By Yuan Ren For Mailonline
Published: 10:41 GMT, 15 March 2019 | Updated: 12:07 GMT, 15 March 2019
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Wolves reared by humans can learn to cooperate with their handlers just as well as domesticated dogs, a new study has found.
Wild wolves work together to hunt, rear their offspring and defend their territory, traits which have been passed down to modern dogs - their closest relatives.
Experts tested the extent to which dogs and grey wolves collaborate with humans in order to solve a range of tasks.
They found that both dogs and wolves cooperate intensively and equally successfully, but wolves show more initiative where dogs follow a human's lead.
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Wolves are dogs' closest undomesticated relative but have a more aggressive image due to their 'wild' nature. But scientists have shown that the theory dogs cooperate better with humans than wolves because of domestication may be nothing but a myth
The experiment, conducted at the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, looked at how wolves and dogs cooperated with humans to solve specific tests.
The study tested 15 young grey wolves, aged from two to eight years old, and 12 mixed-breed dogs, from two to seven years old, at the Wolf Science Center in Austria.
All the animals in the study had been raised in similar conditions and had been exposed to humans early in their lives.
In a written statement Dr Friederike
