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Many pet owners claim that their pets talk to them, that inside the barks and meows there are distinct meanings that can be discovered. Much like mothers who hear a baby’s cry differently if it is upset or hungry, pet owners think a dog’s bark signifies a certain frame of mind. But a new study published in Behavioural Processes believes a bark serves no such purpose. Rather, it reflects an internal conflict a domesticated dog feels—and a conflict that can be traced back 10,000 years.
The question arose due to an anomaly in the animal kingdom: if so many animals bark, why do dogs do so with such frequency? Deer and birds also bark in the biological categorization of that sound, but they do so very rarely (for a truly disturbing experience, check out the video of the deer barking below). Domesticated dogs, however, bark as a main form of communication.
Kathryn Lord at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UM), lead author of the study, explained her group’s stance on the question. They believe that dogs bark because of an ingrained response to internal conflict, one that arose when dogs were hanging around refuse pits of humans over 10,000 years ago. It is known as mobbing, a way to dissuade predators from infringing upon territory. Dogs do not want to flee their territory, but they are afraid of an approaching threat. “We think dogs bark due to this internal conflict and mobbing behavior, but domestic dogs bark more because they are put, and put themselves into, conflicting situations more often,” she said. [UM]
What sort of conflicting situations? Lord cites the use of fences, a case when a dog is incapable of running a long distance from an intruder (or passive passer-by as the case may be). Because they cannot flee as their wild counterparts, wolves, would, dogs have learned to stand their ground. And that means they bark an awful lot.
And in addition to putting themselves into more conflicting situations, the trait may be an evolutionary inheritance. After all, the dogs who barked were the ones who survived. Lord stated, “In evolutionary terms, dogs self-selected the behavior of sticking around, overcoming their fear and being rewarded by getting to eat that meal before some other dog got it. Thus these animals allow people to get unusually close. The scared ones die while those less scared stay, eat, survive and reproduce. So they inherit the tendency.” [UM]
The paper went on to categorize a bark for the first time, setting out the parameters (such as tone, pulse length, abrupt onset) that a sound must meet in order to be considered an actual bark. Through those definitions, the deer barking is a strange, but understandable animal trait. “Using this definition, even birds bark, and certainly many mammals besides canines, including baboons and monkeys, rodents and deer also bark,” Lord explained. “In a whole bunch of mammals and birds, what they do in such conflicted situations is bark.” [UM] As mentioned before, the video below is a surreal capture of a barking deer--a sound that most are not even aware the animal can make.
This new hypothesis may be met with heavy criticism, as Lord herself stated the alternative theory is widely accepted by many biologists. “We suggest an alternative hypothesis to one that many biologists seem to accept lately, which seeks to explain dog barking in human-centric terms and define it as an internally motivated vocalization strategy. What we’re saying is that the domestic dog does not have an intentional message in mind, such as, ‘I want to play’ or ‘the house is on fire,’” Lord explains. [UM]
More animal news: Monkeys show language recognition * Strange fish throws away genes * Snake startles fish right into its jaws * More
Comments
Now that I think about it, that makes perfect sense. Barking does seem to be a response to conflict or confusion.
Still, there are different kinds of barks and different intensities. I bet there's even more to this we have yet to discover.
Great article!
So when my dogs are happy when I come home and squeal, they are conflicted? And when they dance around, grab toys and bark and growl at me, it doesn't mean that? Really?
Has this lady, Kathryn Lord, even owned a dog for a period of time? Owned other livestock, animals, or pets? Does common sense and a bit of animal voyeurism not come into the picture here?
It seems fairly obvious to me that their barks have different intentions and there are sooo many problems with the information given in this article pertaining to the Kathryn Lord's 'reasoning', that I just don't have the time or want to post it. However, if Ms. (Mrs?) Lord actually cared about my opinion ;), I would love to discuss it with her.
I just had the holy bejesus scared out of me in the dark out in the woods behind my house. I'm happy now to find out it was just a deer. For a while though, all my hair was on end. You see it was pitch dark and I couldn't see what was making the noise.
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