As for why cats specifically have upright ears....I heard a theory from a few different places that cats weren't really intentionally domesticated by humans like dogs and pigs were. They just basically hug around human settlements because there was a lot of mice there, and humans appreciated their hunting and thus did nothing to drive them away. This means cat domestication could be a good deal less thorough than that of dogs.

Why is your dog purple? I'm concerned

Surely cats have domesticated us, right? That would explain the upright ears of cats. But it wouldn't explain why we don't have floppy ears...

Wouldn't it make sense that domesticated animals are the only ones who can "afford" to have those characteristics? Maybe they don't need to have perfect hearing or to blend in with the environment because humans will provide them with food and safety

If I may have someone's input; correct me if I'm wrong. Animals like "domestic" cats or huskies and other breeds might still have more Neuro crest cells than say... A golden retriever. Cats still hunt, fight over territory and if maybe homekept cats were bred for many many generations of suppressing those activities you might get a result. (what are Scottish fold's temperament? ) Or such with dog breeds, many erect ear dogs still do duties of protection, herding(chasing prey to where master wants) or have more testosterone. Maybe there is a connection? Thankyou kindly if you gave me your time. I appreciate it. (Thank you everyone!)

Wow! I listened to an episode of RadioLab years back that talked about this phenomenon happening to domesticated foxes, but I never realized it happened in so many other animals.

I think my goldfish has floppy ears...

Horses and Cats still have upright ears. though they also have insanely strong fight or flight reflexes. usually flight.

Another interesting observation is that the domestication syndrome also creates features that appear cute and friendly for humans.

I’m gonna tell this to my friend’s Jack Russell terrier the next time it latches on to my ankle.

Could another possible theory be that those animals with let's say patches on their fur would be less likely to survive in the wild as they are easier to spot, thus through natural selection die out whereas their counterparts living domestically are kept alive by humans and do not die spreading their genes? This would explain mutations such as floppy ears and color patches as both could harm an animals chances of survival by either decreasing their sense of hearing or camoflage respectively.

What in the world? When? Why? Where? Who's got the answers? SKUNK BEAR!

The thing about the examples of animals that kept upright ears is that these are animals that are more similar to their wild counterparts. Camelids and cats required far fewer changes to domesticated so they aren't as affected by Domestication Syndrome.

This channel doesn't get nearly enough views. Keep it up guys!

Oh. I see. Another great scientist with my name. I swear. I'm bound for greatness.

I also think these make a quite lovely traits, animals with fur patterns and floppy ears are just cute

"Dogs and Coyotes Have Big Upright Ears and Dogs Have Floppy Ears" Lucario: Hold my Beer

They have floppy ears bc.. THEY CAN DANCE TO THE SONG DAMN MOMMY

I recall reading a quote from an ancient herding manuscript that said herding dogs should be pale in color to make them easier to see in the dark and easier to distinguish from wild dogs and wolves. So the coloration of at least some dogs is quite intentional.

It's important to note that this is one approach to addressing the question of floppy ears. There are different ways of approaching the same question in biology (from Tinbergen's 1963 classic paper): mechanism, development, function, and evolution. Here, this partial explanation is focused on the mechanism that may be involved, but does not address the other levels of analysis. Darwin may have been concerned with one approach more than another.

Skunk Bear's back hurrah hurrah!!! Please post more videos guys! I want everyone to know about your channel!!!

This channel is so fucking good

Animations on point 👌

I actually did a project for school on domestication of wolves/dogs and this helped me a lot thank you!!

wow the guy they got to narrate really looks like the cartoon narrator

Human had also been receiving “Domestication Syndrome” for over several millenniums...thus, losing the hair and tail 😂

This is the first episode I've seen from your channel and you now have a new subscriber.

I was always curious my female Jack Russell Terrier had floppy ears and would go up and down. Thanks for this amazing video, Skunk Bear.

I’m so glad that there’s another video!

Interesting video. But does anyone know why dogs sniff each others tails? I do. You see... a long time ago, when only dogs inhabited the Earth, they were smarter and more social. And in their society, when you went to a party, it was considered good manners to take your tail off and hang it by the door upon arrival. Well... at a large gathering of dogs, the house caught on fire, and as they ran to safety everyone just grabbed any tail they could on the way out. And ever since then, when two dogs meet, they sniff to see if it is their tail !

3:15 The answer is that cats aren’t domestic. They are tiny tigers that live in our houses.

Skunk Bear, I love your channel. Did you know that in the 20th century they have tried to breed tame silver foxes in the Soviet Union in order to be able to handle them easier in farms? After a few generations the foxes became as friendly as dogs. But alas - they also developed floppy ears and splotches on their furs, which wasn't desirable. As far as I know this experiment hasn't been continued. But it demonstrated very well the workings of the so called domestication gene. Wolves probably turned themselves into dogs thousands of years ago, when some of them became so called "camp wolves" who hung around human camps in order to profit from discarded food scraps. Humans tolerated this because the camp wolves were practical garbage removers and also useful guardians because of their sharply developed audio and olfactory senses. Those who were friendlier towards humans and could read the human body language better than other camp wolves, scored more food and attention and had therefore distinct survival advantages. And eventually some of their offsprings may have developed floppy ears and colorful furs :) Humans only started to breed different kinds of dogs after the dogs had domesticated themselves to a certain degree. There's a well received new theory that the relationship between humans and dogs started much earlier than originally thought, and that dogs were one of the valuable advantages early humans had over their Neanderthal cousins, who had no dogs. Dogs served as guardians, hunting aids, transport and burden animals, and they defended humans. While this might not have killed off the Neanderthals, it might've been a distinct advantage of humans to have dogs.

