Domestication dramatically alters phenotypes across animal species. Standing variation among ancestral populations often drives phenotypic change during domestication, but some changes are caused by novel mutations. In dogs (Canis familiaris) specifically, it has been suggested that the ability to interpret social-communicative behavior expressed by humans originated post-domestication and this behavior is thus not expected to occur in wolves (Canis lupus). Here we report the observation of three 8-week-old wolf puppies spontaneously responding to social-communicative behaviors from an unfamiliar person by retrieving a ball. This behavioral expression in wolves has significant implications for our understanding and expectations of the genetic foundations of dog behavior. Importantly, our observations indicate that behavioral responses to human social-communicative cues are not unique to dogs. This suggests that, although probably rare, standing variation in the expression of human-directed behavior in ancestral populations could have been an important target for early selective pressures exerted during dog domestication.

驯化极大地改变了动物物种的表型。祖先种群之间的站立变异通常会在驯化过程中推动表型的变化，但某些变化是由新的突变引起的。特别是在犬类（犬类）中，有人解释了人类表达的社交行为的能力源自犬种后，因此预计这种行为不会在狼中发生（犬类狼疮）。）。在这里，我们报告观察到三只8周大的狼幼犬通过捡回球自发地响应陌生人的社交行为。狼中的这种行为表达对我们对狗行为遗传基础的理解和期望具有重要意义。重要的是，我们的观察表明，对人类社交交流线索的行为反应并非狗所独有。这表明，尽管可能很少见，但祖先群体中人类主导的行为表达的持续变化可能已成为犬只驯养过程中早期施加选择性压力的重要目标。