London, October 26 : A new study conducted by researcher at the University of Florida suggests that wolves, not dogs, are the clever ones.

Study leader Monique Udell and her colleagues worked with a mixture of pet dogs, dogs from animal shelters that had had minimal interaction with people, and wolves raised by humans.

The researchers exposed their animals to an experiment in which they were shown two upside-down cups, one of which covered food. A human would then gesture in some way at the cup covering the food.

The experiment was conducted with the presumption that if the animal being tested was properly interpreting the gestures, it should have been lured to the object that the experimenter was indicating.

Reporting their findings in the journal Animal Behaviour, the researchers said that the wolves outperformed both shelter dogs and pets, reports economist. com.

Six of the eight wolves followed human gestures perfectly in more than eight out of ten trials, while only three of eight pets were as successful as that.

Based on their observations, the researchers came to the conclusion that wolves are smarter than dogs. (ANI)