About the episode
It could well be that we humans have caused most dogs to have brown eyes, say researchers.
It has been known for some time that the selective breeding of dogs, which we started tens of thousands of years ago, has influenced their character and appearance. Some of these, such as large foreheads and short noses, are now even causing health problems.
Now it would also appear that the color of their eyes is influenced by our preferences. While wolves, from which all dogs are descended, have light-colored eyes (which probably helps them read each other’s intentions), 90 percent of domestic dogs have dark eyes.
To find out why this is the case, researchers from Japan showed participants photos of dogs in an experiment in which the color of the dogs’ eyes had always been slightly adjusted. The dogs then had to be ranked on characteristics such as friendliness, intelligence and aggressiveness.
And it turned out: dogs with dark eyes were seen as much friendlier. Now this was a small study, with a limited number of breeds (namely 33) and mainly Japanese students, but the finding fits with our preference to make dogs look more and more like our own cute children. Babies have larger pupils than adults and dark eyes come closer to that.
But, say scientists who did not participate in this research: it could also be that we have become accustomed to the color and have therefore increasingly selected for it. The research also says nothing about when dark eyes became dominant.
So there is still quite a bit to figure out, but it is an interesting theory.
Read more about the research here: Why do most dogs have brown eyes?
2023-12-23 10:04:48
#dogs #brown #eyes