Thank you for including female scientists in your video, as a female scientist I find it so rare when videos, TV Shows, films, and comics do this. Really appreciated!

i thought it was because the floppy ears trapped scent molecules in the air and kept it near their noses like with hounds

Another interesting tidbit that adds to this is how some Russian scientists are breeding of foxes to make them more domesticated and in the process the Foxes are gaining dog-like traits. Like the floppy ears and spotted coats.

My dog has really weird ears. Her ears point to the side, and go horizontal, then they kinda snap half way and go downwards a little bit, then the last little bit of her ears point downwards. She was born like that... Her ears go off to the side and snap into different angles, instead of just being floppy or being pointed.

floppy cause they good boy

i knew my pup was wild af upright ears shoulda watched this first

Humans: [Breed floppiness into dogs’ ears] Also humans: “Hey Doberman puppy, come here!”

Darwin: Publishs his book Wilhelm His: Discoveres neural crest cells Darwin: Aw sh*t here we go again

My dog doesn't have floppy ears

What about the german shepherd?

Mammals specifically. Good video.

This is such a well made video.

My dog has 1 floppy ear and 1 pointy ear

What about huskies?

My mom grabbed a coyote mix pup off the reservation, super nice but the bark can make your ear ring

The question is WHY IS YOUR DOG PURPLE???

The Scottish fold have floppy ears, he's a cat.

Thank you for including scientists of color in this video :-)

this was perfectly illustrated.

Why is it that Darwin always looks grumpy in all the pictures he’s in?

I guess u could call this an animated tail Kill me

How do dogs has floppy ears Me: floppy ears meme plays in my mind

I believe it's quite simple. The domestic animals with more wild charateristics, especially in the ears, have one of two things going on. Either the neural crest cells didn't have much of an effect on cartilage to begin with and it's something else or the animal is just naturally deficient on these cells as in they don't need as much of a fight/flight responce. Both the cats and the llamas still display color features that their wild ancestors didn't have, but have the straight ears so they would both be subject to the first idea. This doesn't explain how there are cats like the Scottish Fold has, well, folded ears. The camel is most likely the latter, having few things to worry about in its enviorment. *side note, what about rodents? Domestic mice, other than color, are very different physically from their wild ancestors, as are rats and guinea pigs. The pigs are subject to ear floppiness while the other two aren't, however the other two are very skittish in the wild.

.....ive never thought of this.... Woah. Never realised that there was a reason

What about dogs that don’t have floppy ears like huskies, malamutes, Samoyed, germanshepards, some dobermans and French bulldogs? Oh and like dogs with longer snouts ?

So i guess this theory means that we'll get Lions 🦁 and Tigers 🐯 and Bears 🐻 domesticated soon too for household pets. 🙌

I wasn’t expecting the guy to come out of nowhere after the fully animated video

My dog almost killed a coyote once. She tried to drown it like a crocodile would. My dad had to shoot the coyote. My dog is a English mastiff Rottweiler mix. Her fur is a middle color brown and darkens on her tail. She is friendly to people she knows but can get protective near strangers.

The boss when you fight him: Dangerous wolf The boss when you unlock him: Tiny pug

I just subbed . The animations and the whole video is short but well made and detalied.

I feel like the reason why some animals have pointed ears may be because of what they were bred to do kinda? Like, cats are still hunters and such so they may have more neural crest cells. Camels and such tend to live out in the desert, meaning that they'd still probably have more neural crest cells. I'm not a scientist so this is literally just a guess lmao

Here is a fun fact with domestication(or the reversal with military dogs), my mom is working for the Swedish military with training their GSD's. The military started around WW2 with select breeding GSD's to be more sturdy, alert and with less medical faults(like hips). They are not a pure breed like the ones with sloping backs, these are crossbreed with wolf dog/wolf, and I've seen 20 years of progress with these(this has been going on for many more years than that) my mom is taking care of one of the "problem dogs" and her physical traits are pretty cool. the nose is long and the head is pretty narrow, the ears are almost always upright and "sharp". the fur is very coarse and the eyes are not brown as they used to, grey-ish green like a wolf. They are also very harsh looking bordering on scary sometimes, the look is dead cold. The military breeding program decided not to continue with that specific line since they were very reserved and can be hostile, very territorial and care deeply about their pack(human and other animals) And it's very hard to train them since they are very stubborn, our dog even has issues with doing her needs inside the house even now when grown up. Not only that but the energy levels are on the extreme and zooms around a lot when inside because of anxiety. They are not un-domesticated, but their wild side is more prominent.

