Bite resistance
As a bite impediment understands classical ethology an innate protective mechanism in which the superior animal with predators from the family of canids the inferior animal does not hurt massively. Other authors see it as the ability to control the intensity of biting, which the puppies of these species gradually learn through playful behavior .
The position of Konrad Lorenz
According to classic comparative behavioral research, bite inhibition refers to an innate protective mechanism present in many animal species , which means that a defeated individual is not seriously injured by the victorious conspecific, provided that the defeated animal indicates its defeat with a " gesture of humility ". This bite inhibition concept became known in the German-speaking world primarily through the book He talked to the cattle, the birds and the fish by Konrad Lorenz , which was first published in 1949.
In this book Lorenz describes and interprets an observation in the Whipsnade Zoo in London: the initially fierce fight between two wolves . Lorenz had observed that both animals suddenly stood still afterwards, and the younger (and allegedly inferior) of the two wolves had turned his head to one side, thus offering the older (and superior) his unprotected throat. The older wolf had brought its mouth very close to the neck of the second, but without biting. Konrad Lorenz interpreted this situation as if the inferior wolf had deliberately presented its most sensitive part of the body to the other in such an unprotected manner. Lorenz literally: "And it not only looks like it, but surprisingly it actually is."
This observation was later generalized by Lorenz and other authors; the end of the fighting behavior of animals of other species was also interpreted in the same way. In addition, Konrad Lorenz's report from the London Zoo had the greatest impact, but it was not alone. As early as 1943, Lorenz had described so-called humility gestures in humans and animals, on the basis of which supposedly innate inhibition mechanisms were activated in the superior opponent. Such inhibiting key stimuli would have developed in the course of the tribal history in order to prevent further damaging actions, if the result of the dispute is already clear. The zoologist Werner Fischel had also differentiated three phases of every fight between animals in his book The fighting disputes in the animal world , published in 1947 : threatening, fighting, subjugating.
The position of Erik Zimen
The cynologist and Lorenz student Erik Zimen postulated: “What Lorenz saw was not a really serious fight.” In addition, according to Zimen, Lorenz confused the inferior wolf with the superior one. According to Erik Zimen, threatening behavior and aggressive actions are followed in dogs "only in very rare exceptional cases" by really serious fighting for damage. Such fights do exist, but silently, without expressive behavior and, as it were, unrestrained, and they would "also never be ended by humble submission". Zimen interprets the reluctance to avoid serious injuries in so-called exhibition fights as a learned behavior: “The fear of animals seems to play a particularly important role here. As a rule, it prevents you from biting firmly, because the opponent also reacts to this with firm biting. "Erik Zimen points out that the puppies must first learn the limits of playful fighting:" The bite inhibition when the puppies play as well as with Most forms of aggressive confrontation among the older wolves would therefore be a learning process and a fear of pain-based mechanism that largely prevents injuries in the pack. "
Zimen therefore only recognizes an innate form of bite inhibition in the cautious behavior of adult animals towards young animals (see child scheme ). In addition, one can deduce from these studies that dogs that were poorly socialized or even abused in their youth, which could not learn that their own restraint also causes the opposing dog (or human) to be reluctant to inflict pain, can be made unpredictable with regard to their aggressiveness.
Dorit Urd Feddersen-Petersen shares Ziemen's criticism:
- “In the past, the wolf was described as a typical example that animals with particularly dangerous weapons have particularly effective inhibiting mechanisms to prevent serious injuries. Konrad Lorenz misinterpreted the presentation of a dog's neck, drawn by Fischel, as a gesture of humility and ascribed it to have an anti-bite effect, which caused the fight to end and contributed to the preservation of the species . That is certainly wrong. (...) The throat presentation arises when the superior dog looks away, so it is an expression of imposing. "
See also
literature
- Werner Fischel : The combative conflicts in the animal world . Leipzig 1947
- Konrad Lorenz : He talked to the cattle, the birds and the fish . dtv, Munich 1998, ISBN 3423202254 (the first edition appeared in 1949, the book was published in various new and special editions)
- Erik Zimen : The dog. Descent - Behavior - Man and Dog. C. Bertelsmann Verlag, Munich 1988, ISBN 3-570-00507-0 (also published in paperback by Goldmann)
- Erik Zimen: The wolf. Behavior, Ecology and Myth. Goldmann Verlag, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-442-12336-4 (= paperback edition. The hardcover edition was published by Knesebeck & Schuler in 1990)
- Patricia B. McConnell: The other end of the leash. What determines how we deal with dogs. Kynos Verlag , 2004, ISBN 3-933228-93-X
Web links
- bio.vobs.at Excerpt from Konrad Lorenz about "Morals and Weapons", He talked to the cattle, the birds and the fish (with the observation of bite inhibition)
- Linda Hornisberger: The anti-bite. (PDF; 869 kB). Information material from the Swiss Veterinary Association for Behavioral Medicine on bite inhibition in dogs, the reasons why dogs bite and training in bite inhibition.
Individual evidence
- ^ Dorit Urd Feddersen-Petersen: Hundepsychologie . Franckh-Kosmos, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 978-3-440-09780-9 , pp. 269 .
- ↑ Desmond Morris : Dogwatching. The dog's body language. Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich 1999, pp. 80–81, ISBN 3-453-16503-9
- ↑ Erik Zimen: The Wolf. Behavior, Ecology and Myth. Goldmann Verlag, Munich 1993, p. 76
- ↑ Erik Zimen : The dog. Descent - Behavior - Man and Dog. C. Bertelsmann Verlag, Munich 1988, p. 236
- ↑ Erik Zimen: The Wolf
- ↑ Dorit Urd Feddersen-Petersen: Dangerous Dogs , p. 10, full text, PDF ( Memento from October 19, 2004 in the Internet Archive )