You Can Snuggle Wolf Pups All You Want, They Still Won't 'Get' You Quite Like Your Dog
Published:14 Jul.2021 Source:Duke University
You know your dog gets your gist when you point and say "go find the ball" and he scampers right to it. This knack for understanding human gestures may seem unremarkable, but it's a complex cognitive ability that is rare in the animal kingdom. Our closest relatives, the chimpanzees, can't do it. And the dogs' closest relative, the wolf, can't either, according to a new Duke University-led study published July 12 in the journal Current Biology.
More than 14,000 years of hanging out with us has done a curious thing to the minds of dogs. They have what are known as "theory of mind" abilities, or mental skills allowing them to infer what humans are thinking and feeling in some situations.