The information content of wolf (and dog) social communication

Abstract

Wolves have a remarkably complex social system: they breed, hunt and keep large territories cooperatively. To maintain such an elaborate system, a similarly complex and sophisticated communication system would also be expected. Based on this, studying the vocal communication of wolves and comparing it with other canids of different levels of sociality can give an interesting insight to the relationship between social and communicative complexity and in the long run help to better understand the evolutionary origins of human language. Furthermore, the direct comparison of the wolf and dog vocal repertoire can provide intriguing details about the process of domestication. In the following chapter we will describe the basic elements of the wolf and dog vocal repertoire, show their potential capability to convey information about the caller, its inner state and possibly the context of the vocalization. We will attempt to point out gaps in understanding regarding wolf and dog vocal communication, potential pitfalls in the current approaches and finally formulate possible directions for future research.