Puppy-dog eyes didn’t just evolve to influence humans, study finds

The best of Voices delivered to your inbox every week - from controversial columns to expert analysis Sign up for our free weekly Voices newsletter for expert opinion and columns Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. The latest research, published in the journal The Anatomical Record, scientists dissected a dead African wild dog specimen donated by a zoo and found that these canines also have the same “puppy-dog eye” muscles. “This morphology suggests that ocular facial expressions contribute to within-pack communication in wild dogs and are not unique to domestic dogs,” researchers wrote in the study. “African wild dogs have the same well-developed facial muscles that generate the “puppy dog eye” expression in domestic dogs!,” said study lead author Heather Smith from Midwestern University in the US. While African wild dogs are known to communicate mostly vocally, their well-developed muscles of facial expression hints the canines may also have other yet unknown non-vocal forms of communication within packs, researchers say.