Table Of ContentFascinating Life Sciences
Friederike Range
Sarah Marshall-Pescini
Wolves
and Dogs
between Myth and Science
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Friederike Range Sarah Marshall-Pescini
Wolves and Dogs
between Myth and Science
FriederikeRange SarahMarshall-Pescini
DomesticationLab,KonradLorenz DomesticationLab,KonradLorenz
InstituteofEthology InstituteofEthology
UniversityofVeterinaryMedicine UniversityofVeterinaryMedicine
Vienna Vienna
Vienna,Austria Vienna,Austria
ISSN2509-6745 ISSN2509-6753 (electronic)
FascinatingLifeSciences
ISBN978-3-030-98410-6 ISBN978-3-030-98411-3 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-98411-3
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Dedicated to our families (the two- and four-
legged ones)
Foreword
Wolves and dogs—what a pair of species! Everybody knows them—at least most
people have an opinion about them. And they are described and referred to in so
manydifferentways.Oneisthewild,thebrave,thefearless,theclever,theselfish,or
the greedy, while the other is rather tender, withdrawn, obedient, sharing, or kind,
perhapsafriendofus.Sosomethinglikeyinandyangorblackandwhite?
All this may sound familiar to people, especially those living in Europe, who
grew uphearingthetalesbythe Grimm brothers, such asLittle Red Riding Hood.
Butthereisalsoanotherstorytotellinwhichthesamewolvesareadmiredbypeople
for their spirit and pure nature, and are regarded by many historic tribes as their
ancestors.ThiscultureofwolveswasalsoresurrectedbytheRomansclaimingthata
she-wolfraisedthetwofounders,RomulusandRemus,ofthecityRome.
So,whatcouldbeagreaterchallengethantowriteabookaboutwolves,probably
oneofthemostmythicalanimalsinhumanculture.Nottomentionthattherehave
been only a handful of scientists who dared to step on this road. Friederike Range
andSarahMarshall-Pesciniarejustattherightplaceattherighttimetofollowthis
traditiontoupdatewhatonemaycallthe“ethologyandecologyofwolves”.Thereis
no place here to list all the books on wolves that have dealt with their life history,
behaviour,andevolution.Manyearlierworksarementionedinthisbook.However,
thanks to the advancements of the last 20–30 years, and our growing knowledge
about wolves, the content of this book is a very significant addition to the earlier
publishedmonographs,forexample,bybiologistsErikZimen(1971),DavidMech
(1981),andMechandBoitani(2010).
Wolvesarealwaysatopicfordiscussion.Inanottoodistantpast,therewasthe
worrythatwolveswouldbepushedtothebrinkofextinction,atleastinEuropeand
the Americas, but their populations were also decreasing elsewhere. But thanks to
conservationists,theirfatehaschangedduringthelast20–30years,andtheyarenow
re-colonising many previously abandoned habitats both in Europe and in North
America. Although the re-introduction of wolves to Yellowstone was heatedly
debated, their showing up in many regions had a positive effect on the ecosystem.
Wolfpopulationsrecoveredevenintheabsenceofactivehumaninvolvement;aban
on hunting and providing an area with little disturbance appears to be largely
sufficient. International students who visited our department were always asked to
giveashortpresentationabouttheirwork.Manyyearsago,ayoungDutchstudent
vviiii
viii Foreword
talkedaboutthemeasuresthatmaybeusefultointroducewolvesintheNetherlands.
Wealllistenedtoherverypolitely,butafterthetalkwecouldnotresistcommenting:
“Butthere arenowolvesintheNetherlands!”She wasprepared for sucharemark
andrepliedveryfirmly:“Yes,buttheywillcome.”Andshewasright!In2019the
mediareportedseveralsightingsofwolvesinthiscountry.
So now we have achieved what we had wanted. Are we satisfied and happy?
Well,therespectedandsacredwolvescanendupquicklyonthenegativeendofthe
news,ifwestarttobelieveoractuallyfindoutthattheyarealsokillingourlivestock.
