. The core question was whether wolves and dogs could tell the difference between a familiar person and a stranger, and whether their responses would favor the known caregiver. Both species showed more greetings, affectionate actions, and physical contact with the familiar person than with the stranger, suggesting that the preference for a trusted caregiver is not limited to dogs.
As wolves responded to the familiar human, their behavior differed from that of dogs in some moments. While dogs appeared relatively steady during the test, wolves showed shifts in pacing within the testing space. The key observation was that pacing subsided when the familiar person with whom the wolves shared a long history re-entered the room, acting as a social stress buffer. This underscores a meaningful bond between wolves and a trusted human that may mirror early stages of dog domestication.
Researchers note that similarities in attachment behavior between dogs and wolves could illuminate how canine social traits evolved. It seems plausible that wolves with stronger attachments to humans could have enjoyed a selective advantage during the early days of domestication, supporting the idea that some social tendencies seen in dogs today originated earlier in the wolf lineage.
Future work by the team will continue to compare wolves and dogs under identical conditions to deepen understanding of how their behaviors diverge or align. By tracking three years of data, scientists aim to identify nuanced differences and shared patterns in attachment across the two species.
Reference work: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ece3.9299
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