14 DAY TRIAL // As an interesting example of how 11,000 years of cohabitation can trump millions of years of common history, a group of scientists has recently found that chimpanzees are not as good at understanding us, or what we want, as dogs are.
The animals were put to an extremely simple test – a human pointed at an object, and researchers analyzed how chimps and dogs reacted. Naturally, dogs showed the most interest, following the direction in which the trainer pointed with interest, as if wanting to discover what was there.
Chimps, on the other hand, were left entirely unimpressed, and rarely turned their gaze to where scientists were pointing. It could be that this difference in behavior stem from the fact that dogs became fine-tuned to understanding us when they were domesticated, some 11,000 years ago.
In order to earn their keep, and not have to hunt themselves, they had to learn how to hunt alongside humans, and following gestures was a trick that made them extremely useful (and, possible, indispensable) when learned, LiveScience reports.