Sonowweallhavetolearnhowtosharetheland.Weshouldallowthewolvesto
establishstablepopulationswhichhelptobalancetheecosystem,butwealsohaveto
ensure that humans and their livestock are protected from attacks from this top
predator.
Friederike Range and Sarah Marshall-Pescini are not afraid of describing and
analysingatleast9differentdomestication hypotheses. Thereistherumourthatat
the end of the nineteenth century the French academy “banned” the publication of
newhypothesesontheemergenceofhumanlanguage.Itseemsthatmanypeoplein
thecommunityofwolfanddogresearchenjoy comingupwith “THE”domestica-
tion hypothesis that explains “everything” about the history of our animal friends.
However,ifoneappreciatesthecomplexityofevolutionaryprocesses,mechanisms
ofselection,andtheinterwovennatureofgeneticandenvironmentalfactors,thenit
turnsoutthatmostsuchproposalscanexplainonlyasmallpartofthechangesinthe
variation of traits that gave raise to modern dogs. So, although in most of those
hypotheses there is likely some “truth”, the problem is that we do not necessarily
knowwhereitactuallyis.Themainissueisthatwedonothavethenecessarytools
to provide experimental evidence for a specific and unique series of events that
occurred in the distant past. This situation can be traced in the scientific adventure
towards the understanding of where and when dogs were domesticated. Since the
first paper using genetic data to establish the time frame and the location of dog
domestication(Vilaetal1997),theevidenceforaspecifictimeintervalandlocation
changedfromkeypapertokeypaper.Andoneimportantlimitationofthisapproach
(probablyunlikelytobesolvedinthenearfuture)isthatitisimpossibletosavevery
ancient DNA. Moreover, most of these hypotheses are rather complementary than
exclusive; they look at different levels of biological organisation. For example,
possibleselectionforgenesthatmaymakedogslooksoyoung(seeKinderschema,
Lorenz) in the eyes of their human friends may not exclude earlier/parallel/later
selection for more flexible agonistic behaviour at older age. Pleitropy and polyge-
netic effects are also likely to make the unveiling of an evolutionary process very
difficult.
I,personally,totallyagreewiththeauthors’preferencetoregardwolvesanddogs
astwospecies,buttalkingabout“wolves”and“dogs”inanevolutionaryscenario,as
it often happens, is a major oversimplification. “Putting things into boxes” is a
typical human way of thinking, probably based on our bias to think in linguistic
terms. But in reality there are (were?) at least 10–14 subspecies of wolves ranging
fromSaudiArabiatoAlaska,andtherearemorethan400breedsofdogsdispersed
Foreword ix
overtheentireglobe,nottomentionthedingoesandthemillionsofstrayandferal
dogs. So when scientists seek to explain the emergence of differences in certain
phenotypictraits,theyoftenimaginethetwospeciesasextremes,correspondingto
the adjectives above that typically characterise “wolves” and “dogs”, but in reality
therearemanywolf-likedogsandalsodog-likewolfpopulations.Ithinkweshould
takebothwithinandbetweenphenotypicvariationinthesespeciesseriously.
On the more positive side there is also some good news, when it comes to our
much improved knowledge about the social life of wolves. Extensive field
observations of wolf populations and individual groups are now complemented
with observations on social structure, migration of individuals, and intra- and
intergroup competition for resources. And the major discovery, attributed to Jane
Packard,isalsoquiterecent:typicalwolvesliveinfamilies;thatisafather,amother,
andtheiroffspringmakeupagroup.Sotheoldideaofthewolfpack,inwhichall
individuals fight for being the leader, can be thrown into the garbage heap of
outdatedscientificideas.Nevertheless,thisdiscoveryfindsitsplaceonlyslowlyin
themindofpeopleasmanystillrefertowolfpacksinsteadoffamilies.Somebody
mayask,whatisthedifference?Well,alot.Ifthefamilyisthesocialunitinwolves,
theircooperationatvarioustasksandchallengesislessofasurprise.Theparentscan
realisetheirfitnessonlyiftheyareabletoraiseasmanyyounganimalsaspossible,
and the offspring can also gain a lot from cooperating with their parents. The
collaboration among siblings can be explained on similar grounds. Ifcollaboration
inwolvesisbasedonkinselection,thenactuallythetransitiontoacollaborativedog
isactuallynotastraightforwardevolutionaryissuebecausethosekin-relatedgenetic
factorsdonotoperatewhenhumansanddogsworktogether.
