Social learning is a mechanism used by many species to efficiently gain information about their environment. Although many animals live in an environment where members of other species are present, little is known about inter-specific social learning. Domesticated and urbanized species provide the opportunity to investigate whether non-human animals can learn from heterospecifics such as humans, who are integral parts of their social landscape. Although domestic dogs Canis familiaris have been intensively researched for their ability to learn from humans, most studies have focused on dogs living as pets. However, free-ranging dogs represent the majority of the world’s dog population, they live alongside humans, scavenge on human refuse, and are subjected to natural and sexual selection. Thus, free-ranging dogs with extensive exposure to humans and their artifacts provide the opportunity to investigate inter-specific social learning in a naturalistic setting, where learning from humans might be a benefit for them. Here we tested individual free-ranging dogs in a between-subject design: dogs in the control group could spontaneously choose between two novel and differently patterned food-delivering boxes. In the experimental group, instead, dogs could first observe an unfamiliar human approaching and eating from one of the two boxes. We provide the first evidence that free-ranging dogs match the choice of an unfamiliar human. These results show that at least simple forms of inter-specific social learning might be involved in dogs’ success in living alongside humans in a complex urbanized environment.

中文翻译：

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自由放养的狗在觅食任务中符合人类的偏好

社会学习是许多物种用来有效获取有关其环境的信息的机制。尽管许多动物生活在有其他物种成员存在的环境中，但人们对物种间的社会学习知之甚少。驯化和城市化的物种提供了研究非人类动物是否可以向人类等异种动物学习的机会，因为人类是其社会景观的组成部分。尽管人们对家犬向人类学习的能力进行了深入研究，但大多数研究都集中在作为宠物生活的狗上。然而，自由放养的狗占世界狗群的大多数，它们与人类生活在一起，以人类粪便为食，并受到自然选择和性选择。因此，广泛接触人类及其文物的自由放养的狗提供了在自然环境中研究特定种间社会学习的机会，向人类学习可能对它们有利。在这里，我们以受试者间设计测试了个体自由放养的狗：对照组的狗可以自发地在两个新颖且不同图案的食物递送盒之间进行选择。相反，在实验组中，狗可以首先观察到一个陌生的人接近并从两个盒子之一中进食。我们提供了第一个证据，证明自由放养的狗与陌生人类的选择相匹配。这些结果表明，至少简单形式的跨物种社会学习可能与狗在复杂的城市化环境中与人类一起生活的成功有关。