These differences suggest that the
ancestral population of apes that
gave rise to
humans, chimps, and bonobos was quite large and diverse genetically — numbering about 27,000 breeding individuals.
Much of our enjoyment of earthdog tests as
human participants derives from the clear, obvious, and exuberant joy our dogs display when they are
given an opportunity to do something similar to their
ancestral purpose: going to ground, working quarry, partnering with a
human handler.