Wolves are Better at Counting Numbers Than Domesticated Dogs

Being able to mentally consider quantities is important for any social species. But it turns out that some animals are better at it than others. Now, scientists have found that wolves are actually able to discriminate between different quantities better than their domesticated cousins.

Both people and animals can discriminate between quantities. For example, chimps will only approach a group of attackers if their own group outnumbers their opponent's group. Essentially, these species can use numerical information to make decisions about their social life.

In this case, the researchers decided to see how dogs possessed this skill. The scientists tested 13 crossbreed dogs. The animals lived together in different packs and were tested by being presented pieces of cheese. These pieces were placed into two opaque tubes-one on the left and the other on the right. Eventually, the dogs had to decide which tube contained more cheese pieces than the other. By pressing the correct buzzer, the dogs were rewarded with cheese from the respective tube.

"We deliberately performed the test in such a way that the dogs never saw the full quantity of food at once," said Friederike Range, one of the researchers, in a news release. "We showed them the pieces sequentially. This allows us to exclude the possibility that the dogs were basing their decisions on simple factors such as overall volume. The dogs had to mentally represent the number of pieces in a tube."

In the end, the researchers found that dogs were unable to discriminate between difficult comparisons: such as two pieces of food versus three, or three pieces versus four. In contrast, wolves managed to do much better on these tests.

Currently, the researchers are investigating why dogs performed so poorly in these tests. They believe that it's possible that dogs lost this ability with domestication.

"Compared to wolves, domestic dogs no longer have to search for food on their own," said Range. "They have a secure place to sleep and even mating decisions are made by people. Dogs are thus excluded from natural selection."

The findings are published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology.

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