Comments on: Book review – The Wolf Within: The Astonishing Evolution of the Wolf into Man’s Best Friend/2019/02/28/book-review-the-wolf-within-the-astonishing-evolution-of-the-wolf-into-mans-best-friend/Reviewing fascinating science books since 2017Thu, 07 Dec 2023 12:48:07 +0000hourly1http://wordpress.com/By: inquisitivebiologist/2019/02/28/book-review-the-wolf-within-the-astonishing-evolution-of-the-wolf-into-mans-best-friend/comment-page-1/#comment-86585Thu, 11 May 2023 20:51:49 +0000http://inquisitivebiologist.wordpress.com/?p=3260#comment-86585In reply to Sabine Lechtenfeld.

Thanks for your extended thoughts on this. I was unfortunately not yet aware that Brian Sykes passed away,

I have it in mind to read both of Pat Shipman’s books at some point, especially after her 2021 Our Oldest Companions. They sound like interesting and potentially plausible ideas. Just haven’t had the time yet to read these.

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]]>By: Sabine Lechtenfeld/2019/02/28/book-review-the-wolf-within-the-astonishing-evolution-of-the-wolf-into-mans-best-friend/comment-page-1/#comment-86583Thu, 11 May 2023 20:35:18 +0000http://inquisitivebiologist.wordpress.com/?p=3260#comment-86583 But he was always ready to admit when he had taken a wrong turn or overstated his case, and he was committed to make genetics more accessible for us.As to the not conclusively answered question if an ancient wolf population was attracted to human hunter-gatherers because of the tasty leftovers which were found in the vicinity of their camps, or if a few ancient wolves and some humans were mutually attracted to each other because of their brave big-game hunters with whom they eventually teamed up: well I firmly belong to the faction which supports the former theory, even if it is far less glamorous. But Bryan Sykes is not a biologist and he hasn't studied the behavior of dogs and wolves. The idea that some ancient hungry wolves discovered a great food source near the camps of human hunter-gatherers, and that some canines who were less shy than others and also had a sunny disposition, which gave them an evolutionary advantage because they got the tastiest morsels, is a very plausible narrative. And it can be observed amongst other animal species as well which started to follow and live near humans. I can also easily imagine that those impossibly cute wolf cubs were excellent play mates for human children, and women might've helped to raise orphaned wolf cubs. Living closely together would have become natural after many generations, and these early camp-wolves or proto-dogs might've turned out to be a very nice addition to the daily life of hunter-gatherers. The canine newcomers disposed of otherwise rotting leftovers, and they started to be great sentinels as soon as they regarded themselves as members of the tribe. The young proto-dogs were probably great companions for the human children, with whom they grew up, and whom they fiercely defended if necessary. Many generations later when the close companionship of humans and canines had become normal, other joint activities would follow. But I think that hunting together with human hunters wasn't one of the earliest cooperations of humans with their early wolf-dogs. This would have needed complete trust in each other after many generations of canines and humans growing up together. For children who grew up with their canine companions, it would have been natural to start doing things together, and the young soon-to-be hunters would have discovered that their best four-legged friends who followed them everywhere, were actually pretty useful and could do some things much better than humans. Hunting together was most likely an innovative activity which has been initiated by the younger two-legged and four-legged members of the tribe after many generations in each other's company. I really don't believe that once upon a time in Eurasia adult hunters and adult wolves started to look each other into the eyes thus discovering kindred spririts which led to mutual respect and cooperation. This is a very romantic but highly improbable scenario. Wolves and humans would have been afraid of and avoided each other. Both species were dangerous apex-predators, and only growing up with each other could remove this barrier!I agree with Bryan Sykes' and Pat Shipman's theory that having dogs could have proved to be a great advantage for Homo Sapiens which might've helped them to out-compete the Neanderthals and the Denisovans who as far as we know never lived together with dogs. Dogs would have helped their humans to hunt more efficiently, and it would have been impossible for raiding Neanderthals to catch humans off-guard. The wolf-dogs would also have fiercely defended their humans during an inter-species conflict. When Pat Shipman initially presented this idea, the accepted chronology didn't support this theory because it was believed that all Neanderthals had died out before Homo Sapiens had started to live together with the earliest proto-dogs. It seemed unlikely that Neanderthals and dogs ever met. But the date when the first proto-dogs branched out from an ancient wolf population has been pushed back back considerably, and it's possible that Neanderthals and dogs met after all. And while the decline of the Neanderthal population was well underway back then, being chased away by dogs would not have improved their lot!]]>Thanks for this review! I will definitely read the book.
