This year's Ig Nobels...

[Gawdzilla Sama]

True, but the fuckers love it. Look at Huskies, they can't wait to get pulling, and they're quite close to wolves. Korea though, that's true.
I'm sure our ancestors would eat their dogs when times were bad.

And that's why they stayed slaves. Programmed genetically to be "good dogs". You try making a meal out of a wolf and see what happens. Set up a video camera first, please, and anchor your body so you don't get dragged out of the picture. (We've been getting road kill deer in steadily over the past two weeks, and the wolves are getting good at sorting out a carcass quickly. )

Wolves are opportunists.
I've read that scientists examining wolf scat in Alaska and NW Canada regularly find bear fur, both brown and black.
I can't imagine wolves killing adult grizzlies, but grizzlies kill grizzlies, and black bears, and maybe wolves just drive the winner off the carcase.
Humans wouldn't stand much chance of catching a wild wolf to eat, but if you had raised it from a cub, it would be pretty easy to smash it's brain's out with your club, when it wasn't expecting it, or shove a spear through it.

Sometimes animals just die. Age, disease, the thought of spending another winter in Canada, anything can kill them. And yes, wolves are scavengers, as are most predators. A meal you don't have to fight is a treat. It may be that dogs were the first domesticated livestock humans kept.

[MiM]

About the Wasabi alarm. What kind of alarm devices are there for deaf people

[Gawdzilla Sama]

About the Wasabi alarm. What kind of alarm devices are there for deaf people

One of my friends had a hammer-alarm built. It was designed to rapidly beat against the headboard of his bed when needed.

[mistermack]

About the Wasabi alarm. What kind of alarm devices are there for deaf people

Hearing dogs.

[Audley Strange]

Hmmm so much to answer. First of all I meant by wild dogs, animals in their natural habitat, rather than abandoned feral offspring of domesticated, by which I meant animals that have either been clever enough to bond with a human pack, or dumb enough to have been outwitted by humans, dependant on your view of such dynamics.

Yes, dogs yawn. Interestingly someone here, (Gawdzilla?!), works with wolves don't they? They would have the perfect chance to test this out for themselves.

I would, at least, be interested in the results.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Hmmm so much to answer. First of all I meant by wild dogs, animals in their natural habitat, rather than abandoned feral offspring of domesticated, by which I meant animals that have either been clever enough to bond with a human pack, or dumb enough to have been outwitted by humans, dependant on your view of such dynamics.

Yes, dogs yawn. Interestingly someone here, (Gawdzilla?!), works with wolves don't they? They would have the perfect chance to test this out for themselves.

I would, at least, be interested in the results.

We have thousands of hours of video of the wolves at the Center, and the keepers all have degrees in something or other related to the wolves. I'll ask them if they've seen any yawning.

[mistermack]

Hmmm so much to answer. First of all I meant by wild dogs, animals in their natural habitat, rather than abandoned feral offspring of domesticated, by which I meant animals that have either been clever enough to bond with a human pack, or dumb enough to have been outwitted by humans, dependant on your view of such dynamics.

Yes, dogs yawn. Interestingly someone here, (Gawdzilla?!), works with wolves don't they? They would have the perfect chance to test this out for themselves.

I would, at least, be interested in the results.

We have thousands of hours of video of the wolves at the Center, and the keepers all have degrees in something or other related to the wolves. I'll ask them if they've seen any yawning.

Everybody knows that they set each other off howling, so they seem to have a version of it.
As a pack animal, they work together to survive, so I'd be surprised if they didn't have the yawning instinct, and some tortoises did. But that's nature, unpredictable.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Everybody knows that they set each other off howling, so they seem to have a version of it.
As a pack animal, they work together to survive, so I'd be surprised if they didn't have the yawning instinct, and some tortoises did. But that's nature, unpredictable.

I not comfortable placing howling in the same zone as yawning. Howling is a purposeful action, not a reflex.

[mistermack]

Everybody knows that they set each other off howling, so they seem to have a version of it.
As a pack animal, they work together to survive, so I'd be surprised if they didn't have the yawning instinct, and some tortoises did. But that's nature, unpredictable.

I not comfortable placing howling in the same zone as yawning. Howling is a purposeful action, not a reflex.

Not a reflex, maybe, but it seems that they can't help it. (dogs anyway).
It usually just takes a few notes on my harmonica to set any dog off.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Everybody knows that they set each other off howling, so they seem to have a version of it.
As a pack animal, they work together to survive, so I'd be surprised if they didn't have the yawning instinct, and some tortoises did. But that's nature, unpredictable.

I not comfortable placing howling in the same zone as yawning. Howling is a purposeful action, not a reflex.

Not a reflex, maybe, but it seems that they can't help it. (dogs anyway).
It usually just takes a few notes on my harmonica to set any dog off.

Not the same with wolves. They howl sometimes solo, sometimes in small groups, and sometimes the whole lot goes at it.

[Audley Strange]

@Gawdzilla. Yawning has quite a few purposes, not of them biological. It would seem at least to some extent, that yawning works as some form of social signifier. Even in human relationships a yawn can signify many things so it wouldn't surprise me that the theory that yawning and howling were orignally purpose similar.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

@Gawdzilla. Yawning has quite a few purposes, not of them biological. It would seem at least to some extent, that yawning works as some form of social signifier. Even in human relationships a yawn can signify many things so it wouldn't surprise me that the theory that yawning and howling were orignally purpose similar.

The staff person I want to discuss this with, the Curator of Animals, wasn't in today so I couldn't ask her. I'll see if she's in tomorrow when I go out there.