The variability in the duration and form of the canid play bow was studied in infant coyotes, wolves, wolf-dog hybrids, beagles, and adult free-ranging dogs. Both duration and form showed marked stereotypy. It appears that the role of this context-specific social signal in the communication of play intention has been fostered by selection for "morphological" stereotypy.
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Marc Bekoff (1977) studied this question.
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