December 8, 2023
by dave
Comments Off

Do goats rival dogs on social smarts?

A curious goat I photographed at FBN

A curious goat I photographed at FBN

When I write about cognition and domestication, I’m almost always writing about cats and dogs. But this year I had a unique opportunity to write about farm animals. In the fall, I visited the  Research Institute for Farm Animal Biology (FBN) in Dummerstorf, Germany–one of the world’s leading centers for investigating the minds of cows, pigs, and other livestock.

On my second day there, I had a remarkable encounter with a goat. As I write in my new feature for Science:

You’d never mistake a goat for a dog, but on an unseasonably warm afternoon in early September, I almost do. I’m in a red-brick barn in northern Germany, trying to keep my sanity amid some of the most unholy noises I’ve ever heard. Sixty Nigerian dwarf goats are taking turns crashing their horns against wooden stalls while unleashing a cacophony of bleats, groans, and retching wails that make it nearly impossible to hold a conversation. Then, amid the chaos, something remarkable happens. One of the animals raises her head over her enclosure and gazes pensively at me, her widely spaced eyes and odd, rectangular pupils seeking to make contact—and perhaps even connection.

That goat (pictured above) really did remind me of a dog. And it’s not just me. Over the past few years, scientists at FBN and elsewhere have shown that goats rival dogs in many tests of social smarts. They can distinguish between pictures of happy and angry people, suggesting they are tuned into our emotional states; they can locate food behind an obstacle more quickly if they watched humans move the food there first, a rare example of cross-species learning; and, in a stunning finding, goats seem to understand what we mean when we point at something, a complex reading of our social cues that eludes even chimpanzees.

It’s not just goats. I saw piglets that seem to show empathy when their comrades were trapped in a box. Cows that make friends–and enemies. (They can also be potty trained, as I’ve written about before). And other goats that showed signs of altruism.

Together, the work is challenging long-held stereotypes that farm animals are dumb, not just among scientists but also the general public. And that in turn could change how we house and treat these creatures. As Jan Langbein, an applied ethologist at FBN told me, “If we don’t understand how these animals think, then we won’t understand what they need. And if we don’t understand what they need, we can’t design better environments for them.

P.S. This story also got me my first cover for Science, after nearly 20 years at the publication! You can see it here.

November 22, 2023
by dave
Comments Off

‘Hybrid swarm’ signals doom for the Scottish wildcat

Hello kitty? The Scottish wildcat looks a lot like domestic cats. (Credit: pipilongstockings / Wikimedia Commons)

Hello kitty? The Scottish wildcat looks a lot like domestic cats. (Credit: pipilongstockings / Wikimedia Commons)

When I wrote my book, Citizen Canine, nearly 10 years ago, one of the first things I covered was an unusual case in Scotland. It seems that in 1990 a gamekeeper had shot three cats on a grouse moor. His aim, as it were, was to protect the birds from felines so that they could be killed by hunters instead. He was within his rights–assuming that his targets were domestic cats. But witnesses took him to court, claiming that he had killed endangered Scottish wildcats instead. The two animals look remarkably similar (as you can see from the picture) so only DNA could tell whether the hunter had broken the law. The problem? No one had a genetic way to distinguish the two felines.

Cases like this led to one the most important finds in cat science: A rigorous analysis of domestic cat DNA revealed that all of our kitties had descended from the African–or Near Easter–wildcat. The research also led to a way to genetically tell Scottish wildcats and domestic cats apart. And that, in turn, has recently revealed something tragic.

Two new studies of domestic felines and wildcats based on modern and ancient DNA find that the Scottish wildcat is effectively extinct. Though domestic cats and wildcats in Europe appear to have cohabitated for thousands of years without interbreeding, something changed in Scotland about 70 years ago. Declining prey and loss of habitat appear to have driven the few Scottish wildcats left to mate with domestic cats. Today, the DNA of Scottish wildcats is so corrupted by domestic cat DNA that all that exists in nature is a “hybrid swarm”–felines with a confused mix of wild and domestic DNA.

