When Hungarian animal behaviorist Fanni Lehoczki noticed the frequent howls of her Siberian husky Bizsu did not always provoke other dogs into a wolf-like response, it prompted the question — why are certain dogs more prone to howling?
Researchers at Eotvos Lorand University in Budapest where Lehoczki works examined whether certain dog breeds are more prone to howling and if this had anything to do with their genetic closeness to wolves.
Lehoczki and her team examined how a dog’s breed, age and sex impacted its reaction to howling, by testing 68 purebred family dogs by playing three-minute recordings of wolf howls and observing their reactions.
Photo: Reuters
The dogs in the experiment belonged to 28 different breeds ranging from ancient breeds such Shiba inu, Siberian husky, Alaskan malamute and Pekingese, to bull terriers and boxers.
“The main finding was that ... those breeds which are genetically closer to wolves are more prone to respond with howling, and they also show more stress signals than dogs which are less related to wolves,” Lehoczki said, adding that this was true only for dogs older than five.
Among younger dogs there was no difference between the breeds, so researchers said they would examine this aspect further.
Older dogs of more ancient breeds responded with longer howls and showed more stress-related behaviors, too, while more modern breeds seemed to react with barking.
The research also concluded that breeds which tend to howl more also show more stress-related behavior such as yawning, shaking their body, licking their mouth or scratching the body.
The study is the first specifically investigating howling in domestic dogs.
“Domestication and selective breeding by humans fundamentally changed dogs’ vocal repertoire, and both the perception and production of howling in dogs,” it said.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘POINT OF NO RETURN’: The Caribbean nation needs increased international funding and support for a multinational force to help police tackle expanding gang violence The top UN official in Haiti on Monday sounded an alarm to the UN Security Council that escalating gang violence is liable to lead the Caribbean nation to “a point of no return.” Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Haiti Maria Isabel Salvador said that “Haiti could face total chaos” without increased funding and support for the operation of the Kenya-led multinational force helping Haiti’s police to tackle the gangs’ expanding violence into areas beyond the capital, Port-Au-Prince. Most recently, gangs seized the city of Mirebalais in central Haiti, and during the attack more than 500 prisoners were freed, she said.
RSS