Dec 21, 2023 01:55 AM
(This post was last modified: Dec 21, 2023 01:55 AM by C C.)
https://www.science.org/content/article/...brown-eyes
EXCERPTS: . . . The findings, reported today in Royal Society Open Science, fit with existing research on how people have changed the appearance of dogs over our shared history, says Molly Selba [...] “It makes sense that eye color would be just one more place where humans have left their mark.”
People have been molding dogs since they were first domesticated—perhaps 20,000 or more years ago—choosing animals that are friendly, obedient, and good at working for us...
But where does eye color fit in? The light-colored irises of wolves may be useful for communication in the wild [...] Yet more than 90% of domestic dog breeds recognized by the American Kennel Club, all of which descend from wolves, have dark irises.
To figure out why, Akitsugu Konno [...] and his colleagues edited photos of dogs from 33 breeds—everything from corgis to Irish wolfhounds—to make their eyes lighter or darker. They showed selections of the photos to 142 Japanese volunteers...
[...] The volunteers were significantly more likely to judge a dog as friendly—rating them more highly on traits such as sociability and nonaggressiveness—when the photo showed it with dark eyes, the team found. The participants rated these dogs as less intelligent and less mature, more like puppies...
Konno thinks humans prefer dark eyes because they make dogs’ pupils seem larger. Human babies have larger pupils than adults, he notes, and dilated pupils are associated with friendliness.
[...] Konno says there are notable exceptions: Piercing blue eyes, for example, are common among Siberian huskies and some other breeds. Huskies, he says, might be more closely related to wolves than other breeds, at least in terms of their visual anatomy and communication... (MORE - missing details)
EXCERPTS: . . . The findings, reported today in Royal Society Open Science, fit with existing research on how people have changed the appearance of dogs over our shared history, says Molly Selba [...] “It makes sense that eye color would be just one more place where humans have left their mark.”
People have been molding dogs since they were first domesticated—perhaps 20,000 or more years ago—choosing animals that are friendly, obedient, and good at working for us...
But where does eye color fit in? The light-colored irises of wolves may be useful for communication in the wild [...] Yet more than 90% of domestic dog breeds recognized by the American Kennel Club, all of which descend from wolves, have dark irises.
To figure out why, Akitsugu Konno [...] and his colleagues edited photos of dogs from 33 breeds—everything from corgis to Irish wolfhounds—to make their eyes lighter or darker. They showed selections of the photos to 142 Japanese volunteers...
[...] The volunteers were significantly more likely to judge a dog as friendly—rating them more highly on traits such as sociability and nonaggressiveness—when the photo showed it with dark eyes, the team found. The participants rated these dogs as less intelligent and less mature, more like puppies...
Konno thinks humans prefer dark eyes because they make dogs’ pupils seem larger. Human babies have larger pupils than adults, he notes, and dilated pupils are associated with friendliness.
[...] Konno says there are notable exceptions: Piercing blue eyes, for example, are common among Siberian huskies and some other breeds. Huskies, he says, might be more closely related to wolves than other breeds, at least in terms of their visual anatomy and communication... (MORE - missing details)
