WEBVTT - Are Wolves Smarter Than Dogs?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Brainstue, a production of I Heart Radio, Hey

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<v Speaker 1>brain Stuff Lauren vogebam here. Our pet dogs are pretty smart,

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<v Speaker 1>sometimes frustratingly so when there's something you don't want them

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<v Speaker 1>getting into. In some cases, are pups even have smart

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<v Speaker 1>behavioral traits that we selected for over time, like herding

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<v Speaker 1>or guarding. And of course, service dogs are trained to

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<v Speaker 1>help millions of people around the world. But research shows

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<v Speaker 1>that wolves are more intelligent in some ways than our dogs.

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<v Speaker 1>The studying question, which was published in September in the

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<v Speaker 1>journal Scientific Reports, is by an international team of researchers

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<v Speaker 1>at the Wolf Science Center in Vienna, Austria. They found

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<v Speaker 1>that domesticated dogs can't make the connection between cause and

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<v Speaker 1>effect wolves, however, can. They came to this conclusion by

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<v Speaker 1>testing and comparing how the two species searched for food

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<v Speaker 1>after being given hints about where it was located. The

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<v Speaker 1>researchers used fourteen dogs and twelve socialized wolves in their experiments.

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<v Speaker 1>During the tests, the animals had to choose between two containers,

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<v Speaker 1>one with food and one without. The first thing the

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<v Speaker 1>researchers did was determined whether the animals could make sense

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<v Speaker 1>of communicative clues by pointing and looking at the container

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<v Speaker 1>with the food. Researchers next wanted to see how the

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<v Speaker 1>dogs and wolves responded to behavioral clues. The experimenter pointed

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<v Speaker 1>to the container with food, but didn't make eye contact

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<v Speaker 1>with the animals. Finally, in the last experiment, the animals

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<v Speaker 1>had to infer themselves which container had the hidden food,

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<v Speaker 1>using only casual clues, like noises made when the experiment

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<v Speaker 1>er shook the container that contained the food. Both the

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<v Speaker 1>wolves and the dogs did well on the communicative clue tests,

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<v Speaker 1>all found the hidden food. Both species, however, failed the

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<v Speaker 1>behavioral clue portion. Without direct eye contact, neither dog nor

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<v Speaker 1>wolf could find the food. During the last part of

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<v Speaker 1>the test, however, only the wolves could make casual inferences

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<v Speaker 1>as to where the food was located. In other words,

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<v Speaker 1>the scientists said the wolves, not the pooches, understood cause

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<v Speaker 1>and effect. Study author at Michelle Lampez said in a statement,

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<v Speaker 1>the results of our studies suggest that domestication has affected

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<v Speaker 1>the casual understanding of our dogs. It cannot be excluded, however,

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<v Speaker 1>that the differences can be explained by the fact that

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<v Speaker 1>wolves are more persistent to explore objects than dogs. Dogs

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<v Speaker 1>are conditioned to receive food from us, whereas wolves have

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<v Speaker 1>to find food themselves in nature. What surprised researchers was

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<v Speaker 1>that the wolves were able to interpret direct eye to

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<v Speaker 1>eye contact. That understanding of communicative clues, researchers said may

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<v Speaker 1>have facilitated domestication. Scientists now believe that some modern dogs

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<v Speaker 1>and wolves descended from a common an ancestor between eleven

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<v Speaker 1>thousand and thirty thousand years ago. But the study we're

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<v Speaker 1>talking about today is unique also and that it used

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<v Speaker 1>dogs that lived both in packs and with families. Study

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<v Speaker 1>author Julian Kaminski said in a statement, the results of

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<v Speaker 1>the dogs were independent of living conditions, and this makes

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<v Speaker 1>our study the first to make a valid comparison between

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<v Speaker 1>these two animal groups in this particular setup. Today's episode

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<v Speaker 1>is based on the article wolves are probably Smarter than

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<v Speaker 1>our dogs on house to works dot com, written by

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<v Speaker 1>John Paritano. Brain Stuff is production of Our Heart Radio

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<v Speaker 1>in partnership of how stuff Works dot Com, and it's

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<v Speaker 1>produced by Tyler Klang. The four more podcasts my Heart Radio,

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