There is a small shred of hope. Scottish wildcats kept in captivity since the 1960s could help repopulate the animal in the wild. But even these felines have some domestic DNA, so it could take several generations for them to become pure wildcats, if that’s even possible. As for the gamekeeper, the court couldn’t prove that he had shot Scottish wildcats, and it was forced to drop the case. Perhaps the wildcat will fare better in the hands of conservationists.

August 25, 2023
by dave
Comments Off

The scientific reason your cat loves tuna

Is it tuna? (Credit: FBenjr123, Wikimedia Commons)

Is it tuna? (Credit: FBenjr123, Wikimedia Commons)

Cat are known as finicky eaters, and my current fur babies are no exception. Iggy and Spud have turned their noses up at a variety of flavors in their two short years with us, but things finally clicked when we introduced them to premium tuna cat food. Suddenly it was all they wanted–and nothing else.

Iggy and Spud aren’t alone in their love of tuna. The dish is a staple of everything from New Yorker cartoons to Meow Mix jingles. And fish in general is such a hit with felines that an estimated 6% of all wild fish caught gets turned into moist cat food alone. That’s an odd diet for an animal that evolved in the desert.

Now researchers think they know why our feline friends have this curious craving. As I write in Science, researchers have discovered that cat taste buds contain the molecular machinery needed to detect umami. That’s the savory flavor of various meats, and one of the five basic tastes in addition to sweet, sour, salty, and bitter. But the feline palate isn’t just find tuned to meat–as one might expect for an obligate carnivore. The team of scientists also discovered that the cat’s umami receptor responds especially vigorously to molecules found in tuna. In taste tests, cats in the study preferred water flavored with these compounds over all other dishes. Tuna appears to hit the “umami sweet spot” in cats, as one of the researchers told me.

Still, it’s unclear why cats would have evolved a taste for tuna. It may have become a useful adaptation to living with humans. As far back as 1500 B.C.E., cats are depicted eating fish in the art of Ancient Egypt. And by the Middle Ages, felines in some Middle Eastern ports were consuming large quantities of fish—including tuna—likely because they were feasting on the scraps left by fishers. Cats that had a hankering for tuna likely had a leg up on their fish-averse comrades.

If your own cat doesn’t like tuna, don’t sweat it. Researchers have shown that cats aren’t able to tase sugar, but my cat Jasper used to love marshmallows, which are basically just sugar and more sugar. Some feline mysteries, it seems, can’t fully be explained by science.

June 6, 2023
by dave
Comments Off

A birth control shot for cats?

Stray cats Amman, Jordan. (Credit: Alexey Komarov, Wikimedia Commons)

Stray cats Amman, Jordan. (Credit: Alexey Komarov, Wikimedia Commons)

Birth control for cats and dogs might sound like the setup for a joke, but it’s no laughing matter. There are more than 1.5 billion homeless dogs and cats in the world, suffering on the streets, being killed to stop the spread of rabies or protect wildlife, or getting euthanized in overcrowded shelters. Spay/neuter surgery can help keep pet numbers down–indeed it has made a massive impact on shelter euthanasia since the 1970s–but it’s too slow and too expensive to put a dent in the global overpopulation crisis.

That’s why scientists have been trying to come up with an alternative to the surgery for more than 20 years. They’ve been hoping to develop something like a shot or a pill–a one-time, permanent contraceptive that’s cheap and easy to administer. I wrote about these efforts in 2009, but nothing has worked–until now.

In a new study, researchers report a gene therapy approach that appears to contracept female cats for at least two years, and perhaps much longer.  The strategy delivers a gene for antimüllerian hormone, which is produced by follicles in the ovary that give rise to eggs. Cats that received the shot overproduced the hormone, which seems to disrupt the formation of their ovarian follicles, preventing ovulation. No cats given the shot became pregnant, despite spending lots of time with a willing male.

The study is small–there were only six treated cats and three controls–but experts say it’s by far the most promising progress they’ve seen towards the “holy grail” of pet contraception. If the approach proves safe and long-lasting (ideally permanent)–and if it works in dogs–it could truly revolutionize birth control for dogs and cats. No joking.

