We’ve seen wolf pups play fetch just like dogs for the first time

By Jake Buehler

Christina Hansen Wheat

Fetching a thrown ball is one of the most quintessential dog behaviours, right up there with begging for scraps and tail wagging. But new research suggests that fetching may be older than dogs themselves, as some wolf pups also seem to enjoy the game.

The first observations of wolf pups fetching balls for humans happened completely unexpectedly, says Christina Hansen Wheat at Stockholm University in Sweden.

Hansen Wheat’s team studies the behavioural changes involved in domestication using dogs and …