The interplay of cooperation and communication in canids

Human language is incredibly complex and fundamentally different from any other form of communication in the animal kingdomeven when compared to our closest relatives, the great apes. Although great apes are highly intelligent, they do not communicate as we do. This suggests that intelligence alone is not sufficient to explain the emergence of language. One theory proposes that our ability to communicate arose not only because we are intelligent but also because we are exceptionally cooperative. Humans collaborate in ways that are rare in the animal kingdomespecially when it comes to raising children. This high level of cooperation may have played a crucial role in the evolution of language. To explore this idea, we plan to study wolvesanimals that are both intelligent and cooperative and, like humans, raise their young together. We will observe how wolves communicate in everyday situations that require teamwork, such as hunting for food, defending against threats, or caring for pups. Using new technologies, we will track their behavior and communication in natural environments as well as in specially designed cooperation tests. For comparison, we will also study domestic dogs. While dogs, like wolves, are intelligent, they have lost much of their original intraspecific cooperative abilities through millennia of living alongside humans. By comparing the two species, we hope to understand how cooperation and communication are intertwined. Our primary goal, however, is to learn more about how cooperation contributed to the evolution of human languageand, in doing so, gain new insights into what makes human communication so unique.

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