Latest news with #ProceedingsoftheRoyalSocietyB:BiologicalSciences
Sharjah 24
12-02-2025
- Science
- Sharjah 24
Scientists reveal how to make dogs pay attention
Both pointing and staring at an object is the best way for dog owners to get their pets to follow directions, according to a new study on Wednesday. The owner's gaze and gesture are useful separately, "but combined they are stronger," lead study author Christoph Voelter of the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna told AFP. The team of Austrian researchers put headgear on 20 dogs to detect exactly where the pooches looked when they were confronted with a range of scenarios. The test subjects included eight mongrels as well as Staffordshire terriers, Australian shepherds and poodles. For the experiment conducted in the university's Clever Dog Lab, each canine faced a scientist on their knees. A bowl was placed on each side of the scientist, only one of which contained a hidden treat. The dogs were then presented with five different scenarios, six times each. The scientists would point at the bowl while staring at the dog, or point and look at the bowl at the same time, or look only at the bowl. They even used the classic prank that many dog owners play on their pets -- they pretended to throw a ball in the direction of the bowl, while really keeping it in their hand. Recordings from the headgear showed that the dogs fared best when the scientist both pointed and stared at the bowl that contained the treat. Perhaps unsurprisingly, they did the worst when the scientists pretended to throw the ball. But do they understand? For the researchers, this finding pointed towards the hypothesis that dogs follow human referential communication cues, rather than simply directional ones. In other words, the dogs could understand the meaning of the information they were being given -- in this case, a treat is that way -- rather than just running in the direction they are being pointed. But the researchers were careful not to hastily draw conclusions. Exactly how much the dogs understood what is happening remains an open question, Voelter emphasised. "Is it for them more like an imperative directive to go somewhere? Or do they understand it more in a communicative way?" he said. More research in this field of natural pedagogy would be needed, according to the study in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. The field normally studies how communication clues -- such as pointing and looking at an object while naming it -- help young children learn the names of everything around them. The researchers are also looking into how this works for dogs, Voelter said. The next step is figuring out whether dogs are also better at learning and memorising things "when we address them," he added.
Arab News
12-02-2025
- Science
- Arab News
Scientists reveal how to make dogs pay attention
PARIS: Struggling to get your dog to fetch your slippers? Scientists who strapped eye-tracking helmets to a bunch of dogs have found the perfect tactic to get them to pay attention. Both pointing and staring at an object is the best way for dog owners to get their pets to follow directions, according to a new study on Wednesday. The owner's gaze and gesture are useful separately, 'but combined they are stronger,' lead study author Christoph Voelter of the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna told AFP. The team of Austrian researchers put headgear on 20 dogs to detect exactly where the pooches looked when they were confronted with a range of scenarios. The test subjects included eight mongrels as well as Staffordshire terriers, Australian shepherds and poodles. For the experiment conducted in the university's Clever Dog Lab, each canine faced a scientist on their knees. A bowl was placed on each side of the scientist, only one of which contained a hidden treat. The dogs were then presented with five different scenarios, six times each. The scientists would point at the bowl while staring at the dog, or point and look at the bowl at the same time, or look only at the bowl. They even used the classic prank that many dog owners play on their pets — they pretended to throw a ball in the direction of the bowl, while really keeping it in their hand. Recordings from the headgear showed that the dogs fared best when the scientist both pointed and stared at the bowl that contained the treat. Perhaps unsurprisingly, they did the worst when the scientists pretended to throw the ball. For the researchers, this finding pointed toward the hypothesis that dogs follow human referential communication cues, rather than simply directional ones. In other words, the dogs could understand the meaning of the information they were being given — in this case, a treat is that way — rather than just running in the direction they are being pointed. But the researchers were careful not to hastily draw conclusions. Exactly how much the dogs understood what is happening remains an open question, Voelter emphasized. 'Is it for them more like an imperative directive to go somewhere? Or do they understand it more in a communicative way?' he said. More research in this field of natural pedagogy would be needed, according to the study in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. The field normally studies how communication clues — such as pointing and looking at an object while naming it — help young children learn the names of everything around them. The researchers are also looking into how this works for dogs, Voelter said. The next step is figuring out whether dogs are also better at learning and memorising things 'when we address them,' he added.
Yahoo
10-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Ray tails have long been mysterious. Scientists may have finally discovered their function
Tails aren't just animal accessories, they usually carry specific functions, but when it comes to rays, their function has been somewhat mysterious until now. Cownose rays (Rhinoptera bonasus) — like manta rays (Mobula birostris), eagle rays (Myliobatis aquila) and other rays in the Myliobatid order — are distinct because of their diamond-shaped bodies and long, whip-like tails. Even though the tails lash back and forth while the rays swim, they are not used for propulsion; similarly, they are not used to kill prey or thwart predators. For centuries scientists have puzzled over the purpose of ray tails, but that mystery was seemingly solved in a recent study in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. It turns out that, like the antennas on an insect or crustacean, a ray uses its tail to sense its environment. The inside of a myliobatid stingray tail is remarkably complex, the scientists learned. It has a caudal synarcual, or a specialized adaptation of the ray's skeletal near the back, which keeps the tail stiff and thereby minimizes the sound of water as it goes about sensing its surroundings. 'Cownose rays are active swimmers living in a diversity of environments where background noise can be high; for example, noise produced by waves near the surface or during swimming (signals associated with high frequencies),' the authors write. 'The filtering capacities of the lateral line system of the tail could improve the signal-to-noise ratio, avoiding overstimulation of the canal neuromasts.' Yet despite this stiff core, the tail's tissue is also pockmarked with tiny holes that link to the fish's lateral line canal, a system of sensory organs that fish and amphibians often use analogous to a human's central nervous system. In the cownose ray, the lateral line runs the length of the tail and branches off to pores in the fish's skin, which they likely use to process information about their environment. By contrast, most aquatic vertebrates have a lateral line that is streamlined near the animal's tail and only becomes complex near their head. This would help them both bury themselves to avoid predators and sense the location of the bivalves upon which they prey. 'The complex lateral line mechanosensory system in the tail of R. bonasus supports the hypothesis that the tail functions like a hydrodynamic sensory antenna and may play an important role in their behavioural and functional ecology,' the authors conclude.
