Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Concept Videos

Conservation of Small Populations02:04

Conservation of Small Populations

Small population sizes put a species at extreme risk of extinction due to a lack of variation, and a consequent decrease in adaptability. This weakens the chances of survival under pressures such as climate change, competition from other species, or new diseases. Large populations are more likely to survive pressures such as these, as such populations are more likely to harbor individuals that have genetic variants that are adaptive under new stresses. Small populations are much less likely to...
Wald-Wolfowitz Runs Test II01:17

Wald-Wolfowitz Runs Test II

The Wald-Wolfowitz runs test, commonly referred to as the runs test, is a nonparametric test used to assess the randomness of ordered data. The test evaluates the number of runs, which are consecutive sequences of similar elements within the data. If the number of runs is significantly higher or lower than expected, the data is considered non-random, indicating a detectable pattern or structure.
For binary data, runs are identified using symbols such as + and −, or equivalently, 1s and 0s. In...
Predator-Prey Interactions02:39

Predator-Prey Interactions

Predators consume prey for energy. Predators that acquire prey and prey that avoid predation both increase their chances of survival and reproduction (i.e., fitness). Routine predator-prey interactions elicit mutual adaptations that improve predator offenses, such as claws, teeth, and speed, as well as prey defenses, including crypsis, aposematism, and mimicry. Thus, predator-prey interactions resemble an evolutionary arms race.
Optimal Foraging00:48

Optimal Foraging

How animals obtain and eat their food is called foraging behavior. Foraging can include searching for plants and hunting for prey and depends on the species and environment.
Testing a Claim about Mean: Unknown Population SD01:21

Testing a Claim about Mean: Unknown Population SD

A complete procedure of testing a hypothesis about a population mean when the population standard deviation is unknown is explained here.
Estimating a population mean requires the samples to be approximately normally distributed. The data should be collected from the randomly selected samples having no sampling bias. There is no specific requirement for sample size. But if the sample size is less than 30, and we don't know the population standard deviation, a different approach is used; instead...
Incomplete Dominance01:43

Incomplete Dominance

Gregor Mendel's work (1822 - 1884) was primarily focused on pea plants. Through his initial experiments, he determined that every gene in a diploid cell has two variants called alleles inherited from each parent. He suggested that amongst these two alleles, one allele is dominant in character and the other recessive. The combination of alleles determines the phenotype of a gene in an organism.

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Reflective belief revision before the age of reason.

Journal of experimental child psychology·2026
Same author

On the (limited) use of touchscreen-based behavioural and cognitive research with dogs: potential causes and future directions.

Animal cognition·2026
Same author

A Direct Observation of Infanticide by a Female Free-Ranging Dog (<i>Canis familiaris</i>) Supports the Resource Competition Hypothesis.

Ecology and evolution·2026
Same author

Wolves respond differently to human cues as they expand into urban landscapes.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2026
Same author

Pet dogs prefer to work alone than to engage in a challenging cooperative task with conspecifics.

PeerJ·2026
Same author

Influence of agility training on body-size and object solidity perception in pet dogs.

PloS one·2026
Same journal

Adverse and positive childhood experiences in relation to adolescent mental health: sequential indirect associations.

Frontiers in psychology·2026
Same journal

Personality profiles and usage experience are associated with trust and dependence on generative AI: a latent profile analysis.

Frontiers in psychology·2026
Same journal

Editorial: Promoting replicability: empowering method and applied researchers in driving reliable results.

Frontiers in psychology·2026
Same journal

The mediating roles of the challenge appraisal in the relationship between the coach-athlete relationship and adolescent athletes' burnout.

Frontiers in psychology·2026
Same journal

Unpacking GenAI-enabled deep learning engagement: role perceptions, human-GenAI synergy strategies, and underlying mechanisms.

Frontiers in psychology·2026
Same journal

Violence exposure and cyberbullying among Chinese adolescents: the mediating role of moral disengagement.

Frontiers in psychology·2026
See all related articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 16, 2026

Automated, Quantitative Cognitive/Behavioral Screening of Mice: For Genetics, Pharmacology, Animal Cognition and Undergraduate Instruction
16:23

Automated, Quantitative Cognitive/Behavioral Screening of Mice: For Genetics, Pharmacology, Animal Cognition and Undergraduate Instruction

Published on: February 26, 2014

Quantity Discrimination in Wolves (Canis lupus).

Ewelina Utrata1, Zsófia Virányi, Friederike Range

  • 1Department of Biology, University of Hamburg Hamburg, Germany.

Frontiers in Psychology
|November 28, 2012
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Wolves (Canis lupus) can discriminate between larger and smaller quantities of food, even when non-numerical cues are eliminated. Their performance did not follow Weber's law in this study.

Keywords:
Weber’s lawdomesticationnumerical competencewolf

More Related Videos

Using a Comparative Species Approach to Investigate the Neurobiology of Paternal Responses
07:59

Using a Comparative Species Approach to Investigate the Neurobiology of Paternal Responses

Published on: September 19, 2011

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: May 16, 2026

Automated, Quantitative Cognitive/Behavioral Screening of Mice: For Genetics, Pharmacology, Animal Cognition and Undergraduate Instruction
16:23

Automated, Quantitative Cognitive/Behavioral Screening of Mice: For Genetics, Pharmacology, Animal Cognition and Undergraduate Instruction

Published on: February 26, 2014

Using a Comparative Species Approach to Investigate the Neurobiology of Paternal Responses
07:59

Using a Comparative Species Approach to Investigate the Neurobiology of Paternal Responses

Published on: September 19, 2011

Area of Science:

  • Animal behavior
  • Cognitive ethology
  • Comparative psychology

Background:

  • Quantity discrimination is a fundamental cognitive ability observed across numerous animal species.
  • Understanding numerical cognition in canids provides insights into the evolution of complex cognitive traits.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the quantity discrimination abilities of wolves (Canis lupus).
  • To determine if wolves can make numerical judgments independent of non-numerical cues.
  • To compare wolf performance with established principles like Weber's law in other canids.

Main Methods:

  • A two-way choice task was employed with 11 hand-raised wolves.
  • Food items (1-4) were presented sequentially in opaque cans, requiring wolves to choose the larger quantity.
  • Control conditions were implemented to exclude non-numerical cues (e.g., surface area, time, total amount).

Main Results:

  • Wolves demonstrated the ability to discriminate quantities at both group and individual levels.
  • Performance remained accurate even when alternative non-numerical strategies were controlled.
  • Unlike dogs and coyotes, wolf performance did not show improvement with decreasing numerical ratios (Weber's law).

Conclusions:

  • Wolves possess sophisticated quantity discrimination skills, indicating advanced numerical cognition.
  • The findings suggest wolves may process numerical information differently than other canids studied.
  • Further research with larger quantities is necessary to fully understand the application of Weber's law to wolf quantity discrimination.