Differences in persistence between dogs and wolves in an unsolvable task in the absence of humans.

ABSTRACT: Despite being closely related, dogs perform worse than wolves in independent problem-solving tasks. These differences in problem-solving performance have been attributed to dogs' greater reliance on humans, who are usually present when problem-solving tasks are presented. However, more fundamental motivational factors or behavioural traits such as persistence, motor diversity and neophobia may also be responsible for differences in task performance. Hence, to better understand what drives the differences between dogs' and wolves' problem-solving performance, it is essential to test them in the absence of humans. Here, we tested equally raised and kept dogs and wolves with two unsolvable tasks, a commonly used paradigm to study problem-solving behaviour in these species. Differently from pr

SUBMITTER: Rao A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6266929 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature