Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
At some point in the distant past, a similar encounter between a central
Asian nomad boy and a wild wolf cub may have been the starting point in
the long journey from wolf to dog. There is some evidence that in eastern
Asia, probably between 15,000 and 25,000 years ago, dogs were domesti-
cated from wolves. In the dusty street of that little Mongolian village we
had glimpsed an echo of that time, when many groups of nomadic peoples
were moving across the green slopes of the Altai Mountains and when such
captures of wolf cubs by curious children must have happened repeatedly.
The children must have tried to raise the cute little animals, but as most of
the wolf cubs grew larger they bit too many fi ngers and were banished from
the household. Occasionally a wolf cub was found that was especially friendly
and could join the family. It soon paid its way, acting as a guard and raising the
alarm at night when it heard or smelled animal or human intruders. Perhaps
it killed rats in its spare time. And eventually its descendants learned to herd
and guard the other animals that these nomads began to domesticate. It is
likely that the tamed wolves of the encampments served as a source of meat
during grim times, as they have done more recently for Eskimos.
Wolves must have been dii cult to tame at fi rst. Most wolves do not
relate readily to people, a fact that was quantifi ed by Brian Hare and his col-
and wolves with a pair of boxes. Both boxes smelled of food, but only one of
the boxes had food hidden in it. The dog or wolf had to fi nd which box was
the right one.
In each trial a human whom the animal had never met was also present in
the room. Dogs immediately looked to the human for guidance, and responded
readily when the human touched or pointed to the box with the food. They
responded correctly even when the human merely glanced at the box.
Most of the wolves snif ed around the boxes at random, ignoring the
humans and their signals. But a few of them did respond correctly at greater
than chance levels when the human both looked at the box and touched
it. These wolves may simply have been more accustomed to humans, but
it is also likely that there is variation in wolf behavior. As a result of such
variation some of those East Asian wolves from 15,000 years ago might have
been easier to tame than others.
