Moscow's Stray Dogs Evolving Greater Intelligence, Including a Mastery of the Subway - Polidicks

[img]http://www.popsci.com/files/imagecache/article_image_large/articles/f0ea78f0-ff2b-11de-a677-00144feab49a.jpg[/img] [quote]For every 300 Muscovites, there's a stray dog wandering the streets of Russia's capital. And according to Andrei Poyarkov, a researcher at the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, the fierce pressure of urban living has driven the dogs to evolve wolf-like traits, increased intelligence, and even the ability to navigate the subway. Poyarkov has studied the dogs, which number about 35,000, for the last 30 years. Over that time, he observed the stray dog population lose the spotted coats, wagging tails, and friendliness that separate dogs from wolves, while at the same time evolving social structures and behaviors optimized to four ecological niches occupied by what Poyarkov calls guard dogs, scavengers, wild dogs, and beggars. The guard dogs follow around, and receive food from, the security personnel at Moscow's many fenced in sites. They think the guards are their masters, and serve as semi-feral assistants. The scavengers roam the city eating garbage. The wild dogs are the most wolf-like, hunting mice, rats, and cats under the cover of night. But beggar dogs have evolved the most specialized behavior. Relying on scraps of food from commuters, the beggar dogs can not only recognize which humans are most likely to give them something to eat, but have evolved to ride the subway. Using scents, and the ability to recognize the train conductor's names for different stops, they incorporate many stations into their territories. Additionally, Poyarkov says the pack structure of the beggars reflects a reliance on brain over brawn for survival. In the beggar packs, the smartest dog, not the most physically dominant, occupies the alpha male position. The evolution of Moscow's stray dogs has been going on since at least the mid-1800s, when Russian writers first mentioned the stray dog problem in the city. And that evolution has been propelled by deadly selective pressure. Most of the strays arrive on the streets as rejected house pets. Of those dogs kicked out of their homes, Poyarkov estimates fewer than 3 percent live long enough to breed. To survive those odds, a dog really does have to be the fittest.[/quote] Pretty interesting. Makes me wonder how much humans affect the evolution of other species.

Make a videogame.

This one time I was driving in the middle of the night and I came to a redlight in a totally empty street and I see a stray dog just standing there waiting at the crosswalk for the light to give him the right away with the "Walk" signal. The bastard actually waited for the light to change instead of fucking Jay walking.

Wow, those things really must be pretty sophistico.

This is why dogs are the best

You choose your class at the beginning : Guard dog , scavenger , wild dog , beggar. And you can unlock skills like "mastery of the subway".

I for one welcome our new canine overlords. I love smart animals :D

I wish I was as smart as that.

That is awesome. Dogs are awesome.

We think they are awesome now, but when they stand on their hind legs and speak their first real words then we'll be in trouble.

[QUOTE=Ickylevel;19778647]Make a videogame.[/QUOTE] Oh hai! [url]http://www.gametrailers.com/video/underground-trailer-metro-2033/60587[/url] [editline]12:55PM[/editline] [QUOTE=noctune9;19778625][img]http://www.popsci.com/files/imagecache/article_image_large/articles/f0ea78f0-ff2b-11de-a677-00144feab49a.jpg[/img] Pretty interesting. Makes me wonder how much humans affect the evolution of other species.[/QUOTE] At least as much as other species affect our evolution.

This reminds me of the cat that caught the bus every day for four years to pick up groceries or something like that. R.I.P. Bus Cat. :(

[QUOTE=Ickylevel;19778647]Make a videogame.[/QUOTE] [url]http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/adventure/dogslife/index.html[/url]

[QUOTE=rabidwulf92;19779260][url]http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/adventure/dogslife/index.html[/url][/QUOTE] I had that game. You have the ability to shit on the floor, and then pick it up in your mouth and fling it at people. Fun times.

How long until the Guard dogs set up a protection racket for the Scavengers and Beggars? After all, corruption is more common over there.

That's incredible.

Zombie Stalin is planning an uprising. Soon the Dog Army will flood forth from the underground, and Moscow will be his again.

[QUOTE=KanonieR;19778651]This is why dogs are the best[/QUOTE] Your avatar + your post = :crossarms: Ok, here we go again, the "Dogs vs Cats" flamewar... Starting in 3... 2... 1...

Humans dominate the entire Earth, of course some animals are going to adapt.

Dogs are just retarded wolves anyway.

I read about this earlier on englishrussia. They found that some dogs will silently sneak up on a person carrying food, bark, the person will drop the food and that's how they feed themselves. These same dogs commute daily from the outskirts of the city which offer shelter in the form of numerous abandoned buildings into the city center where they have many victims to chose from. They can also profile individuals carrying food and select the ones most likely to drop it if startled.

This is pretty cool

[QUOTE=FunkyHippo;19778648]This one time I was driving in the middle of the night and I came to a redlight in a totally empty street and I see a stray dog just standing there waiting at the crosswalk for the light to give him the right away with the "Walk" signal. The bastard actually waited for the light to change instead of fucking Jay walking.[/QUOTE] model citizen right there

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. dogs D:

I live in Moscow, the article says truth, dogs are smart and riding subway, and not just for transport, they also come in to get some food by messing around with passengers. Also they live in subway alot because of warmer condition. Dem are Moscow Dogs.

That's incredible.

This is interesting. It's great how these dogs adapted to the environment in Moscow.

Dogs.

Where's your god now, creationists?

I wonder how many humans have evolved to follow the subway dogs, because the subway dogs know their way around town better than the humans? "Which train do we need to get to Moscow?" "I dunno, but I've seen that black dog there before. He hangs out at the McDonald's on Gorky. Fuck it, let's just follow him." "Okay" A few minutes later, 'Blackie' gets on a train, followed by Uri and Oleg.