October 25, 2022
by dave
Comments Off

‘Whooo’s a pretty kitty?’ Cats like it when we speak to them in baby talk

Jezebel has something to say. (Credit: David Grimm)

Jezebel has something to say. (Credit: David Grimm)

Cats, dogs, and babies have something in common–and it’s not just the mess they make. They all seem to elicit “baby talk” from us: short, repetitive phrases spoken with drawn-out syllables and a high pitch. If you’re a pet owner, you’re likely guilty of it–probably several times a day.

Scientists knew that dogs react to this “caregiver speech”, as it’s known. Or, as it’s known specifically for dogs, “dog-directed speech”. They’re far more likely to swivel their necks towards us or cock their heads. But no one had done a similar study on cats–until now.

As I write in Science, researchers have now tested whether our feline friends respond to “cat-directed speech”. They do, it turns out, though their reactions are more subtle than those of dogs. Their ears twitch towards us, or they momentarily stop bathing themselves. Cats, unlike dogs, also don’t respond to this type of talk from strangers; they only pay attention to their owners. That’s perhaps not a surprise as dogs are more likely to encounter unfamiliar humans, and are more likely to be cooed at by them.

But the work does reinforce the idea that cats, like dogs, are clued into the special bond we have with them: a bond that’s not unlike a mother has with her child. Perhaps that’s why cats also have evolved their own high-pitched sound, one embedded in their purrs that may evoke the attention-getting cries of human infants. We talk to our cats, but they also talk back.

September 20, 2022
by dave
Comments Off

Wolves: Just how dog-like are they?

Me and a wolf named Wotan at Wolf Park. (Credit: Wolf Park)

Me and a wolf named Wotan at Wolf Park. (Credit: Wolf Park)

About 10 years ago, I visited one of the most unique sanctuaries in North America. I was reporting for my book, Citizen Canine–specifically a chapter about how the wolf became the dog. Experts agree that gray wolves gave rise to today’s dogs, but just how this happened is a mystery. Equally enigmatic is how much dogs changed over the course of this transformation. Did the ability to obey commands and follow human pointing arise only in dogs, for exampel? Or were flickers of these abilities present in their wolf ancestors? Ditto for the incredible bond between dogs and humans. Were wolves also capable of such attachment?

I had come to Wolf Park to find out just how different these two animals are. The sanctuary, 70 miles northwest of Indiana, is one of the few places in the world you can get up close and personal with wolves. I was lucky enough to spend some time face-to-face with the animals. As I write in my book:

When I enter the park, I’m directed to a safety training seminar. That’s my first clue that I’m not dealing with a domesticated animal. The second is the chain-linked fence topped with razor wire that separates the wolves from everyone else. As I walk along a dirt path that leads from the visitor’s center to the beige bunkhouse where the safety briefing will be held, I catch my first glimpse of a wolf. There, on the other side of the fence, stands a small black female, her eyes glowing yellow, her ears on alert. She’s staring at me, and not in a way that makes me feel comfortable. Despite what I’ve heard about the similarities between wolves and dogs, there’s nothing dog-like about this animal. She’s cold, she’s tense, and she clearly doesn’t want me here. 

Continue Reading →

July 28, 2022
by dave
Comments Off

Can your dog read your mind?

(Credit: Hebrew Matio / Wikimedia Commons)

(Credit: Hebrew Matio / Wikimedia Commons)

You have a remarkable skill you’re probably not aware of: You can read other people’s minds. No, you’re not a telepath, but you do have a general sense of what someone else is thinking. If someone approaches you with a baseball in their hand for example, you can quickly deduce whether they mean to throw it to you–or bean you with it. You know their intentions, and you know that their thoughts are separate from your own.

This is a skill known as “Theory of Mind”. On it’s most basic level, it’s our ability to tune into the thoughts and intentions of others. Scientists have seen signs of Theory of Mind in non-human primates, birds, and even dogs, though the abilities in these animals don’t seem nearly as complex as they are in humans.

