The reason why the dog’s ears will droop
A scientist once did an experiment with the silver fox as an object in the late 1950s. Silver foxes are very aggressive. If you want to domesticate silver foxes so that they can become pets and be kept at home, you must choose the weaker one in your group to breed, so that after generations of reproduction continue You can get a silver fox with a more docile temperament.
After 25 years, silver foxes have bred for 20 generations. Because the silver foxes with docile temperament have been selected for breeding, people are surprised to find some characteristics of the domesticated silver foxes, such as their faces appear flatter and teeth It also became smaller, the ears became soft and drooped, the tail became more curly, and the color of the fur changed a little.
This coincides with the characteristics of other animals we domesticated. Although the domestication time of the silver fox is still very short, there are various signs that this change in appearance is likely to be a phenomenon that domestication will continue to be strengthened.
In fact, the reason why domesticated animals show similar characteristics is because of a manifestation called “domestication syndrome”. Domestication syndrome can cause animals to have smaller heads, shorter teeth, shorter tails and lighter tails, spots on the fur, or color changes.
The manifestation of domestication syndrome is that animals become more docile and friendly. Some scientists have investigated that humans may also have domestication syndromes like animals. Some people are born with a genetic disease of maxillofacial skeletal hypoplasia. People with this disease have nothing special in appearance, but their personalities are very friendly.
In fact, in human society, those who are ugly, with flat faces and collapsed noses do have quite a bit better tempers. Historically, there have been some arguments supporting this scientific discovery. For example, a person with a soft heart would say His “ears are soft,” and he also said that he was born from the heart, which invisibly confirmed the results obtained in the domestication experiments on animals.
Domestication syndrome has brought us docile pets, reducing the aggressiveness of these animals, making them family members that can live with humans, and giving the appearance of pets more lovable and soft It has slouchy ears, a curly and short tail, and a variety of colors. Compared with the appearance of wolves, which are genetically inherited from dogs, it is very obvious. The domestication of humans makes dogs more cute and has ornamental value, while wolves are full of wild nature. This can even be seen by appearance alone. Out.
Why are dog ears so good?
Some animals use telepathy to transmit information. Dogs are even more like this. For example, they have a foreboding before earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, and they run and bark outdoors. It may remind you to prepare early, and super feelings can also control its direction. , Can still find a way home in a long distance, even after a few years, a trained dog
When performing a task, it has not even waited for the master to complete a simple action or finish a sentence, it can already analyze the master’s command and play a good role. This phenomenon is reflected in the excellent training effect obtained by a trainer In, there is an unexplainable attraction between dogs and people in common activities—super feeling. And the connection between it and other beasts also has its own unique way of transmission, and it is very jealous of cats. , But through people’s various expressions and training, dogs can understand the owner’s love for cats and live in harmony.
The dog’s sense of smell is mainly manifested in two aspects, one is its sensitivity to odors, and the other is its ability to distinguish odors. Its olfactory sensitivity is based on the head of each animal.
The sensitivity to acidic substances is tens of thousands of times higher than that of humans. The dog’s olfactory receptor is called the olfactory mucosa, which is located in the upper part of the nasal cavity and has many wrinkles on the surface. Its area is about four times that of humans. The olfactory cells in the olfactory mucosa are real There are about 200 million olfactory receptors, which is 40 times that of humans. Dogs are quite capable of distinguishing odors and can smell specific tastes in many odors. Its ability to find odors is 1 million or even 10 million times that of humans. The ability to distinguish odors is more than 1,000 times that of humans. Police dogs can distinguish more than 100,000 different odors. According to olfactory information, they identify their owners, identify similar genders, estrus status, identify mothers and children, identify roads, directions, etc.
When a dog recognizes and distinguishes things, he sniffs a few times before making a decision. If he encounters a stranger, he always has to turn around him to sniff the smell. Sometimes it can be creepy. And it can know what it is based on the smell of street corner Whenever, wherever he comes from, and where he goes, people use this ability to serve mankind.
The sensitive sense of smell of dogs is well known, and it can exert its strengths, because the olfactory nerves of dogs are densely distributed on the nasal mucosa, occupying 4 times the area of humans, and are more than 40 times more sensitive to smells than humans. Some people say that dogs can distinguish more than 20,000 different flavors, which is no exaggeration. It is precisely because of its sensitive olfactory ability that it can identify the same gender, estrus state, parent-child recognition, and distinguish the road, location, food, and prey.
People take advantage of its keen sense of smell to train military dogs and police dogs for criminal investigation, anti-narcotics, explosion and rescue work, and do a lot of work that humans cannot do. Specially trained dogs, such as police dogs, military dogs, hunting dogs, herding dogs, etc., can also be used to detect and transmit various information. Because dogs have a particularly sensitive sense of hearing and smell, according to measurement, human olfactory cells generally have only 5 million, while dogs have 220 million, which can distinguish about 20,000 different smells.
