Re: Nature vs. Nurture: the case of the African wild dog

Mike Cole (mcole who-is-at weber.ucsd.edu)
Sat, 30 May 1998 13:28:29 -0700 (PDT)

The following is a comment by Mike Tomasello, to whom I often turn
when questions of the kinds posed by Ilias arise.

I recommend the book by tomasello and call noted below
mike
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Thanks, Mike. I never know what to do with these kinds of things -
where they aren't published, etc. But you might send this person this
response (this is a one sentence summary of findings, as reported in
Tomasello & Call, Primate Cognition):

Milton (1993) reported that both the foraging and social behaviors of
adult spider monkeys who had been released onto an island as youngsters
was indistinguishable from that of adult spider monkeys who grew up in a
natural group setting. [That is, they grew up in the forest a la "Lord
of the Flies" - as a peer group from infancy with no experienced adults
to "guide" them in foraging or other behaviors].

Milton, K. (1993). Diet and primate evolution. Scientific American,
August, 86-93.

How old were the dogs when they were released? That might make a
difference also.

Mike