A new study provides a bit more evidence that our canine pals may have a rudimentary theory of mind. When a researcher offered a series of dogs a piece of sausage, but then either “clumsily” dropped the treat or snatched it away purposefully at the last second, the dogs were more likely to walk away in the latter instance. This suggests that dogs understand our intentions, as I write in a new article.

Pups also understand what we mean when we point at something–a skill some have also attributed to Theory of Mind.

Put together, the evidence is growing that our canine pals have some conception of what’s going on in our heads. That’s not terribly surprising–how else could they make sense of all of the seemingly strange and random things we do? After all, when you’ve lived with another species for about 20,000 years, it pays to have some sort of mind meld. No telepathy required.

May 31, 2022
by dave
Comments Off

Shopping for a purebred dog? You may not get the personality you expect

A classic German Shepherd (Hans Kemperman, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons)

A classic German Shepherd (Hans Kemperman, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Most modern breeds as we know them trace back less than 160 years. And yet the supposed personalities of these dogs feel like they have been engrained forever. Labrador retrievers are lovable and friendly. Border collies are neurotic and energetic. Chihuahuas are yappy. But things aren’t quite that straightforward, according to a new study that puts these temperaments to the test.

Researchers drew on data from thousands of dogs across the U.S., including genetics and owner surveys. As expected, most breeds have a defined look. When you shop for a German Shepherd, you’re going to get a tall canine with a bushy tail and pointy ears. But behaviors such as playfulness, trainability, and attachment to people varied widely, even within the same breed. The bottom line, says one of the study authors: If you’re looking for a dog with a specific personality, “you shouldn’t shop out of a catalog. Each dog is an individual.” (A website the team set up shows just how hard it is to know what you might get.)

Read more about this research in my latest story for Science

January 27, 2022
by dave
Comments Off

Like your Yorkie? Thank a tiny genetic change that nearly vanished in ancient wolves

Barking up a big tree. (Credit:  Ahmed Mateo,  Wikimedia Commons)

Barking up a big tree. (Credit: Ahmed Mateo, Wikimedia Commons)

Dogs vary more in size than any other mammal on earth, from teacup-sized Chihuahuas to towering Great Danes. Most of this extreme variation has arisen over the past two centuries with the rise of modern dog breeding.  But Victorian dog fanciers didn’t create these breeds out of whole cloth, a new study finds. Instead, they hijacked two tiny genetic changes that have been present in the ancestors of dogs since at least the last Ice Age.  The study, which I cover this week in Science,  doesn’t just help explain why dogs are among the most malleable creatures on the planet. It may also elucidate how and why the sizes of wolves and their relatives have changed over evolutionary history.

October 22, 2021
by dave
Comments Off

Where did dogs come from? Japanese wolf provides clues

A 19th-century sketch of the Japanese wolf. (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

A 19th-century sketch of the Japanese wolf. (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Where and when did dogs arise? It’s one of the greatest mysteries of domestication, and one that remains unresolved despite decades of study.

Scientists know that all modern dogs descend from a population of gray wolves. But exactly who these wolves were and where they lived has been unclear. And thus, so has the origins of dogs.

Now, a new study of Japanese wolves may be providing some answers. This mysterious animal lived in Japan for thousands of years, but humans wiped it out about a century ago. In a new study, a team of Japanese researchers sequenced ancient DNA from nine Japanese wolves and 11 dogs, and compared them to the sequences of a variety of other canids. The data suggest that Japanese wolves are more closely related to dogs than are any other wolves. More importantly, the DNA suggests that the ancestor of the dog and the Japanese wolf was the same: A population of gray wolves that lived in East Asia, and which has likely vanished.

In all, the study suggests that dogs arose in East Asia, though the timing is still unclear. The location jibes with two proposed locations of dog domestication: Northeastern Siberia and Southeast Asia. It also seems to rule out a European or Middle Eastern origin, which some researchers had posited.

More work will be needed to seal the deal, and to say whether this is one canine case that’s finally been closed.