If I domesticated bears till they were "Pet worthy" Will they have spots .. I want spots

My theory is that as they had less need for they senses to be sharp they kept decreasing, and not to mention how they keep their ears back when they are with their owners, so that could also have something to do with it after so many generations.

I love Skunk Bear....

Hmm, so floppy ears because they don't need to be so alert, shorter snouts because they don't need to rely on their sense of smell so much for hunting, and patchy colors because they don't need to blend into their environments as much?

This happened with humans too? with the creation of civilization and the end of wildlife i guess we could find a reduction of the neural crest cells. There is some research of this?

You’d think scientists would have this more nailed down by now.

Animation quality is really good,keep it up bro. Subscribed

This is so well made! Keep up the good work, you deserve way more views!!

There are a lot of dog breeds where the ears are normally upright and astute, but then we purposely pin or glue them down to fuck up development and make them all floppy too.

Well... using my common sense I’d assume that it’s due to survival. Blah darker solid coloring to blend into its surroundings, straight up ears for being able to hear better, etc.

Well i know for a fact cats are still basically feral on many accounts so that may be it. That is why some people dont like cats, they are not tecnically domesticated, or molded by humans in their behaviour, but ours to theirs.

So will foxes get floppy rats? I heard people are breeding friendly foxes to domesticate them

My dog doesn’t have floppy ears, I always knew my dog was a wolf.

Could this be why Whales kept in captivity also have a floppy top fin? And if a domesticated animal went back to the wild would their ears go back up or only over a long period of time/breading?

The Soviet experiments with silver foxes kind of confirmed that. By selectively breeding foxes that had less aggressive tendencies, scientists bred a more docile strain of silver fox that also incidentally developed floppier ears and patterned costs.

I think floppy ears just naturally show less aggression making an animal more likely to be trusted as it looks less intimidating. Not to mention, it would allow humans to think of them as cuter, which would increase their chances of reproduction.

The saudi araibian chillin with da fish doe

The floppy ear genome could be dependent on the animals dependency of the owned. A dog is more dependant than a cat. Cats are always free spirits and do what ever they want unlike dogs. A dog will stop doing something if you tell it not to. A cat will stop doing it only if it feels like it. As well as that domestic cats have evolved to have ears different from wild cats. When a cat is wild its ears are very pointy with long hairs shaping the sharpest part of the ears. When a cat is a domestic breed the ears are rounder and sometimes balder. If somebody is up for researching this, that would be awesome!

Nice to see some wholesome youtube content.

So cool! I love investigations into the obscure but interesting areas of science! Very cool presentation format too, keep it up!

And this is why Akitas are pure.

One theroy for cats can be that they domesticated themselves when humans had the agricultural revolution and rodents would appear attracting cats which then just developed a neutral relationship with humans, they are still on hunt mode

this is so helpful :D

I have two dogs. One, when she was a pup she had floppy ears but as she grew older they stood upright. My other dog, the floppiest floppers you will ever see.

You can probably learn more in one of these videos than in an entire year of school!!

pointy ear, longer face, natural ability to use magic? i think elves are just wild humans.

I figured it probably would make sense that having less acute hearing would also mean having fewer stimuli which might cause the type of outbursts domestication bred out of animals. Though that still doesn't answer why this didn't apply to cats (besides Scottish folds, I guess). And, of course, smaller snouts mean it's a bit harder to chomp on people, which also fits domestication. Though considering this is also the case with really recent domesticated animals like the silver fox, it stands to reason there's a direct relation as well.

Cats want to live with humans for what we can give them, not because they're inherently codependent, and if they were larger they would most likely eat you. I wouldn't class a cat with upright ears as domesticated-I'd class them as an ally of necessity that has been bred for some hair colors humans find pleasing. Notably, many white cats are albino or deaf, but humans find light patches pleasing and breed for them anyway. Domesticated dogs have these colors naturally, without any harmful side effects, because dogs are domesticated animals, and cats just think they're the boss.

You couldn't explain it well, My Opinion is as following, In wilderness animals have to be alert at all times to be safe, they use thier eyes ears and nose all the time to locate predators and fend off attackers or to find the preys. But in case of domesticated ones, they just don't really do that much, although domesticated dogs do watch for its owners security but its not as pressurizing as in wild(its life vs death in wild) so if something isn't used much it usually disappears just like our body hair did. This makes thier teeth, ear and nose with less capability(although still a lot higher than humans) than thier wild counterparts.

Great video, simple to understand and reeeally interesting. Thanks a lot!

Title should of been called An animated tail 😂

The breeding of cats has kept the wilder side of their nature because they were primarily used for small pest control. Perhaps as purple use them more for pet like purposes, they will develops know of those characteristics. Imagine that, a floppy eared cat!

oh my dog has straight up right ears and a long snout XD but this is really good information to know cause my other dog has a short snout, and floppy ears. *claps loudly* GOOD JOB YA GOT THE ANSWER WOOOO!

Does this have anything to do with orcas floppy fins in captivity?

The connection between the domestic behavior of the parent animal and how that influences neuro crest cell expression could use some clarification.

this is so good.