Dogs have been found to share food with their best buddies.
With Father Christmas banging on the door and spirit of the Yuletide floating around, we begin to feel more charitable towards others. And we ask ourselves this question: are we humans the only ones capable of altruistic behavior? A study shows that bow-wow buds share chow, showing that not only human think that sharing is caring.
The new research project centered around certain aspects of animal behavior has revealed some additional facts about our furry little companions. It would seem that even dogs are capable of sharing their treats with someone, especially if that someone is their buddy.
Scientists wanted to ascertain to what extent are dogs capable of displaying prosocial behavior. In the past, there were many papers which suggested that certain species of primates displayed this type of behavior.
Moreover, if he looks beyond dogs, we are able to determine that even their close relatives, wolves, have the tendency to associate and to collaborate with members from other packs. And they also capable of making friends.
In order to validate their results, the scientists performed several tests on a total number of 16 dogs. No needles were included in the tests, just food, and dogs. This is how it went down: two dogs were placed in separate glass cages.
Now, the dogs were faced with a little challenge. In front of them was a tray filled with delicious treats. The dog was either able to eat his tray of food or share it with the dog next to him via a lever place in the cage.
The team of researchers has stumbled onto something truly amazing which comes to show us that there is still much we can learn from man’s best friend. The canine companions are chosen for the experiments weight carefully each aspect when it came to the possibility of sharing their meal.
So, if the dog knew the other dog, then he didn’t hesitate on pulling the lever in order to share his meal. According to the results fo the study, the dog’s decision of sharing their food or not was largely based on how well he knew another dog.
The experiment was successful in demonstrating that the feeling of familiarity was enough to drive an animal into making an altruistic decision. Based on their findings, it would seem that animals do have the tendency of displaying prosocial behavior. Moreover, the experiment also managed to prove that even in the animal kingdom best buddies matter more than strangers.
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