Bryan Sykes is – or rather was – a very interesting character. He unfortunately passed away in 2020. He was not afraid to stick out his neck and tackle controversional issues, like examining purported yeti and bigfoot hair samples, or claiming that an American accountant was a direct descendant of Ghengis Khan 😉 But he was always ready to admit when he had taken a wrong turn or overstated his case, and he was committed to make genetics more accessible for us.
As to the not conclusively answered question if an ancient wolf population was attracted to human hunter-gatherers because of the tasty leftovers which were found in the vicinity of their camps, or if a few ancient wolves and some humans were mutually attracted to each other because of their brave big-game hunters with whom they eventually teamed up: well I firmly belong to the faction which supports the former theory, even if it is far less glamorous. But Bryan Sykes is not a biologist and he hasn’t studied the behavior of dogs and wolves. The idea that some ancient hungry wolves discovered a great food source near the camps of human hunter-gatherers, and that some canines who were less shy than others and also had a sunny disposition, which gave them an evolutionary advantage because they got the tastiest morsels, is a very plausible narrative. And it can be observed amongst other animal species as well which started to follow and live near humans. I can also easily imagine that those impossibly cute wolf cubs were excellent play mates for human children, and women might’ve helped to raise orphaned wolf cubs. Living closely together would have become natural after many generations, and these early camp-wolves or proto-dogs might’ve turned out to be a very nice addition to the daily life of hunter-gatherers. The canine newcomers disposed of otherwise rotting leftovers, and they started to be great sentinels as soon as they regarded themselves as members of the tribe. The young proto-dogs were probably great companions for the human children, with whom they grew up, and whom they fiercely defended if necessary. Many generations later when the close companionship of humans and canines had become normal, other joint activities would follow. But I think that hunting together with human hunters wasn’t one of the earliest cooperations of humans with their early wolf-dogs. This would have needed complete trust in each other after many generations of canines and humans growing up together. For children who grew up with their canine companions, it would have been natural to start doing things together, and the young soon-to-be hunters would have discovered that their best four-legged friends who followed them everywhere, were actually pretty useful and could do some things much better than humans. Hunting together was most likely an innovative activity which has been initiated by the younger two-legged and four-legged members of the tribe after many generations in each other’s company. I really don’t believe that once upon a time in Eurasia adult hunters and adult wolves started to look each other into the eyes thus discovering kindred spririts which led to mutual respect and cooperation. This is a very romantic but highly improbable scenario. Wolves and humans would have been afraid of and avoided each other. Both species were dangerous apex-predators, and only growing up with each other could remove this barrier!
I agree with Bryan Sykes’ and Pat Shipman’s theory that having dogs could have proved to be a great advantage for Homo Sapiens which might’ve helped them to out-compete the Neanderthals and the Denisovans who as far as we know never lived together with dogs. Dogs would have helped their humans to hunt more efficiently, and it would have been impossible for raiding Neanderthals to catch humans off-guard. The wolf-dogs would also have fiercely defended their humans during an inter-species conflict. When Pat Shipman initially presented this idea, the accepted chronology didn’t support this theory because it was believed that all Neanderthals had died out before Homo Sapiens had started to live together with the earliest proto-dogs. It seemed unlikely that Neanderthals and dogs ever met. But the date when the first proto-dogs branched out from an ancient wolf population has been pushed back back considerably, and it’s possible that Neanderthals and dogs met after all. And while the decline of the Neanderthal population was well underway back then, being chased away by dogs would not have improved their lot!

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]]>By: Book review – The Process of Animal Domestication | The Inquisitive Biologist/2019/02/28/book-review-the-wolf-within-the-astonishing-evolution-of-the-wolf-into-mans-best-friend/comment-page-1/#comment-48597Thu, 19 May 2022 11:29:59 +0000http://inquisitivebiologist.wordpress.com/?p=3260#comment-48597[…] Grandin’s book on behavioural genetics. The bulk of the research covered here is on mammals (dogs feature prominently) and birds, with fish and insects getting two brief chapters at the end of the […]

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]]>By: Danielle Hobart/2019/02/28/book-review-the-wolf-within-the-astonishing-evolution-of-the-wolf-into-mans-best-friend/comment-page-1/#comment-7465Sun, 05 Jan 2020 03:07:27 +0000http://inquisitivebiologist.wordpress.com/?p=3260#comment-7465I absolutely love this book!!

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