Wolf Proverbs
April 16, 2015 11:02 AM   Subscribe

Wolf Proverbs is a twitter bot that posts lupine dicta and apothegms. [via mefi projects]
posted by kenko (16 comments total) 6 users marked this as a favorite
 
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posted by entropicamericana at 11:26 AM on April 16, 2015 [5 favorites]


There are no wolves on Fenris.
posted by Gelatin at 11:27 AM on April 16, 2015 [2 favorites]


wet shake / Squint Eyes / Sidelong Eyes / kneel / BARK

This is going to so start the GamerGators up again.
posted by GenjiandProust at 11:31 AM on April 16, 2015 [1 favorite]


Actual observed wolf behaviour patterns would have been a lot more interesting.

Intrigue2/disappointmentSadface/shrug
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 11:35 AM on April 16, 2015


That's a pretty bad yip right there, justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow.
posted by kenko at 11:39 AM on April 16, 2015


I'd love to know more about these 'words', i.e. what they look/sound like, how they're used by wolves/what they signify, etc, in RL - that is, I get the impression these are names for actual specific behaviours, even if for this project, they're being arranged/generated randomly?
posted by Drexen at 11:40 AM on April 16, 2015


Fenrir & Nymeria at Tinagra.
posted by ursus_comiter at 11:45 AM on April 16, 2015


Drexen, they are real words/descriptions of canine/wolf behavior. You can google some (start with "play bow.")

As a co-habitant with malamutes and huskies for 27 years I've seen all of these.

Which makes watching wolves in Yellowstone pretty boring for me.
posted by ITravelMontana at 11:49 AM on April 16, 2015


Weirdly, the top hit for "subdominant pose" is one of the wolf proverbs, and the image search results for it are turkeys and cats looking cute.
posted by kenko at 12:26 PM on April 16, 2015


That's what I figured, ITM - I wonder, are the specific labels they use, with the numbers and such, from a specific taxonomy/system/model of behaviour or source, or are they just being used ad-hoc? I wasn't able to find anything for them... but they seem oddly systematic.
posted by Drexen at 1:15 PM on April 16, 2015


P.S. This is neat, thanks for posting it!
posted by Drexen at 1:16 PM on April 16, 2015


The subdominant pose is often used at the end of a long conversation in order to balance out an earlier emphasis on the dominant, providing a sense of settling and resolution.
posted by Wolfdog at 1:41 PM on April 16, 2015 [8 favorites]


I love this a lot.
posted by you must supply a verb at 1:56 PM on April 16, 2015


Thanks for posting this, kenko!

I made the set of poses and expressions as a sort of homage to linguistic and anthropological coding systems, but they're not based on any real research. (All the real research is published in wolf journals, and you need a really sensitive nose to read those.)
posted by moonmilk at 3:20 PM on April 16, 2015 [1 favorite]


Drexen: I wonder, are the specific labels they use, with the numbers and such, from a specific taxonomy/system/model of behaviour or source, or are they just being used ad-hoc?

It's funny, from a bit of searching it seems like the most common system for coding wolf behavior is “Wolf ethogram” by Goodmann, Klinghammer, and Sloan. But searching it on Google Books doesn't give any of their terms. Same with this other wolf ethogram I found. In fact, one of the tweets uses a really distinctive term, “TAH KEH”, that doesn't show up on any searches I've done.

So yeah, it sounds so much like they're using a standard vocabulary but it's not anything easily findable.

Edit: Ok, now I saw moonmilk's comment. Never mind. Although I do want to ask, then, what's the inspiration for TAH and KEH?
posted by traveler_ at 6:53 PM on April 16, 2015


KEH was a sound my dog would make, a sort of catch at the end of a pant, when he was relaxed and satisfied. When he was nervous, sometimes I could calm him down a bit by KEHing to him. TAH was a more emphatic KEH that I interpreted as a sort of laugh.
posted by moonmilk at 9:49 PM on April 16, 2015 [1 favorite]


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