![]() Domestic dogs are in fact more vigilant than wolves. “Wolves on their way to becoming dogs were a great alarm system,” Quinlan says. ![]() Wolves more likely became acclimated to humans while scavenging the remains of their kills - they essentially kicked off the domestication process themselves. “This symbiotic or commensal relationship,” says Robert Quinlan, professor of anthropology at Washington State University, “probably initially happened accidentally.” More likely, domestication happened slowly, in fits and starts. “I don't know that many hunter gatherers would have had the time or patience to deal with a wolf pup and I don't know why they would want to,” says archaeologist Angela Perri of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. They don’t take to training well and are in constant contest with their trainers for dominance. Regardless of how much attention, training and affection are lavished on captive-raised wolf puppies, they remain wolves. Like most just-so stories, this appealing etiology has disintegrated under scrutiny.įor one, modern studies of wild wolf pups raised in captivity demonstrate that this would have almost certainly been impractical - the hardscrabble lifestyle of early humans was tough enough. Raised by humans and selectively bred over generations for docility and tractability, these lupine changelings morphed into something close to the canines we know today. Until relatively recently, the tale of how dogs and humans came to be so intimately acquainted took the form of a parable: Early hunter-gatherers adopted wild wolf pups, abducting them from their dens or perhaps fostering them after killing their parents. Insights from disciplines as diverse as psychology and archaeology, genetics and biology have filled out the pencil sketch of our shared history brushstroke by brushstroke, resulting in a portrait both surprising and familiar. In recent decades, we have brought the full force of the scientific method to bear on the origins of our beloved companions. Though in many ways we take their presence for granted, the story of this unprecedented interspecies alliance is complex. And more importantly, to those of us who have had dogs in our lives, they are our dearest friends. Dogs are our sentinels and shepherds, hunting partners and cancer detectors. The pairing makes for a striking case in coevolution - no other species has been so thoroughly integrated into human society. ![]() Early signs of domestication date back to 33,000 years ago and unambiguously domesticated dogs are common in the archaeological record beginning 15,000 years ago. The connection between human and dog runs deep. ![]()
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