Science Proves That Most Wolves Are Lazy Jerks

[Weasels]

http://io9.com/5845967/science-proves-that-most-wolves-are-lazy-jerks

Although scientists may want to write up their work this way, only journalists are allowed to

[sandgrubber]

<br /><a href='http://io9.com/5845967/science-proves-that-most-wolves-are-lazy-jerks' class='bbc_url' title='External link' rel='nofollow external'>http://io9.com/58459...-are-lazy-jerks</a><br /><br />Although scientists may want to write up their work this way, only journalists are allowed to <img src='http://www.dolforums.com.au/public/style_emoticons/default/frown.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' /><br />

<br /><br /><br />

fun article, but anything that says "science proves" is an automatic turnoff to scientists. Sounds more like anecdote than data. Humans are pretty good at misunderstanding animals.

It would be more satisfying to know more about the freeloaders. Were they all males (as in human hunter-gatherer societies)? Were they youngsters, perhaps learning the ropes? Or retired wolves, who had done their duties and were serving as backup.

[Weasels]

http://beheco.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2011/09/29/beheco.arr159.abstract

It says the freeloading is unrelated to age, experience or size, but it didn't mention sex. It's a subscription article so I cant look at the whole thing until I get to work.

I mostly posted it because my dog had just woken me up at midnight by chewing a bone on the wood floor in my room, so anyhing that called canids 'jerks' had a special appeal

[Simply Grand]

Reads to me like the author of the article in the OP is taking the p*ss out of the reported findings from the study... As in pointing out that human-type motivations and behaviours were being attributed to wolves, who clearly have their own way of operating as a group.

"lazy wolves fooling human researchers..." Kinda funny I thought

[Weasels]

The website in the original link does a lot of science reporting and is pretty nerdy, so i feel confident when they say 'science proves' it was with tongue in cheek.

The paper they refer to was in a good journal and one of the coauthors was David Mech, so the science was probably pretty good too (although it's not my field so i can't judge). Even good science can provide some laffs tho

[jacqui835]

Does the full article provide any hypothesis as to the free-loaders? Surely there must be some overall advantage to the pack (maybe they perform other functions - good nannies or defenders etc) or maybe they need a larger pack to maintain their elk-rich territories from other wolves?

Interesting though, thanks for sharing

[Weasels]

Does the full article provide any hypothesis as to the free-loaders? Surely there must be some overall advantage to the pack (maybe they perform other functions - good nannies or defenders etc) or maybe they need a larger pack to maintain their elk-rich territories from other wolves?

Interesting though, thanks for sharing

Not directly that I could see, but they had limited data on whether it was the same wolves free-loading each time (although the data they had suggested it was). They did note that the performance of breeding individuals declined more slowly as group size increased, so perhaps individual performance will fluctuate over time depending on whether they have pups to feed. Or maybe they are just being kind to their no-good siblings.

I know that coyotes and dingoes are far more flexible in their pack affliation depending what type and how much prey is available, but they generally live in more marginal habitat. Perhaps the wolves' range covers habitat with enough resources that they don't have to fret over every morsel, so the costs of having freeloaders are low. I'm just speculating tho.

There is much more research to be done! Get busy behavioural ecologists!

[Simply Grand]

When I worked at McDonalds quite a few years ago they always used to make me order take on drive-thru during busy times. It was the most boring job and I always wanted to be at the other end getting the orders together, much more fun! BUT they had a saying, "Aces in their Places" meaning that during busy times they put people in the jobs they were best at so that things got done effeciently and effectively.

Maybe wolves have the same philosophy? The ones that do all the hunting are the ones that are best at it and the "freeloading" ones aren't as good at it so they have to do other jobs that they're better at (like boring order taking) :D

[RubyBlue]

I always knew my dogs were fundamentally lazy - I thought they got it from me