Decreased risk-proneness with increasing age in equally raised and kept wolves and dogs

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 20; no. 1; p. e0313916
• Main Authors: Jean-Joseph, Hillary, Kortekaas, Kim, Range, Friederike, Kotrschal, Kurt
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 08.01.2025; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Age; Age Factors; Aging - physiology; Aging - psychology; Analysis; Animals; Behavior; Behavior, Animal - physiology; Biology and Life Sciences; Canidae; Cognition & reasoning; Cooperation; Dogs; Domestic animals; Domestication; Fear - physiology; Fear - psychology; Female; Food; Heart rate; Heart Rate - physiology; Human-animal relationships; Humans; Hypotheses; Life Sciences; Male; Medicine and Health Sciences; Neophobia; Parameters; Personality; Physiological aspects; Physiology; Risk reduction; Risk taking; Social behavior; Social interactions; Social Sciences; Social support; Wolves; Wolves - physiology; Austria

A basic mechanism of domestication is the selection for fearlessness and acceptance of humans as social partners, which may affect risk-taking behavior and the ability to use humans as social support, both at the behavioural and physiological levels. We combined behavioural observations with heart r...