What Happens to Wolves When They're Raised Like Dogs? | Hacker News Reader

What Happens to Wolves When They're Raised Like Dogs?

gizmodo.com

20 pointsourmandave5 comments

I became frustrated that the article spent 3-4 paragraphs putzing around before getting to any real meat. So, I made this list of the key points:

- The goal was to sort out which dog behaviors were already present in ancestral wolves

- Wolves like to lick each others’ faces (even without being raised by humans)

- Wolves are capable of following a person’s gaze into space

- Wolves understand gestures like finger pointing (anecdote: my dog doesn't understand this...)

- Wolves can become attached to their human caregivers

- Wolves are able to form lasting affiliative relationships with their caretakers, though without a sense of dependence.

- The wolves raised like puppies approached human visitors of all types (known, unknown) readily and willingly.

* The 12-month-old and 24-month-old wolves approached their foster-parents and close acquaintances with affection, but they were a bit apprehensive when approaching other humans.

* The six-month-old wolf pups flocked to their human caregivers in an “intense and friendly” manner, and they were comfortable in the company of all visitor types.

- No aggressive behaviors were documented, but some of the wolf pups exhibited crouching and tail-tucking behaviors when approaching the strangers, which suggests they were a bit scared.

- Given that some of the wolves were as old as 24 months during the experiments, the results suggest that human-raised wolves will continue to seek contact with humans into early adulthood.

- The sample sizes weren’t great; a total of ten wolf pups were used in the study.

- To keep the interactions as consistent as possible, visitors were told to wear the same clothing, not wear any perfume or cologne, and not have anything in their pocket, along with a host of other control measures.

The article misses the most important point about what happens when wolves are raised like dogs.

The full-grown wolf will be a wonderful and intelligent member of the household right until the master of the house shows some sign of injury. Then your loving pet will try to take control of "the pack".

This is the primary reason that they have to get euthanized. At that point they cannot live in the wild, and they are no longer safe to have in your home.

That sounds very plausible. I would be very interested in sources for this. How many accounts of wolves raised as pets exist and when and where have wolves had to be euthanized? Is there a distinction between accounts where the euthanasia occurred before an actual incident of dominance/attack versus after.

I learned about this from an interview on a TV show where people who rescued wolves explained how their wolves came to be there and why people shouldn't have wolves as pets.

I've run across the tidbit at other places, but nothing that I can easily google for at the moment. (Googling for "wolf pet dominance" comes up with debates about training pet dogs by establishing yourself as the alpha.)

After reading that article, my main takeaways are:

- both dogs and wolves are capable of bonding with humans

- dogs prefer dependence on others (even inter-species)

- wolves prefer independence from all outside their 'pack'

- wolves can allow humans into their 'pack', but will still view all humans outside their pack as 'other'

It seems like domestication of wolves is possible, but not really beneficial for either the wolves or the humans as a species.

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