After 'Balla coi lupi', 'Gioca con lupi': this is the title of the short video shot in a Swedish laboratory showing the first wolves to carry over, capable of repeatedly bringing back the ball thrown by the man. The experiment, published in the journal iScience, literally left the researchers of the University of Stockholm speechless, reinforcing the hypothesis that the behavior did not arise during the domestication of the dog, but that it was innate already in their ancestors.
The experiment, set up by the ethologist Hans Temrin and the behavioral ecology expert Christina Hansen Wheat, did not aim to study exactly the carrying capacity of wolves, but their socialization. Over the course of three years, the researchers collected 13 gray wolf cubs from various European countries and brought them to a center located in a wooded region south-west of Stockholm.
Upon arrival, the puppies were only 10 days old: to get them used to contact with humans, the researchers were with them 24 hours a day, sharing the shifts, sleeping with them in sleeping bags and waking up every three hours to breastfeed them . Over the weeks, some puppies have shown an innate tendency to bring back the tennis ball that was thrown by man.
Intrigued by this behavior, the researchers tested all the animals at the eighth week of life. One at a time, they accompanied them inside a large room, where they then left them in the company of a human stranger to them: after a few minutes, the person threw the ball and then observed their reaction.
Most wolves, as expected, completely ignored it, while two puppies in particular, called Lemmy and Elvis, brought the ball back twice. A third wolf, named Sting, even reported it all three times, as shown in the video.
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