TWO STORIES ABOUT DOGS � JACKALS AND THE MOON
Story the first � Despite humanity�s technological prowess and the never ending stream of better and sleeker toaster ovens, the canine olfactory system is still the best device on the face of the planet at sniffing out drugs and explosives. As part of the now widespread effort to design and create better bomb detection mechanisms, a new type of dog that is part husky, part jackal has been bred in Russia. The breeding was done at the Likhachev Scientific Research Institute for Cultural Heritage and Environmental Protection, a ponderously named facility where since 1975, scientist Klim Sulimov has been hard at work getting wild jackals and arctic reindeer huskies to sexually imprint and mate with each other. The concept behind this undertaking is that jackals have the keenest smell of any canine species but are nearly impossible to work with in the kinds of situations required of bombsniffing dogs; meanwhile, the arctic huskies, also having very keen smell, are easily trained and friendly with their handlers. It was hoped that the better traits would be passed on through selective breeding, and it appears to have succeeded. Apparently, the dogs live up to their claims, as there are now 25 of them inspecting planes at Moscow�s Sheremetyevo airport. It should also be noted that the jackal-huskies (they have yet to be given an official name or breed designation) were created through good old fashioned breeding techniques; no gene splicing was involved. Almost a rarity these days. Click here for more on
Russian dog research!
Story the second � We here at This Week In Science are always happy to take any chance we can to dispel mysticism and superstition whenever new evidence (empirical evidence, of course) arises that allows us to do so. In this case, it is the age-old belief that the moon, specifically the full moon, causes dogs to act erratically and aggressively. While it is true that previous studies have shown there to be a weak link between frequency of dog bites and a full moon, these studies were done with fairly small sample sizes. Recent research into the supposed dog-moon phenomenon, research that involves a massive sample population, will be published in an upcoming issue of the journal
Accident Analysis and Prevention and will offer evidence that contradicts the previous studies. Scientists from Baltimore�s Johns Hopkins University and the University of Athens in Greece analyzed the cases of more than 2,600 dog bite incidents in a controlled study and found no link to lunar phases. They did, however, turn up some noteworthy correlations. To wit, men are fifty percent more likely to get chomped by a dog than are women, which makes one wonder if men tend to be in situations where a dog bite is likely more often than do women. It was also found that dog bites occur with greater frequency over weekends and during the summertime. The researchers surmise this is simply because people are out and about more at these times. Smithers, release the hounds�
current science news posted by ted at 6/04/2002 03:06:00 PM
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