The thing is, individual animals don't have strategies, they don't feel selection pressures, and they certainly don't have any awareness of what it means to pass on their genes to the next generation, let alone the next and the next. On a certain level we all know this.

But according to some evolutionary theorists, evolution does take place in real time, it just does so on a molecular level, which then transmigrates upwards into changes in morphology, which influence changes in behavior, etc. And if this is true then adaptation has nothing to do with an animal's behavioral choices in response to changes in his environment, it's part of a simple energy exchange, taking place on a molecular level, one that doesn't put selection pressures on the organism but does put some kind of energetic pressure (probably thermodynamic) on the nuclei of certain cells.

Of course I'm a dog trainer, not an evolutionary biologist. So what do I know? I'm probably oversimplifying the heck out of this. But hear me out...

In most mammalian predators, the offspring are kicked out of the "nest" once they reach adolescence. The parents don't continue nurturing them, and with good reason: nature doesn't want a group of "bloodthirsty" types living in close proximity; if food is scarce you run the risk that they'll vent some of their aggression on one another. But unlike what we see with the big cats (with the exception of female lions), wolf offspring aren't kicked out of their nests (or don't decide on their own to leave) until they're at least 2 years old. That's a substantial divergence from the norm.

Why the difference? Oxytocin.

It might sound improbable that a simple neuropeptide, even though it has some pretty fancy tricks up its sleeve (for one thing it acts as both a hormone and a pheromone) could be responsible for such complex changes in behavior. But recent research by Insel & Young, 2002, shows that in monogamous prairie voles, when the effects of both oxytocin and vasopressin (which are closely related), were disrupted -- by derailing their connections to the "reward pathways"[1] in the nucleus accumbens -- the formerly monogamous voles quickly became promiscuous.

This was a huge reversal, and it took place immediately.

In contrast, Lim et al, 2004, did a study with promiscuous meadow voles, and found that the addition of oxytocin and vasopressin (again, in direct connection with the "reward circuits" in the brain), produced long term pair bonding where no such behavior had previously existed. And again, the results took place immediately, in real time.[2] [3]

"A change in the expression of a single gene in the larger context of pre-existing genetic and neural circuits can profoundly alter social behavior, providing a potential molecular mechanism for the rapid evolution of complex social behavior." (Lim et al, 2004.)

See that? "A molecular mechanism for the rapid evolution of complex social behavior." So I think it's quite probable that at some point in the wolf's evolutionary history, certain wolf pups, or certain wolf parents, or possibly both, kept producing these intriguing neuropeptides long past the time frame that their feline "rivals" did.

Over countless generations the cats became more and more fearsome (yet still solitary) predators. Wolves, meanwhile, took a quite different path. They didn't become more fearsome; they became more social. And as a side-benefit, they became more successful at hunting. This could've happened fairly quickly, possibly within the span of a few generations. Add to this the way intricate social behaviors -- particularly when used for hunting large prey -- require enormous intelligence and emotional flexibility, and it starts to become clear that the wolf's social metamorphosis may also be part of what enabled wolves to become much more adaptable to living and thriving in various habitats, environments, and eco-systems, far more so than any feline species has ever been capable of.

Why does hunting large prey require more intelligence?

Intelligence is perhaps the wrong word. Think of it as the number of computations necessary to successfully hunt large, dangerous prey as part of a group, as opposed to the number required to either hunt small prey by yourself or, if you're a big cat, to hunt the type of animal, large or small, that you can take down fairly easily on your own.

If you're a cheetah chasing a gazelle your focus is fairly simple compared to that a wolf chasing an elk as part of a group dynamic. The cheetah is focused primarily on 3 things: 1) the changing movement, energy, and emotions of the prey, 2) changes in the terrain, and 3) the changes in his own movements, levels of energy, intensity, drive, etc.

But for a wolf, he's doing all that, yet at the same he's focusing on the changing positions, energies, intensities, emotions, and movements of each of his pack mates. If he's hunted with them before he's also got a backlog of data about their preferences and behavioral tendencies in similar situations. The larger the pack, the larger the database, and the larger the number of computations necessary.

So as soon as wolves started hunting in concert, they automatically became more "intelligent" and more adaptable.[4]

Then, when wolves began their long relationship with human beings and eventually became domesticated by us (or vice versa), and began their new incarnation as dogs, they expanded on the wolf's adaptability, so much so that the modern dog's natural habitat now includes every corner of the globe, including Antarctica. (Since a dog's natural habitat is anywhere that involves living and working alongside human beings, Antarctica should clearly be on the list.)

To sum up: wolves probably didn't invent the "strategy" of hunting large prey as a way of adapting to their environment. Their innovative pack hunting dynamic may have just been an outgrowth of a simple molecular change in their brain chemistry. And it's why they were subsequently able to evolve so quickly into the most social, the most adaptable, and most diverse species on earth: our best friend, the dog.

Anyway, that's what this particular dog trainer thinks might've happened.

LCK
www.LeeCharlesKelley.com
“Changing the World, One Dog at a Time”
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