When they want to move as a group, meerkats call to each other. Capuchin monkeys trill. Gorillas grunt. Honeybees make what is called a piping sound.
African wild dogs sneeze. And that's a big deal.
No other social animal has been reported to cast a vote, of sorts, by sneezing, although in humans sneezing may once have expressed a negative opinion, as in, "nothing to sneeze at."
Wild dog sneezing is different. For one thing it seems to indicate a positive reaction to a proposal before a group of dogs. When a pack of these dogs is getting ready to hunt, scientists reported Sept. 6, the more sneezes, the more likely they are to actually get moving.
Just about all social organisms make group decisions that require reaching a consensus. Bacteria use chemical signals, but larger animals often use sounds as a way of saying, "I'm in." However, among grunts, huffs, piping signals and others, the sneeze had not been reported as one of those signals until a group of American, British and Australian researchers published their observations of African dogs in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
Unlike the one-person, one-vote rules of human elections, members of the group were not limited to one sneeze. And if a dominant pack member started a rally, fewer sneezes were needed from the other dogs to get the hunt off the ground, one researcher said.
To see a video of a pack doing this behavior, search YouTube.com for "Wild dogs sneeze to hunt."
ActiveStyle on 09/25/2017