Ammon – A group of European researchers tried to identify the reason why dogs wag their tails, relying in their research on the evolutionary path of domestic animals belonging to the wolf family.
Taylor Hirsch, a researcher in bioacoustics, along with a team of European researchers, began her research after her curiosity was sparked by a YouTube video in which she noticed that wolves wag their tails less compared to domestic dogs, so she asked herself what had changed in the nearly 35,000 years since dogs were domesticated. From wolves.
The researchers published their findings, which indicated the possibility that humans are behind dogs’ tails wagging without realizing it, in the British scientific journal Biology Letter.
These findings could overturn the long-held belief that dogs wag their tails because they are happy. Instead, Hirsch and her colleagues suggest, “wagging dogs’ tails makes people happy.”
According to the study, tail wagging is rhythmic, and previous studies have found that everything from music to the sound of a horse’s hooves stimulates brain activity that helps make people feel happy.
The researchers said that humans, even unconsciously, may have enjoyed the rhythm of dogs wagging their tails, and this is the reason for the evolutionary path of differences between domestic dogs and wolves, as the former continued this habit after humans responded positively to it.
In February 2022, Hirsch and her colleagues began studying dog behavior, and found that dozens of these animals’ traits and behaviors changed during domestication, including the appearance of their fur, ears, body size, and even their ability to form small eyes.
But Hirsch, who was a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in the Netherlands during the study, said that researchers were unable to find a clear answer from previous studies about why dogs wag their tails.
One study found that dogs started wagging their tails more than wolves when they were just 3 weeks old, and another revealed that dogs use their tails to try to express their feelings to people.
Hirsch then pointed to an article in American Scientists about the matter, in which research found that foxes selected for taming end up wagging their tails more than other foxes, and she recalled thinking the same was true for dogs.
The authors of the recent study said more research is needed to confirm their theories.
Hirsch, now a researcher at Oregon State University, said she hopes to examine dogs’ brains, heart rates and other vitals to understand what the animals are thinking and feeling as they wag their tails.
The research could also shed light on what humans believed and preferred tens of thousands of years ago, according to researcher Andrea Ravinani, co-author of Hirsch’s study.
“It’s a bit like finding prehistoric cave paintings, which indirectly tell us that our ancestors at that time enjoyed art or had symbolic thinking,” Ravinani said in a statement to the Washington Post. “In our case, what we know about “How dogs wag their tails tells us that perhaps our ancestors 35,000 years ago already recognized this rhythm.”
Sky News
