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5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Their spirit lives on., September 2, 2003
This book posed a few intriguing questions for me, in which animal lovers, biologists, social theorists and others might also be interested. The authors have backgrounds in animal behaviour, neuroscience in animals, and animal communication, cognition and welfare.Dogs belong to the family Canidae, ground-living carnivores with around 36 species, although some of these species interbreed. The lineage is around 40-50 million years old, originating in North America. They reached Europe around 5-7 million years ago, where the well known grey wolf is though to have evolved, who then passed back into North America, amongst other places, around 700,000 years ago. All domestic dogs appear to derive from one ancestral species-Canus lupus-the grey wolf. Latest evidence suggests dogs were first domesticated around 135,000 years ago, perhaps as old as early homo sapien (p12). A variety of wild dog characteristics can be found in the domestic versions, with some notable exceptions. Short-sightedness is probably a domestic trait only (p45). All dogs move their ears and head around to pinpoint location-originally location of prey. Domestic dogs have two photopigments in their eyes, unlike humans with three, meaning they are slightly colour blind (compared to us). Smell is, of course, well developed, and they can tell which direction an animal/person was moving-an important hunting ability (p49). Wild pups must not stray from the den, and so domesticates can reasonably learn to stay at home. Howling (in wolves) is used to increase distances between clans and individuals. (I think there is more here-sex?, hunting prospects?, group development?). Sniffing in all dogs is intimately related to pair bonding and territorial marking. There is a variety of vocalisation forms in wild dogs, such as short distance barks, yelps, and whining, with some co-opted for dog-human communication-eg human sentence upwards inflections reflect some whining communication, etc. Barking, though variable in type and frequency, occurs in all canids, despite common misconceptions. Regurgitating food to the young is also common to all canids (I have a collie who as a puppy managed to steal my dinner from my mouth once-totally innocently of course). Grey wolves, as opposed to some other canids, have a strong vertical social structure. Occasionally submissiveness is ignored by a superior, due to hierarchal threat, or occasionally the inferior won't submit, and an individual may occasionally be forced out of a clan entirely (sound familiar? p94). Also of interest is that African wild dogs have a flatter social structure than grey wolves, which appears to be proportional to their `harsher' environment-that is, elements of in-group competition and in-group rivalry are reduced when conditions become more hazardous-group hierarchy in this sense is an evolved 'luxury', so to speak (p103-104). (This idea has interesting implications to social inequality in humans). Also, species which have a high degree of predatory enemies have less infighting and high co-operation rates (p141). Also of note is that an African wild dog rejected by its clan has little chance of survival from both predators and through stress-induced immune deficiency. In a social hierarchy, ritualised and stereotyped acts are common (sound familiar?). Sometimes a group of young males may turn on an alpha male and expel or kill him (sound familiar)?. Interestingly, being an alpha male may not relate to being the best hunter-appearance, confidence and adherence to social rituals give social status, not killing/athletic success. In many clans every female comes into oestrus at the same time, and pseudo pregnancies also occur in females within a clan, where they produce milk and may even suckle pups not of their own-obviously a group survival strategy (p114). (It is not clear whether this only occurs in related individuals-selfish gene theorists take note!). Higher levels of oestrogen in African wild dogs create more male pups in their litters (p117). I am also aware that sometimes pups within a litter have different fathers. The larger the pack the larger the prey that is hunted (p123). Dingos in Australia also use deception in hunting. Interestingly, wolves in captivity are known to watch gatekeepers open latches and learn to do this themselves, whilst domesticates generally do not (p147). Also, wolves wait until the coast is clear before attempting to escape. This 'escape intelligence' has obviously been somewhat nullified by domestication. However, wolves are not willing to learn tricks, unlike domesticates. Dogs are also better than chimps in reading a persons eyes-a trait of group hunting (p158-9). 'Glancing' is observed in dogs between food bowls and owners, or between balls and owners.
It is also suggested that human smell is so poor partly because we have used dogs for hunting in our recent evolutionary history (p165-6). (It has even been suggested elsewhere that language may have been facilitated by this reduction in our need for smell, whereby flatter faces and the migration of the larynx to the back of the throat increased vocalisation range). The future of the wild dog is unclear. It is stated that many rehabilitation and reintroduction programs of all species fail due to problems with animal behaviour-eg they haven't learnt to hunt, they lack predator cognition, they don't follow park boundaries etc. It appears group species like the wolf are less likely to survive in closer contact with humans than the more parasitic and solitary species such as foxes, coyotes, and also cats. (Once group habits are fractured, group species tend to perish). I like to think the 'spirit of the wild dog', so to speak, `knows' this (or in Darwinian form-a portion of the gene pool has been selected)-and so lives on within the human group. Maybe the unfairly expelled wolf from the pack lives on today in my lounge room. Opportunity, adaptability, co-operation, humility, wildness-we have much to learn from them.
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by David Mech
by L. David Mech
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