The behavioral basis of canine–human friendship

Abstract

threat can also be covert and ambiguous. The information primacy hypothesis argues that animals in complex environments may reduce environmental uncertainty through investigation. Information gathering may be especially important when ambiguous threat is close to a necessary resource. We studied the investigatory behaviors of 7 pairs of captive coyotes toward ambiguous threat within their ‘‘territories.’’ The threat consisted of recent anthropogenic activity that was associated with both foraging and nonforaging locations. At foraging locations, 2 distinct responses were observed. Five animals thoroughly investigated sites of human activity and subsequently fed there, whereas 9 animals neither investigated these locations nor fed. Nonforaging locations were seldom investigated by any animal. Individuals in pairs did not necessarily behave similarly. From these results, we suggest that coyote behavior with regard to ambiguous threat at foraging locations may be qualified as either proactive or reactive. When the proactive cohort of coyotes was prevented from investigating anthropogenic activity, foraging ceased altogether. This study is the first that provides evidence suggesting that canids gather information for cognitive inference about covert threat.