Dogs wag their tails dramatically when they are excited and satisfied - but scientists still cannot understand how exactly this behavior developed. A new meta-study by an international team of biologists has now attempted to decipher how and why this unique behavior evolved.
At the moment, there is no consensus that explains the appearance of the buttock tail, which is almost never seen in wolves or foxes - the dog's relatives. Early dogs, taking advantage of humans' positive response to repetitive movements, experienced a kind of pressure to amplify the movement to emphasize it.