There are over a billion dogs on the planet, and it is believed that 85 percent of them are feral.
Still, many of these wild dogs live close to humans. Many puppies are abandoned at just a few months old. When this happens, the mortality rate goes to 90 percent. So, how do so many dogs survive? It turns out, if they are cute enough, humans can adopt them. A new study recently provided some insight into how dogs evolved with humans.
Researchers Clive Wynne at Arizona State, Nadine Chersini at Utrecht University, and Nathan Hall at Texas Tech University brought in 51 college students and asked them to rate the attractiveness of headshots of puppies at different ages.
The photos included three different breeds of dogs, and they all aged between 3 months and 7 months old.
The study showed that while each breed reached peak cuteness at different ages (between 6 and 8 weeks old), they also all saw a significant increase in cuteness around 30 weeks of age. The researchers are not sure what causes the 30-week cuteness spike. Harold Herzog, an expert on human-animal interactions at Western Carolina University, said:
“I think it would be great for the study to be replicated using actual photographs of the same dogs as they aged through that critical period.”
Wynne was also impressed with the study and would like to see similar ones conducted in the future.
He said:
“If this has any meaning in dogs’ and people’s lives, then it would be the actual physical moving animal that people would be seeing. Around seven or eight weeks of age, just as their mother is getting sick of them and is going to kick them out of the den and they’re going to have to make their own way in life, at that age, that is exactly when they are most attractive to human beings.”
He added:
“This could be a signal coming through to us of how dogs have evolved to rely on human care. This could be dogs showing us how the bond between human and dog is not just something that we find immensely satisfying in our lives. … But for them, it’s the absolute bedrock of their existence. That being able to connect with us, to find an emotional hook with us is what actually makes their lives possible.”
Wynne was inspired to do the study during a trip to the Bahamas, where he saw a lot of stray dogs.
Most researchers assumed that since most dogs are weaned at around 6 weeks old, that would be the time when they are the cutest. Since they are all in competition with each other at that age, it only makes sense that nature would turn up the cuteness factor during that time.
He said:
“It came out exactly as I’d hoped it would — that there is indeed an optimal age of maximum cuteness and that age does line up pretty closely with the age at which mothers wean their pups.”
So, what do people consider cute?
According to the study, it’s the “big, forward-facing eyes, floppy and unstable limbs, and a soft, rounded body shape. We’re also keen to squeal when animals have large heads in comparison to their bodies.”
Oddly, these are also the same qualities that people find cute in human babies.
We already know that it is important for humans to be attracted to other humans. However, it’s also important for animals to look cute to humans. So important that it changes the way these animals evolved. This may also be the case for other domestic animals, like cats, horses, and pigs.
The study proves that it’s no coincidence that we look for the cutest puppies to bring to our families; it’s nature’s way of making sure those pups are cared for properly.
It’s just another example of survival of the fittest or, in this case, survival of the cutest. Has anyone ever seen a puppy that wasn’t adorable?
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