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10 - Social cognition and emotions underlying dog behavior
- from PART II - BEHAVIOR, COGNITION AND TRAINING
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- By Friederike Range, Messerli Research Institute, Veterinärmedizinische Universität Wien (Vetmeduni Vienna), Wien, Austria, Zsófia Virányi, Messerli Research Institute, Veterinärmedizinische Universität Wien (Vetmeduni Vienna), Wien, Austria
- Edited by James Serpell, University of Pennsylvania
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- Book:
- The Domestic Dog
- Published online:
- 30 December 2016
- Print publication:
- 08 December 2016, pp 182-209
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Summary
Introduction
Since domestication began more than 10 000 years ago (Pang et al., 2009; see also Clutton-Brock, Chapter 2; vonHoldt & Driscoll, Chapter 3), dogs have been living in a human-dominated niche in which they are likely to enjoy advantages if they are able to communicate and cooperate successfully with people (Miklósi et al., 2004; Bradshaw & Rooney, Chapter 8). As such, dogs are thought to have evolved cognitive-emotional traits analogous to the social skills that differentiate humans from other primates (Hare et al., 2005; Topál et al., 2009a). Accordingly, investigating the cognition of domestic dogs provides a potentially exciting opportunity to reveal which cognitive traits have functional relevance in the present social life of humans (Virányi et al., 2008a).
Recent intensive research focusing on dogs’ social interactions and communication with humans has revealed that dogs perform more like humans in some communicative and cooperative tasks than any other animal species (Lakatos et al., 2009; Soproni et al., 2001). In some of these tasks, dogs outperform other species that are more closely related to humans, such as chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) (Brauer et al., 2006; Hare et al., 2002; but see Mulcahy & Hedge, 2012). These intriguing dog–human similarities are often assumed to originate from the dog's adaptation to the human environment, and are partly due to their life-long experiences with humans and the influence that this exerts on their cognitive development (Udell et al., 2010, Miklósi & Tópal, 2011). Dogs typically grow up in human families and develop attachments and dependent relationships analogous to those between children and their parents (Topál et al., 1998). This developmental environment can foster a variety of mechanisms ranging from classical conditioning (Bentosela et al., 2008) to more complex modifications of cognitive and emotional processes, such as the ontogenetic process of “enculturation” that has been proposed to result in enhanced cognitive abilities in non-human primates raised by humans (Hare et al., 2005). Consequently, many argue that dog behavior and cognition have been modified in ways that help dogs to be socially integrated into human groups.
For both theoretical and practical reasons, it is important to ask to what extent aspects of dog behavior and cognition have either been genetically modified during the course of domestication or altered by individual experiences and training.
Caviar in the rain forest: monkeys as frog-spawn predators in Taï National Park, Ivory Coast
- Mark-Oliver Rödel, Friederike Range, Janne-Tuomas Seppänen, Ronald Noë
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- Journal:
- Journal of Tropical Ecology / Volume 18 / Issue 2 / March 2002
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 06 March 2002, pp. 289-294
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The high predation pressure in aquatic environments is generally assumed to be the ultimate cause of terrestrial breeding in anurans (Downie 1993, Magnusson & Hero 1991, Poynton 1964, Yorke 1983). It has evolved multiple times and is presently found in most anuran families (Bogart 1981, Duellman 1992). It is often associated with higher humidity and thus lower desiccation risk in tropical forests (Duellman & Trueb 1986). Most clutches that are oviposited terrestrially are either hidden in subterranean refuges or attached more or less exposed to vegetation (Duellman & Trueb 1986, Lamotte & Lescure 1977). Exposed clutches however, face the risk of desiccation, even in rain-forest environments (Rödel pers. obs.) and are still vulnerable to predation. Such disparate groups as various arthropods (Villa 1977, 1980; Villa & Townsend 1983, Vonesh 2000), frogs (Crump 1974), snakes (Roberts 1994, Scott & Starrett 1974, Warkentin 1995) and birds (Brosset 1967), have been reported to feed on these clutches. The foam nests,which occur in at least six tropical anuran families, seem to provide better protection. Their drying surface and their more or less liquid interior offers the tadpoles an aquatic environment that is well protected against desiccation and predation (Duellman & Trueb 1986, Seymour & Loveridge 1994). In addition the bubbles of the foam facilitate oxygen diffusion within the nest and may even provide a capacious oxygen store for eggs and hatched tadpoles (Seymour & Loveridge 1994). Few predators have been reported to feed on foam nests, one of which,paradoxically, is a frog (Drewes & Altig 1996). In the Taï National Park, Ivory Coast, we discovered a quite unexpected group of predators preying on foam nests and frog clutches exposed on leaves: monkeys.