1 00:00:01,920 --> 00:00:06,960 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff, 2 00:00:06,960 --> 00:00:10,159 Speaker 1: I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and this is a classic episode from 3 00:00:10,160 --> 00:00:13,840 Speaker 1: our previous host, Christian Sagar. I've known some dogs that 4 00:00:13,880 --> 00:00:17,680 Speaker 1: are pretty smart. I've also known some that weren't. Bless them, 5 00:00:18,400 --> 00:00:24,520 Speaker 1: but could wolves be smarter? Hey, brain Stuff, it's Christian Sager. 6 00:00:24,800 --> 00:00:28,360 Speaker 1: My dogs Winchester and see Blue. They are real smart. 7 00:00:28,480 --> 00:00:31,680 Speaker 1: So I was intrigued when I read a new study 8 00:00:31,720 --> 00:00:34,960 Speaker 1: that said wolves are more intelligent in some ways than 9 00:00:35,080 --> 00:00:38,760 Speaker 1: my dogs and all their canine friends, whether you have 10 00:00:38,880 --> 00:00:42,560 Speaker 1: a chocolate lab or a coonhound. Scientists believe that some 11 00:00:42,720 --> 00:00:47,040 Speaker 1: modern dogs and wolves descended from a common ancestor between 12 00:00:47,040 --> 00:00:51,760 Speaker 1: eleven thousand and thirty thousand years ago. The new study, 13 00:00:51,800 --> 00:00:56,560 Speaker 1: which was published in the September Journal of Scientific Reports, 14 00:00:56,920 --> 00:01:00,000 Speaker 1: is by an international team of researchers at the Wolf 15 00:01:00,440 --> 00:01:06,040 Speaker 1: Science Center in Vienna, Austria. They found domesticated dogs cannot 16 00:01:06,240 --> 00:01:11,199 Speaker 1: make the connection between cause and effect wolves, however, can. 17 00:01:11,800 --> 00:01:15,720 Speaker 1: They came to that conclusion by testing and comparing how 18 00:01:15,840 --> 00:01:19,600 Speaker 1: the two species searched for food after giving them hints 19 00:01:19,640 --> 00:01:23,399 Speaker 1: about where it was located. Researchers used fourteen dogs and 20 00:01:23,480 --> 00:01:27,920 Speaker 1: twelve socialized wolves in their experiments. During the tests, the 21 00:01:27,920 --> 00:01:31,399 Speaker 1: animals had to choose between two containers, one with food 22 00:01:31,480 --> 00:01:35,280 Speaker 1: and one without. The first thing researchers did was determined 23 00:01:35,319 --> 00:01:39,200 Speaker 1: whether the animals could make sense of communicative clues by 24 00:01:39,240 --> 00:01:43,400 Speaker 1: pointing and looking at the container with the food. Researchers 25 00:01:43,480 --> 00:01:46,520 Speaker 1: next wanted to see how the dogs and wolves responded 26 00:01:46,760 --> 00:01:50,680 Speaker 1: to behavioral cues. The experiment or pointed to the container 27 00:01:50,720 --> 00:01:55,640 Speaker 1: with food, but did not make eye contact with the animals. Finally, 28 00:01:55,960 --> 00:01:59,680 Speaker 1: in the last experiment, the animals had to infer themselves 29 00:02:00,080 --> 00:02:05,600 Speaker 1: which container had the hidden food, using only causal clues 30 00:02:05,680 --> 00:02:09,400 Speaker 1: like noises made when the experiment or shook the container 31 00:02:09,720 --> 00:02:13,400 Speaker 1: with the food. Both the wolves and the dogs did 32 00:02:13,440 --> 00:02:18,320 Speaker 1: well on the communicative clue tests all found the hidden food. 33 00:02:18,600 --> 00:02:24,040 Speaker 1: Both species, however, failed the behavioral cue portion. Without direct 34 00:02:24,120 --> 00:02:28,520 Speaker 1: eye contact, neither a dog nor wolf could find the food. 35 00:02:29,160 --> 00:02:31,840 Speaker 1: During the last part of the test, however, only the 36 00:02:31,880 --> 00:02:35,680 Speaker 1: wolves could make casual inferences as to where the food 37 00:02:35,760 --> 00:02:39,480 Speaker 1: was located. In other words, the scientists said the wolves, 38 00:02:39,760 --> 00:02:46,000 Speaker 1: not the pooches, understood cause and effect. Study author Michelle 39 00:02:46,120 --> 00:02:50,600 Speaker 1: lamp from the Netherlands reminded us, however, that The differences 40 00:02:50,680 --> 00:02:53,799 Speaker 1: can be explained by the fact that wolves are more 41 00:02:53,919 --> 00:02:58,560 Speaker 1: persistent to explore objects than dogs, as because dogs are 42 00:02:58,639 --> 00:03:02,400 Speaker 1: conditioned to receive food from us, whereas wolves have to 43 00:03:02,440 --> 00:03:06,760 Speaker 1: find food themselves in nature. What shocked researchers was that 44 00:03:06,840 --> 00:03:11,279 Speaker 1: the wolves were able to interpret direct eye to eye contact. 45 00:03:11,680 --> 00:03:18,240 Speaker 1: That understanding of communicative cues, researchers said may have facilitated domestication. 46 00:03:18,800 --> 00:03:22,200 Speaker 1: The study is unique also in that it used dogs 47 00:03:22,560 --> 00:03:25,920 Speaker 1: that lived in both packs and with families, but the 48 00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:36,000 Speaker 1: results of the dogs were independent of living conditions. Today's 49 00:03:36,040 --> 00:03:38,440 Speaker 1: episode was written by John Partano and produced by Tristan 50 00:03:38,560 --> 00:03:41,040 Speaker 1: Neil and Tyler Clang. For more on listen lots of 51 00:03:41,080 --> 00:03:43,840 Speaker 1: other topics, visit how stuffworks dot com. Brain Stuff is 52 00:03:43,840 --> 00:03:46,600 Speaker 1: production off i Heart Radio. For more podcasts my Heart Radio, 53 00:03:46,760 --> 00:03:49,360 Speaker 1: visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you 54 00:03:49,400 --> 00:03:50,600 Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.