Re: [GZG] A number of scientists respond to Hawking's concerns about Aliens

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http://mail.csua.berkeley.edu:8080/mailman/listinfo/gzg-lOn Tue, May 11,
2010 at 10:21 AM, Ken Hall <khall39@yahoo.com> wrote:

> With all due respect, the most recent research on cat behavior I've
read
> argues that what appears to be cruelty in cats results from the lack
of a
> killing instinct. They have the hunting instinct inborn, but they're
not
> born knowing how to kill prey. Dogs have it; that's why they almost
> invariably shake a chew toy when they pick it up (it's a
neck-breaker). Cats
> have to learn it. Sources available on request, though it may take a
day or
> so.
>

I was watching the documentary series on dogs hosted by John Lithgow,
*Dogs
and More Dogs*, and it described quite well how dogs descended from cats
with regard to hunting.

Most predators, particularly wolves, hunt in a pattern: "search" for
food,
"eye stalk" when they see the food and sneak up to it, "chase" down the
food, "grab-bite" to grab hold of the food, and "kill-bite" to kill the
food, followed by eating the food.

Once a wolf starts down this path, due to its nature, it dearly wants,
needs, to finish the procedure. That's because it is so hard coded into
them
that eating comes at the end of the procedure.

Dogs, on the other hand, have been selected so that they don't need to
go
through the procedure to eat. Humans feed them. Therefore, we can, and
have,
bred dogs to enhance some of these portions of the pattern, dampen other
portions, or remove them entirely.

The neck breaking is part of the "kill-bite" pattern, but not all dogs
have
it. Hunting retrievers, for instance, are bred not to damage their kill.
They go from search to chase (even though the prey isn't moving) to
grab-bite, with the other steps removed.

I know our dog goes through search, eye-stalk, and chase. She does this
all
the time with the cats that hang out near the dumpster at our apartment.
When she's played with other dogs, she does the grab-bite, but it's not
very
hard. It's just a little nip. She'll play "rough stuff" with me, when
she
grabs my arm, but it's not very hard. Her "grab-bite" instinct is
definitely
dampened.

She also shakes chew toys. When given a soft chew toy, she will work
away at
it until she pulls out the stuffing. I don't know, though, if she would
go
through with kill-bite. I suspect no, unless really driven by hunger.

Here's the transcript for the show; the relevant section is just past
the
halfway mark.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/3103_dogs.html

-- 
Allan Goodall		 http://www.hyperbear.com
awgoodall@gmail.com
agoodall@hyperbear.com