Seven differences between dogs and wolves that most people don’t know
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.1. Dogs have the ability to produce an enzyme that allows them to get nutrients from starchy plants, wolves lack this enzyme. This is why wolves and wolf-dog hybrids usually cannot be fed conventional kibbles that have a lot of grains, while many dogs do just fine on them.
.2. Some dogs have rear dewclaws while no wild wolves have rear dewclaws. These extra digits are sometimes used to determine if an animal is a protected wolf or a feral dog or dog-wolf hybrid.
.3. Both dogs and wolves bark - but wolves tend to stop barking when they reach maturity. Dogs bark because they never really grow up…
.4. Unlike wolves, male dogs do not typically help to raise their offspring if the dogs are stray or feral. The exception is the Dingo where nuclear-family pack structure resembles that of wolves.
.5. Wolves come into heat (estrus) once per year in the late winter/spring while almost all dog breeds come into heat twice a year and dogs may come into heat during any season.
.6. Surprisingly, many health conditions in purebred dogs are also found in wolves. These include hip dysplasia and progressive retinal atrophy. This suggests that such conditions are not due to selective breeding, but existed as mutations in the population even before domestication began.
.7. Scientists debate hotly about whether humans instigated domestication of wolves, wolves instigated their own domestication, or if dogs are not domestic wolves at all but a split off of a common ancestor. Regardless, dogs show a natural willingness to look to humans for direction and a lack of aggression toward us.