This book is packed with much knowledge on wolves most of which was
establishedinthelast20years.Ithinkweall,whoarefascinatedbytheevolution,
ecology, and behaviour of wolves and dogs, have to thank those few enthusiastic
scientistswhodedicatedapartoftheircareers tofollowthelivesoftheseamazing
creatures.FriederikeRangeandSarahMarshall-Pescinideserveafineplaceamong
these brave researchers together with Zsófia Virányi, Enikő Kubinyi, and Márta
Gácsi,tonameonlyafewothers.Thesciencethatispresentedwithgreatcareinthis
book, taking into account different views, perspectives, and lack of knowledge,
should invite any readers interested in biology to get a closer look at this species
withoutactuallygettingcoldordirty,andtheyalsodonotneedtostandthelookofa
wolffromashortdistance.
Congratulations,FriederikeandSarah!
FamilyDogProject,Departmentof ÁdámMiklósi
Ethology,EötvösLorándUniversity
Budapest,Hungary
31October2021
Foreword
Investigatingtherelationshipsbetweenhumans,wolves,anddogsprovidesamore
important mirror to understand ourselves and our relationship with the world, than
mostpeoplewouldappreciate.Homosapiensisthemostinvasivespeciesonearth,
permanentlyinhabitingeventhemostunlikelyhabitatssuchasdesertsandthehigh
Arctic. Dogs arguably contributed a lot to this roaring success. Unplanned and
unintended, our ancestors bumped into wolves on their way into the Eurasian
continent. It is still a miracle that this happened—and why it happened remains
enigmatic. Even more astonishing is that some of these palaeolithic human–wolf
associations turned into permanent companionship with domesticated wolves we
calldogs.Thisamazingstoryraisesmanyquestions,forexample,howdidhumans
andwolvesgetintocontactinthefirstplace?Howcomethatsuchagreatvarietyof
dogs originated from a single wolf type? And in what way do modern dogs differ
from wolves, i.e. what happened during adapting to live with, or close to, humans
duringtheprocessofdomestication?
Onewouldassumethatsciencehaslongprovidedmostoftherelevantanswers,
butthisisnotthecase.Firstofall,thetopicissoclose(tooclose)tomanypeople,
includingscientists,thatevenresearchwas—andstillis—anideologicalminefield.
Second,andmostimportantly,onlythemostrecentdevelopmentsinpalaeogenetics,
archaeology, experimental behavioural biology, and other disciplines provided the
kind of firm ground needed to increasingly allow knowledge to compete with
opinionation.Thisbookisamilestoneofknowledge,integratingmorethanadecade
ofexperimentalresearchattheWolfScienceCenter(WSC)withtherelevantresults
ofcolleaguesworldwide.Asananchoroffactsitwillprovidethegroundforfurther
thinking,discussing,anddevelopingthefield.
Thecontentsofthisbookevenradiateintoexperimentalarchaeology,enlighten-
ing educated guesses as to why wolves and humans may have gotten into contact.
The most promising candidate factor is the close match between the ecology,
lifestyles, and social organisation of hunter-gatherer humans and wolves. Within-
clan and within-pack cooperative orientation of humans and wolves was probably
keyinboththeinitialmatchmakingandourcloser-than-evercompanionshipswith
dogs. Our present knowledge even contributes arguments towards the early
scenarios,makinghand-rearingandarespectfulnon-dominatinghumaninteraction
stylemuchmorelikelythanthestillprominentideaof“self-domestication”,holding
xxii
